University of Alberta
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

SUSTAINABILITY ENHANCEMENT FUND http://sustainability.ualberta.ca/GetInvolved/Funding/SustainabilityEnhancementFund.aspx The Sustainability Enhancement Fund was launched on January 10, 2011. It exists to improve sustainability on campus in the following areas: outreach and engagement, teaching, research and improvements to facilities and operations. It is also intended to advance the university's Sustainability Plan. The Office of Sustainability is responsible for the fund's stewardship and administration. Project proposals are accepted from students, faculty and staff, and are selected based on merit, positive impact, implementation feasibility and available funding. In the area of teaching, the Sustainability Enhancement Fund aims to build opportunities for engaging and educating students, faculty and staff, so that everyone has the opportunity to participate in formal learning about sustainability. Funded projects that explore opportunities to integrate content into the curriculum include: “Green Chemistry” - Hayley Wan (faculty), Department of Chemistry. Researchers will examine individual chemistry experiments to determine if the amount of chemical waste can be reduced, or recycled for use in other experiments, resulting in less environmental and financial costs. Investigators will also determine if less toxic materials can be substituted in the experiments without changing the student learning experience, and if the amount of water required for the experiments can be reduced. “Model Green Lab - Campus Saint-Jean Chemistry” - Vima Babooram and Sara Pelletier (faculty), Campus Saint-Jean. Funds will be used to measure the impact of new, energy efficient chemistry equipment including the water recycling system; create green chemistry teaching resources, including manuals and courses; and share this information at an event in 2017. “Augustana Miquelon Lake Research Station” - Glen Hvenegaard (faculty), Augustana Campus. The grant will fund a part-time employee who will work to make the research station a model green lab and demonstrate sustainability best practices to other faculty and students. This will include having the research station qualify for Green Spaces certification; hosting outreach events for local schools; and tracking changes as a result of making the lab greener (e.g. measuring how much compost is diverted from the landfill as a result of purchasing composting equipment). COMMUNITY SERVICE-LEARNING (CSL) GRANTS FOR INSTRUCTORS https://www.ualberta.ca/community-service-learning/csl-instructor-info/csl-grant-for-instructors The CSL Small Grant Fund supports CSL activities that require extra resources beyond the supports routinely provided by the CSL program and by the applicant’s home department. This is a one-time grant and cannot be awarded to an instructor more than once. Small Grant applications are accepted twice a year, in spring and fall. The CSL Partnership Grant funds two-year partnerships between university instructors and community organizations in the Edmonton area that engage students across disciplines. The primary focus of these partnerships must be social change projects, or community-based research. Its purpose is to incubate innovative learning projects. Grants targeted primarily at social change activities will expand students’ learning about social issues and foster appreciation for the complexities and rewards of positive social action. Grants targeted primarily at community-based research will provide opportunities for students to gain hands on research experience with research design, methods and dissemination in a collaborative university-community process. The CSL Instructor Support Program provides new CSL instructors and CSL instructors with large classes (of 40 or more students) with matching funds to be used to employ a Teaching Assistant to support the service-learning components of courses. Up to $5,000 of a Teaching Assistant’s salary can be funded through 50:50 cost-sharing with the instructor’s department. KULE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY The Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) is a major endowed institute. Funding for workshops and outreach for the campus wide consultation on the 2016-2020 academic sustainability plan on integrating sustainability in the curriculum were provided by the KULE Institute. http://sustainability.ualberta.ca/OurApproach/InstitutionWideApproach/~/media/sustainability/Plan/2016/DeepeningSustainabilityEducationScholarship-20162020.pdf

The Sustainability Enhancement Fund supports the Green Grants and Teaching and Learning Fund which provide the financial support to enable interested faculty members to develop programs that incorporate sustainability into the curriculum The Community Service-Learning Partnership Grant provides funding for faculty to develop courses involving social change projects or community-based research, both of which lend themselves to sustainability course foci.