University of Calgary
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

A 2 month long campaign that runs in January and February. Each year, events are held to educate students, faculty and staff on waste diversion and responsible purchasing on campus. This year the U of C participated in RecycleMania, and also ran the Photocopier challenge with department offices throughout campus.

1. Power OFF Challenge is a three week energy-use reduction campaign in November/December, challenging students, faculty and staff to turn off lights, shut down computers when not in use and to make other simple choices to reduce the total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for the university. The occupants of the building with the greatest reduction from a baseline wins bragging rights and a donation on their behalf to the United Way. 2. To celebrate Campus Sustainability Day, members of the Sustainability Street Team created a Flash Mob Photo Booth contest. Photos of students holding a written commitment on a white board were posted to Facebook where the photo with the most “likes” received a prize package. 3. The Office of Sustainability, Students Union and the Eco Club ran a three day clothing swap. Episodes of “The Story of Stuff” were projected onto a large screen to educate passers-by about the value of reusing and rethinking purchases. 4. The university registered in the benchmark division of RecycleMania, a number of events/initiatives occurred to encourage waste reduction including: •The Clean Bin Project - Any campus member can sign up to compete against others in a challenge which measures waste generated by competitors. The competitor with the least amount of waste at the end of the month, wins. To engage a larger audience, two films are screened, the Clean Bin Project and No Impact Man, and competitors publicly blog about their journey. •Photocopier Challenge - The Photocopier Challenge is aimed at raising awareness about the environmental and financial costs of paper consumption. During the challenge business units and faculties communicate paper usage on a tracking sheet fastened to participating photocopier. The group of the winning photocopier – determined by percent reduction in paper usage from calculated baseline – wins bragging rights and a package of green office supplies. •The Students’ Union introduced compostable utensils in the student centre building and officially launched the Compost Educators program on February 25th. The Compost Educators stood by waste recepticles to educate building users on proper waste disposal during peak dining times. • Students and staff educated people in the Dining Centre on waste-free and ethical eating from March 4th to 7th, 4:30 - 6:00 PM. • Surplus give-away - Instead of throwing away surplus binders, IT supplies and more, the university set up a booth to give items away free-of-charge to students 5. On National Sweater Day, February 7, campus members were asked to participate by turning down the heat and putting on a sweater, to conserve energy and take action against climate change. SustainabilityON Coordinators organized ugly sweater parties to talk about office temperature and people’s comfort levels and booked real live Granny’s to call colleagues with a reminder to wear a sweater. 6. To celebrate World Water Day (end of March), the Hope 2 Opportunity (H20) Club, in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, hosted a week-long series of educational events relating to water which include, movie showings, speakers & a centrally located booth. 7. The One Hour, No Power Campus Challenge is an annual Alberta-wide competition hosted by the Univesity of Alberta in which the University of Calgary competes against nine other post-secondary institutions in Alberta to see who can get the greatest number of students, faculty, and staff to pledge to power down all non-essential lights and appliances during Earth Hour. 8. Eath Month is a month long series of events provided during April to celebrate Earth Day. Events include: • Campus Clean Up • River Clean up / tree planting • Movie showings • Speakers • Fairtrade coffee give away • Clothing Swap 9. Residence buildings participate in the North American-wide Campus Conservation Nationals competition to reduce water. 10. During the first week of June the University of Calgary competes against other Canadian organizations and companies to see who can get the greatest participation in the logging of sustainable commutes to and from work.