University of Calgary
ER-T2-1: Student Group

● Kids Grow! is a student-led community outreach program designed to engage community children and youth in urban agriculture. The program helps young people develop a connection to their food, learn how to grow organic food, and foster a connection with both the community and the environment. ● The Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment & Economy Students’ Association (ISEEESA) which offers the monthly Energy 101 series, a scholarship for sustainability leadership, and a number of site tours and speaker events. ● The Solar Decathlon Team which competes in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, an international competition to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. ● The Eco Club develops initiatives to reduce the University of Calgary's negative impact on the Environment, and to encourage sustainable behaviours within the University. Initiatives last year included collaborating with the Students’ Union to eliminate the use of polystyrene from the MacEwan Student Centre food court. ● Engineers Without Borders at the University of Calgary is committed to building a world of opportunity for rural Sub-Saharan Africans. The club has coordinated a project to have the university receive the status of a Fair Trade Campus administered by Fair Trade Canada. Each week, the club coordinates educational activites such as Fair Trade Fridays, a booth hosted on campus each week to give out free fair trade coffee and chocolate, and to educate the campus community on fair trade principles. ● The Bike Root is a student run community bike shop committed to promoting environmental sustainability and healthy lifestyles. ● University of Calgary Community Garden Club - organizes the community garden located on campus, teach gardening skills during the summer & host education events throughout the year to encourage summer gardening. ● Environmental Law Society - hosts monthly speaker and panel events on issues relating to law and the environment. ● Engineering Students’ Society - All engineering students are members of this club. The Environmental Commissioner coordinated the first Schulich Year of Green, a yearlong event consisting of four campaigns that pit departments, clubs, teams, and first year classes against one another. A prize donated by the Schlich School was presented to the winning group at the end of the school year. ● Hope 2 Opportunity (H20) Club - plans World Water Week in March to celebrate World Water Day. ● Commerce Undergraduate Society – developed and coordinate the Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development (CSR-SD) program, a mandatory component for first-year business students. The program is run in collaboration with the Haskayne School of Business ● Student Sustainability Leadership Working Group - The Student Sustainability Leadership Working Group is made up of student leaders who represent their peers who are engaged in sustainability activities and initiatives on campus. The group acts as a collective body to provide high level consultation to the Office of Sustainability and other university administration on matters of sustainability, while providing opportunities for students and/or student clubs to collaborate and increase visibility. "

Kids Grow! - The background work for Kids Grow! began in the summer of 2011 when the Centre for Community-Engaged Learning worked with a student staff member (hired through Meal Exchange) to propose a children’s garden in the Hillhurst-Sunnyside community. This student was completing a post-graduate certificate in food security and worked to submit a bid for a plot of land to the City of Calgary. This student canvassed the community to gain support, but despite interest, the project failed. The following semester, two students in a service-learning course took on the project with a goal of pulling together programming resources from children’s gardens in North America. Beyond this, the two students took on the additional task of identifying existing gardens that could support a children’s program (rather than securing and supporting a new space used entirely for this type of work). One of the two students opted to continue the project as a Directed Studies course where she designed a volunteer engagement model whereby Kids Grow! volunteers would be hired and trained by the Centre for Community-Engaged Learning. In May 2012, the first three Kids Grow! volunteer facilitators began leading weekly Saturday gardening projects, with the support of the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association. The three students pursued a Stepping Stones grant with the Calgary Foundation and were successful in their bid. The CCEL is currently hiring a larger team (6) of Kids Grow! facilitators for the 2013 spring/summer. The Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association has also received a grant from the Calgary Foundation for a multi-year food security program – it also includes an urban agriculture youth leadership program which builds on the work of Kids Grow! Engineering Students Society - The Schulich Year of Green (SYOG) consisted of four themed campaigns (transportation, water, energy, waste) that ran at various times throughout the year. Each campaign included events and team challenges. In various student groups, primarily departments and first year student blocks, students engaged in competition. Each event was highly successful in promoting sustainability and environmental awareness among the student body and the Environmental Commissioner hopes to make SYOG a campus-wide event, finding ways to better promote our events and increase student involvement. The Environmental Commissioner has considered collecting donations to allow for bigger activities in conjunction with a newly granted budget from the Engineering Students’ Society. The Environmental Commissioner plans to expand their role within the Engineering Students’ Society Council by suggesting ways to make other student-directed events and activities more environmentally friendly. To move outside of the engineering student body, they are looking into collaborating with other campus sustainability clubs and reaching out to other faculties. The idea is to get other club executives excited about this campus-wide initiative and in turn get their members to participate. Engineers Without Borders - The Engineers Without Borders UCalgary Fair Trade team started its work in May 2010, with an innovative vision to have the UofC designated as a Fair Trade Campus, and a three-year strategic plan to make it happen. Since then, the team has been working with Chartwells, Campus Administration and Ancillary Services, the Student’s Union, the Office of Sustainability, faculty and other student groups, leading the initiative to ensure all criteria are met and maintained in the process of applying for Fair Trade University designation. As the University Fairtrade Committee works to complete the final phases of the application for Fair Trade Campus Designation (to be the 4th in Canada) by the end of March, the team evolves to start leading the Fair Trade City of Calgary movement. The EWB UCalgary Fair Trade team has educated and engaged students through the running of Fair Trade Fridays (FTFs), an ongoing activity ran by the team since September 2010. FTFs are monthly event where the team sells baked goods and gives away free Fair Trade Coffee. The event has been very successful, serving and educating hundreds of students on the social, environmental and economic benefits of Fair Trade products while encouraging open conversation about campus sustainability as a whole. The team has also engaged individuals through running an Exam De-Stresser event piloted in Fall 2012 where students are given Fair Trade Coffee and bananas during final exam time.