York University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

1. C4 Cross Campus Capstone: The purpose of C4 is to provide students with an opportunity to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams on real-world challenges with social impact.

- C4 Project 8: How Students Might Take Lead on York's Contributions to the UN SDGs This project will develop strategies to make progress on this goal by seeking ideas and opportunities for student engagement in implementing the SDGs, supporting meaningful steps—both small and large—toward a more just and sustainable future. Applicants might have an interest in sustainable solutions, climate change, human rights and advocacy, local/international policy, environmental and economic impact, and local solutions to global problems. The team will be working with York University staff, including the Office of Sustainability, Provost Office and President’s Sustainability Council, and the York U Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth Coordinator.

- C4 Project 108: Engaging Students to Build a Culture of Sustainability within Residences York is looking for a team to research, design, and implement an environmental plan with programming that engages the residence community at both the Keele and Glendon campuses with issues of sustainability and works towards the reduction of GHG emissions and the overall ecological footprint through behaviour changes, nudging tools, gamification and/or other resources.

2. ‘For the Birds’ Collaborative Murals: https://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2022/11/18/new-collaborative-art-installation-reminds-york-university-to-care-for-the-birds/

For the Birds” is an art project created by Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change students and teachers over the past year. This project was part of a larger initiative by Professors Gail Fraser, Traci Warkentin and Lisa Myers, who imagined ways that different classes could connect to help address an area of deep concern: migratory bird deaths resulting from reflective windows on campus. The Community Arts for Social Change course (ENVS 2122) designed art for the windows which reconnected students for collaborative, in-person art creation for a cause. Students conducted research and received Anishinaabeg teachings about the sky world from Myers, then worked in small groups to design window murals for the Heath, Nursing & Environmental Studies (HNES) building. The community arts course process was then adapted by the SSC who formed to design a united piece of collaged student imagery that represented the lifecycle of a songbird. The SSC, along with students from different faculties, gathered weekly to install the printed stickers on the HNES building.

1. TD Engagement Centre
The TD Engagement Centre hires multiple students for placements throughout the summer to earn credit. Generally, there are students from the Faculty of Education, Nursing, Communications and Social Work. The students help in supporting community based projects for academic credit.

2. C4 Cross Campus Captsone
The purpose of C4 is to provide students with an opportunity to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams on real-world challenges with social impact. C4 partners with a wide assortment of community organizations, businesses, and even cities and schools that are eager to work together with students in solving complex problems, thus engaging the public community. An example is Project 45.

Project 45: The goal of this project is to explore how the arts can be more meaningfully incorporated into the lives of local citizens in the Markham area to help them understand and thrive in a diverse environment.

Learning the Bruce [Peninsula]: https://euc.yorku.ca/experiential-education/learning-the-bruce/
In August 2021, EUC students and their professors, W. Steven Tufts and Richard Bello, took their learning into the field for a week long exploration of the Bruce Peninsula (aka 'the Bruce'). The Bruce Peninsula is an UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve containing the largest continuous forest in southern Ontario. Learning the Bruce (EU/GEOG 4541) is a field course where students from different programs at York, including students in EUC's new Global Geography and Environmental Science programs, integrated into a capstone and field course experience. The course covered a wide range of environmental, economic, social and cultural challenges facing the region, including economic development issues, sustainable tourism practices, invasive species, climate change, Indigenous land claims, and nuclear versus renewable energy production. The physical geography stream offered hands-on experience working in the forest, determining if climate change is affecting its ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The students employed a variety of research techniques, some new and some that they had only used in a lab, such as taking tree core samples, correctly gathering soil samples and learning to calculate the deadwood in a specific area.

In partnership with Sustainable Buildings Canada, York University hosted a Boot Camp for graduate, certificate or diploma students from Canadian universities and colleges in June 2023. The Boot Camp consists of webinar sessions facilitated live by professionals. All of the webinars focused on the topic of a "deep energy retrofit of an existing student dormitory at York University". Students were divided into groups to participate in collaborative discussions and activities, and develop recommendations for their buildings. They then had the opportunity to present their recommendations for the building.

https://sbcanada.org/better-buildings-boot-camp/

C4 Project: Repurposing Disposable Mask Waste into Clean Energy at York University Landfills are an unsustainable form of waste management, and COVID-19 has increased the amount of waste. This C4 team created a program to recycle non-reusable masks on campus, and created an intervention plan to increase perceived behavioural control. Bins were placed outside of high traffic areas so that masks could be collected, and would then be stored in a facility in accordance with Ministry of Ontario's guidelines. Through a partnership with Green Flow, their technology was available to convert facial masks into electricity, which is then fed into Toronto's energy grid.

1. Schulich Undergraduate student teams competed against each other in the ""Global Climate Challenge – Local Action: Reducing York’s Carbon Emissions"" focusing on three categories: Sustainable Procurement, Transportation and Food. This case competition was a required component of Professor Burkard Eberlein's MGMT 4300 Class: CSR in a Global Context.

2. Undergrad students worked with marketing specialists at York University to develop an advertisement that addresses the goal to minimize waste on campus. The students created resources to encourage the use of reusable mugs by observing and documenting data, creating engagement, performing an analysis and creating a resource to encourage more sustainable behaviour on campus in relation to using reusable cups.

Maloca Community Garden
The Maloca Community Garden is dedicated to acting as a sight that encourages environmental education and environmental stewardship. We encourage professors to use the Maloca Community Garden to explore topics such as native plants and pollinators, urban agriculture, agricultural innovation, urban greenification, food sovereignty and climate change. We also welcome students who would like to conduct research at the garden.

Schulich Undergraduate student teams competed against each other in the ""Global Climate Challenge – Local Action: Reducing York’s Carbon Emissions"" focusing on three categories: Sustainable Procurement, Transportation and Food. This case competition was a required component of Professor Burkard Eberlein's MGMT 4300 Class: CSR in a Global Context

1. C4 Project 20: Integrating Existing Modes of Transportation with a Campus Ridesharing System. By sharing their ride to school, many York University students become pioneers in university ridesharing and sustainability by reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicles coming onto campus. YuRide’s mission is to establish, facilitate, and operate this service from the ground up while using the most innovative methods possible. Building on the success of last year’s C4 project, YuRide is looking for a research team to advance its understanding of its core market, refine the technologies developed for its initial suite of products, and find a creative way to incentivize and reward YuRide users. This project will explore strategies to attract more users to ridesharing and other sustainable ways of transportation and focus on ways to launch and scale this platform in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

2. SARIT Vehicles Frank Stronach, the founder of Magna International, announced his intention to launch a tiny three-wheeled electric commuter car to reduce greenhouse gases, ease traffic jams and solve parking problems known as the SARIT (Safe, Affordable, Reliable, Innovative Transit). York University has become a “living lab” to test the prototype of the electric vehicles. The first prototype was delivered in April 2022 and work began immediately - faculty, students and more than two dozen York Facilities staff are running real-life tests of the cars through their work in areas such as maintenance, security and parking.

3. Schulich Undergraduate student teams competed against each other in the "Global Climate Challenge – Local Action: Reducing York’s Carbon Emissions" focusing on three categories: Sustainable Procurement, Transportation and Food. This case competition was a required component of Professor Burkard Eberlein's MGMT 4300 Class: CSR in a Global Context.

1. C4 Project 106: Creating a Student Led Reuse Facility on Campus for Project Supplies and Materials that the University Disposes Of The objective of this project is to look at whether/how a student-led, student-run space could be created to collect, sort, and provide materials across the campus for projects, in order to reduce York's waste and to reduce the cost of materials for student-led projects. This project is relevant to a wide cross-section of students and disciplines on campus, from communications, organization, and management to environmental impacts, to technology, to design and creativity.

2. C4 Project: Digestion in York's Living Lab - a Composting Project Digestion in York’s Living Lab explores an important aspect of a closed-loop system on York's Keele campus—compost. The intention of this project is to divert organic waste produced at York University that would otherwise go to the landfill - and to turn this “waste” into useful compost that can be used in campus gardens. Deliverables of this project are an informative composting document that captures the purpose of our project, alongside a detailed revitalization of the three-tier composting system used in the context of the Maloca Community Garden.

3. Waste Wiki
The “Waste Wiki” is a university run/operated research project that attempts to bridge the gap between academia, industry and government in issues surrounding waste. It is an open access resource that houses data, research and literature pertinent to Canada’s waste management sector, as well as a research initiatives designed to advance an understanding of diversion behaviour and the impacts of waste management policy.

Faculty at Lassonde work to create innovative solutions for cleaner water and a more sustainable world. Aside from key research being conducted in Lassonde, impactful water-related experiential education opportunities are being provided to students.

One example is the three-day experiential workshop at the Walkerton Clean Water Centre (WCWC). Built in response to the Walkerton Water Crisis in 2000, the WCWC teaches people how to use the equipment in wastewater treatment plants in a welcoming and team-based environment. Students learn about pilot scale equipment for water treatment, use instruments to calibrate equipment and sensors, as well as learn basic skills in the lab.

https://lassonde.yorku.ca/lassonde-faculty-leading-innovative-solutions-for-cleaner-water-more-sustainable-world

Placement students are working in the Office of Sustainability to advance the development of the Sustainability Champions Network to engage students through tabling, and peer mentoring in classrooms.

C4 Project: YorkU Student Hub The YorkU Student Hub is a virtual toolkit for Black and other racialized students that provides a comprehensive list of local community resources and social services for students. These resources are divided up into four strategic categories, which include: mental health and wellbeing, affordable food and housing, legal aid, and education and finance. This team partnered with the Centre for Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion (YU) and University Women's Club.

C4 Project: Tech and Dementia
In partnership with YU - Centre for Vision Research, this team worked to create application to facilitate communication between dementia patients in LTC and their caregivers, to improve quality of life for all involved.