Fleming College Heads to Enactus Canada National Competition

A team of Fleming College students will be competing against some of the top minds in Canada during the Enactus Canada National Exhibition in May.

photo courtesy of fleming college.

Enactus Canada brings together some of Canada’s best and brightest students, challenging them to use business models to address some of our most pressing social and environmental issues.  

During the regional competition earlier this month, Fleming beat teams from Ontario and Quebec-including three teams which had previously won the national competition.  

Enactus projects must address at least one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Fleming’s project, “Paddy Waste to Income,” won their league in both the Scotiabank Climate Action Challenge and TD Entrepreneurship Challenge. “Paddy Waste to Income” put Fleming students in touch with small farmers in the Punjab region of India.  

In that region most local farmers own one to three acres of land, producing anywhere from three to 10 tons of paddy waste. Paddy waste is a term used describe what is left behind in a field after certain grains are harvested, like stalks and husks. 

Large farming operators use bailing machinery or hire a truck to get rid of their paddy waste or work with government or institutional buyers to sell it. But small farming operations can neither afford to hire machinery or lack the contacts to sell the waste. Therefore, most farmers burn the waste, creating air pollution and squandering a valuable organic resource.  

In September 2022, 21 farmers from 12 communities in Punjab and Uttarakhand signed up to work with Fleming College, agreeing not to burn their paddy waste. Working with local NGOs, community leaders and farmers, Fleming College students and faculty helped small farming communities access equipment and market contacts while helping them create the logistical support to collect, bail, store and transport paddy waste.  

Through this project, it is estimated that 99 tons of paddy waste from 99 acres of land were diverted elsewhere:  

• 59 tons were used to feed cattle. 

• 30 tones were used to shelter crops. 

• 10 tones were used in dairy farms as bedding to keep animals warm, saving farmers an estimated $17,000.  

The student team estimates that carbon dioxide emissions in those regions were reduced by 143.5 tons. Not only did this project have a positive economic impact on the 21 farmers and their families, but it had an indirect impact on 670 people in 133 homes in nearby communities. 

Fleming students are now taking this project to the Enactus National Exhibition in Montreal in May. This is the first time a team from Fleming has qualified to compete for the National Champion title. The winner of the national competition will go on to represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup in the Netherlands in the fall.  

For more information, visit the website.

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Exploring Sustainability at Lakefield College School

Lakefield College School’s (LCS) outdoor-oriented curriculums encourage students to take environmental responsibility and respect the Earth through learning and growing outside the classroom.

photo courtesy of Lakefield college school.

“Our main campus is over 150 acres and our Northcote Campus is just over 160 acres,” said Outdoors Every Day manager Garret Hart. “We have a philosophy in the school that is ‘Outdoors Every Day’ which is why we have our students out in the woods and on the lakes canoeing, swimming, hiking and exploring year-round.”

Hart says one of the College’s main goals is to teach students how to enrich their relationship with the Earth.

“Sustainability for us is really about the connection for students to the broader, natural world, and some more concrete things like food systems. There’s a disconnect, people think that meat comes on styrofoam trays and apples come in a plastic bag,” continued Hart. “Giving kids the opportunity to plant a potato and come back to harvest it in the fall and see this bounty that they’ve created, it’s a pretty important step.”

Through sustainability classes in every grade, LCS looks at themes such as Leave No Trace camping, regenerative agriculture and carbon emission reduction.

“There’s so much that we can use just outside of our door to help students understand the impact that they have on the environment, and the impact the environment can have on them,” said Assistant Head of Sustainability Janice Greenshields. “We really hope that students leave here understanding how to be more responsible for the environment as well as how they can use the environment for healthier lifestyles for the rest of their lives.”

Lakefield College School senior Esme Campbell is in charge of sustainability on campus, working with the environmental club the Lakefield Environmental Action Force (LEAF.)

She says part of her role involves working with her teachers to make LCS more sustainable.

“(This role) was a really good way for me to get more involved with the school community. We ran a thrift store to promote shopping sustainability, a clean plate challenge to focus on food waste, and we also did a holiday market where we worked with local vendors from Peterborough and Lakefield to promote shopping locally,” said Campbell.

The school’s current initiatives for sustainability encompass themes of land, water, waste and climate anxiety; they'll focus on these initiatives more intensely throughout Earth month this April.

“I think it’s really beneficial to have the opportunity to work outside. We went to Northcote and fermented carrots, where we learned about how the fermentation process works which was really interesting. With the hands-on approach we were really able to (stay) engaged which made it a lot more interesting than working and learning from the textbook,” continued Campbell.

Students and parents interested in learning more about sustainability and exploring enrolment at Lakefield College School can visit the website and the Summer Academy Seed to Table programs. There are three to choose from.

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Random Acts of Green's HallowGreen Challenge Encourages Green Initiatives this Halloween

Random Acts of Green’s HallowGreen Challenge encourages everyone to scare away eco-anxiety by creating a more enviromentally-friendly Halloween.

Photo courtesy of Random Acts of Green.

Random Acts of Green’s seventh annual HallowGreen Challenge encourages people of their day-to-day actions’s impact on the planet, move beyond “just recycling” by exploring new ways to be green.

Both local and global green organizations come together to promote and participate in the online challenge to build awareness. Random Acts of Green says this keeps everyone engaged in climate action like composting, air drying clothing or refusing single-use plastics.

Citizens, school boards, classrooms, offices and businesses are encouraged to take part in the HallowGreen Challenge and build awareness about climate action and the planet while participating in spooky season and Halloween festivities.

Waste statistics surrounding Halloween traditions suggest hundreds of thousands of pounds of pumpkin rot in landfills every year and a single trick-or-treater generates about one pound of trash from candy wrappers alone according to a press release.

“Our 7th annual challenge continues to inspire folks to rethink how we celebrate holidays like Halloween in a way that does not create added waste for the environment,” says Alannah Hardcastle, Random Acts of Green social impact manager.

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Local Students Install Rain Garden and Shrubbery at New Beavermead Campground Gatehouse

Otonabee Conservation and Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board students from the Youth Leadership in Sustainability (YLS) program installed a rain garden at Beavermead Campground on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Otonabee Conservation.

The garden was designed to capture runoff from the roof of the gatehouse, temporarily storing it in the garden during a storm event and slowly draining it away to reduce flooding, filter pollutants and channel runoff into the ground.

“This project will create a welcoming entrance to Beavermead Campground and highlight best practices for habitat enhancement and water conservation,” said Janette Loveys Smith, Otonabee Conservation CAO and secretary-treasurer.

Over 100 native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers planted are to enhance habitat and increase biodiversity in the City of Peterborough according to a press release.

Purple coneflower, big bluestem, red osier dogwood and black-eyed Susan were chosen for this site to provide a habitat for pollinators. These plants are drought-tolerant and will require minimal maintenance and watering.

YLS students breaking ground to plant over 100 trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers. Photo courtesy of Otonabee Conservation.

“In the face of the climate and biodiversity crisis, it’s so important that students have opportunities for hands-on activities like this where they are engaged in constructive, restorative, solutions-based work,” said Cam Douglas, teacher and YLS program coordinator.

The community is encouraged to visit the park and campground to see the native plant species and learn about the benefits of water conservation. 

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Great Blue Heron Announced As Peterborough's Official Bird At EnviroX

The great blue heron has been crowned Peterborough’s first official city bird during the Environmental and Climate Action Expo (EnviroX) at Beavermead Park on Friday.

Photo by Felicia Massey.

EnviroX at Beavermead Park and Ecology Park brought together community partners and municipal workers to teach about initiatives and projects that lead to greenhouse gas emission reductions. They also taught greater environmental sustainability through demonstrations and displays.

Bird Friendly Peterborough (BFP), an organization dedicated to creating Bird Friendly Cities, spoke at EnviroX about the City’s commitment to monitoring bird populations and mitigating any threats.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Peterborough is recognized as a Bird Friendly City.

Nature Canada’s Bird Friendly City program certifies cities throughout Canada based on meeting a set of standards pertaining to reducing threats to birds in their municipality, protecting and restoring natural habitats and increasing climate resiliency. Bird Friendly Cities also actively engage their community in these protective and restorative initiatives through education and outreach.

All photos by Felicia Massey.

“You only have to walk down trails along the Otonabee, or through Jackson Park to realize that these urban-protected areas host dozens of species year-round,” said Thomas Luloff, Bird Friendly Peterborough vice chair. “They (urban spaces) serve as vital corridors and stop-over places for migratory birds back and forth.”

Luloff, who is also a conservation biology professor at Fleming College, spoke about a big part of becoming a Bird Friendly City: choosing a bird to represent the community.

A community vote took place from Aug. 2 to Sept. 5 for residents to select their favourite local bird species from a list of 16 local birds curated by BFP.

Among the list included many birds, such as the osprey and Northern cardinal but the blue heron came out on top.

“I think the Great Blue Heron is the perfect choice the Peterborough City bird,” said Luloff. “They are resilient; being able to adapt to changing environments, and are found all along out Otonabee River, its waterways and throughout our local marshes and parks.”

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Peterborough’s Waste Diversion Program Wins Gold At Municipal Waste Association Conference

The City of Peterborough has won gold at the recent 2022 Municipal Waste Association Conference.

Photo courtesy of The City of Peterborough.

The City, through its Waste Diversion program, was presented the Gold Promotion and Education Award for its posters on public space receptacles that provide helpful advice on recyclables.

Bright, eye-catching posters designed to be easy to read for residents, were placed on 56 garbage and recycling bins located along trails and parks throughout the City. The goal was to make it easier for residents and visitors to put materials into the proper bin, thereby reducing contamination in the bins and maximizing the value of the recyclables that the City’s contractor sells to buyers for reuse.

The annual Promotion and Education Awards program is a way to celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of municipalities across Ontario to reduce waste and improve recycling. The award category was open to all Ontario municipalities and the City of Peterborough’s campaign was deemed the best in Ontario.

As part of its update the Waste Management Master Plan, the City is currently collecting public input regarding proposed initiatives that include requiring clear bags for garbage collection and changing the frequency of waste collection to improve efficiency.

Residents are asked to share their input by completing the survey online at www.connectptbo.ca/wasteplan2022 or by calling 705-742-7777 ext.1724.

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Weekly Collection Of Yard Waste Resumes In The City

Curbside green waste collection has resumed and continues until the last week of November in The City of Peterborough.

File Photo.

All leaf and yard waste are accepted. There is no quantity limit, but individual bags or containers must not exceed 22 kg (50 lbs). Brush can be tied in bundles weighing not more than 22 kg (50 lbs), with a length of up to 1 m (3 ft) and a diameter of up to 30.5 cm (12 in).

Green waste should be put out after 6 p.m. the night before or no later than 7 a.m. the morning of your regular waste collection. 

Place in paper yard waste bags, bushel baskets or garbage bins with yellow "Green Waste" labels. Plastic bags are not accepted. 

Yellow "Green Waste" labels can be picked up at City Hall, 500 George St. N., Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except statutory holidays.

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Trent University Rises 14 Spots In Ranking Of World’s Most Sustainable Universities

Trent University’s reputation as a world-leading environmental university continues to grow with the news they have been named among the Top 100 most sustainable university campuses around the world.

The findings in the recently released 2019 UI GreenMetric World University Rankings report demonstrate Trent’s ongoing commitment to reducing the University’s environmental impact as they moved up 14 spots in the international ranking of 780 universities worldwide. Trent also moved up one spot to be a Top 5 sustainable campus in Canada.

“Trent’s rising and competitive position in this global ranking since 2017 really shows our leadership when it comes to the environment,” says Kent Stringham, vice-president of Finance and Administration at Trent.

Trent’s ranking as the 66th greenest campus in the world and fifth in Canada is based on the University’s performance across six categories: education and research, setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, and transportation.

Trent ranked first in Canada and 10th in the world for the waste category in the report. The University diverts more than 80 percent of its waste away from landfill.

Trent sent 30 tonnes less to landfills just last year, helped by the implementation of a $7 membership to use eco-trays, a reusable container at food vendors on campus, plus a $1 charge on single-use meal containers.

Notably, Trent is also an entirely LED campus having installed 55,447 LED lightbulbs since 2016.

All of these efforts by Trent and more are factored into the GreenMetric rankings, the first and only university rankings in the world that measure each participating university’s commitment in developing an “environmentally friendly” infrastructure.

“I am so impressed by Trent’s achievement moving up 14 spots in the global rankings in a single year,” says Shelley Strain, sustainability coordinator at Trent University. “Every year, it gets harder to score well as new metrics or subcategories are added each year, standards are raised, and scores for previous initiatives can expire. Our 2019 ranking is a reflection of our continuous improvement.”

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Fleming College Receives STARS Gold Rating For Sustainability Achievements

Fleming College has earned a STARS Gold rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

The index highlights top-performing sustainable colleges and universities overall and in 17 sustainability impact areas, as measured by STARS.

Photo courtesy Fleming College

“Fleming College is committed to reducing its ecological footprint, contributing to the solutions for global problems and creating a culture of sustainability,” says Fleming College President Maureen Adamson.

“From banning the sale of bottled water, to our designation as the only AASHE Canadian Centre for Sustainabilty across curriculum, to establishing a world-class alternative wastewater treatment research facility, Fleming is committed to ensuring sustainability is interwoven into every aspect of the College,” she adds.

Photo courtesy Fleming College

With more than 800 participants in 30 countries, AASHE’s STARS program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a college or university’s sustainability performance.

Participants report achievements in five overall areas: 1) academics, 2) engagement, 3) operations, 4) planning and administration, and 5) innovation and leadership.

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