Sustainability during O-Week?

G'afternoon everyone!

With summer slowly coming to an end (*sigh), it also signals the impending start of a new school year as we begin to see more students trickling back to London (just check out downtown now and then 3 weeks later!). With this in mind, first year students will also be arriving very soon for orientation (aka 'O-Week')!

It is important to integrate sustainability into O-week to first year students to show the opportunities and strategies for them to help combat sustainability challenges as well as helping to create a 'green' campus culture at Western. As an academic institution, we are uniquely positioned to provide the resources and technology to train future leaders and scholars in understanding and addressing sustainability issues.

Some of the things that EnviroWestern has done in the past and present during O-week include: environmental awareness displays; giving sophs a presentation on EnviroWestern; and increasing the number of recycling bins in high traffic areas. In the STARS report, this is one area on campus that Western needs to improve on. While the activities by EnviroWestern are important, in what ways do you think we can further help embed sustainability into O-week and/or effectively drive home sustainability to first years? There is currently little to no information regarding sustainability in the first year handbook, so perhaps, this is one area that Western can work on.

Until next time,

Your friendly neighborhood EPC