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For details on these projects, visit the WATgreen site at www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infowast/WATgreen/projects.html The "official" nature of Waterloo's greening project made WATgreen a voice to the entire campus on the benefits of environmental responsibility. Students taking greening courses invited all students, faculty and staff to help work on environmental issues facing their university. The students also had a chance to take a close look at how a large educational institution works its infrastructure, policy-making, management, decision-making, and choices for change. They acquired a special kind of practical "know-how" that they could take with them into their lives and their work after graduation. The UW Climate Change Education and Awareness Program The CCEAP focused its efforts on sustainable transportation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the science of climate change. A series of events was organized to educate the campus population about the issue of climate change, and offer practical advice on how each person can play a role in rethinking their life habits to prevent it. Key activities include a Climate Change Fair, an Interfaculty Symposium on Climate Change, Weekly Public Lectures, a Climate Change Expo, an Alternative Car Day (including displays of solar and hybrid cars), Brown Bag Lunch Seminars, a Pledge Competition, and a fundraising Coffeehouse to raise funds to continue the project after government funding ran out. The project also included the creation of a special university climate change website to spread the word to the whole campus. The UW Climate Change website is at www.climatechange.uwaterloo.ca/index.html. Waterloo's Faculty of Environmental StudiesThe University of Waterloo has one of Ontario's leading faculties of Environmental Studies. A list of the courses offered at this faculty are listed on their website at: www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infowast/envedu.html |
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The
University of Waterloo's WATgreen Program
In
the early 1990s, a group of students and faculty at the University of Waterloo
decided it was time to make their campus a more environmentally-friendly place.
They consulted widely including with prominent environmental educator Dr.
David Orr and made a proposal to their university president for an initiative
entitled Greening the Campus. The president was immediately supportive.
The university created a program called WATgreen, a campus-wide greening project
designed to make the university more environmentally sustainable, or as they
put it, "a true ecosystem in harmony with its environment."
A
first important piece of the university "greening" project was the
introduction of a second-year course called Greening the Campus. It helped
students recognize environmental effects of campus life which could be improved
by projects. The course let students and faculty work together in designing
real ways to make the university more environmentally sustainable. Making environmental
activity part of a course was very effective in making environmental planning
and action a required part of UW learning and getting a course credit for
it!
The University of Waterloo recognized awareness and action on climate
change as an important part of their campus greening effort. They applied to
Environment Canada's Climate Change Action Fund, and were granted $25,000 to
carry out a campus-wide Climate Change Education and Awareness Program (CCEAP). 
