Sustainability at Concordia
June 2024 Newsletter
|
|
|
Join us in celebrating Green Week, a week-long campaign to raise awareness and funds for sustainability programs and initiatives at Concordia — all leading up to World Environment Day on June 5! Gifts to the Sustainability Development Fund help integrate forward-thinking perspectives into academic programs and adapt on-campus processes to reduce waste and emissions. They help us leverage the creativity and innovation of our students and researchers to find solutions that will benefit us all. There isn’t one, single solution to improve sustainability. Sometimes it’s a question of large-scale systemic change, breakthrough research and innovation, or changes to the ways we live and work. From our many programs, to initiatives like the Creative Reuse Centre, the Concordia Greenhouse, and the Precious Plastics Project, there's no shortage of avenues for giving. |
|
|
Forthcoming climate change podcast collaboration with Concordia scholars earns a Trebek Initiative GrantLoss of biodiversity, increasing ocean temperatures, microplastics in our food supply — the effects of climate change such as these, and more, can evoke some powerful emotions. A new podcast, “Beyond Ecological Grief,” has just been awarded a Trebek Grant to explore the feelings that arise in many of us in response to our changing environment. The proposed project is led by journalist Amy Romer, in partnership with Concordia’s Nicola Smith, assistant professor of biology, and Florian Grond, assistant professor of design and computation arts. |
|
Concordia is leading the development of the Climate Data Hub for Greater MontrealAfter a year of consultation and co-design, a Concordia-led initiative to create a Climate Data Hub for Greater Montreal is launching publicly. The Climate Data Hub will provide a single federated point of access to emissions-related data held by a range of government offices, private companies and academic researchers. Access to comprehensive and granular data is vital to developing effective climate policies and regulations, advocacy campaigns, business decisions, models and scenarios. The Montreal Climate Partnership, which is the Climate Data Hub’s project sponsor, announced the launch of the hub at the 2024 Montreal Climate Summit. |
|
Symposium raises awareness about the need for digital sobrietyFor many years now, a digital revolution has transformed our ways of working with documents. Our professional, personal, and academic lives have all been altered by this shift from paper documents to digital files. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the rise of a hybrid work model only accelerated this change. But, while convenient, digital files have a hidden ecological cost. Documents stored in the cloud sit on servers that run continuously and are often powered by non-renewable energies. And we must not forget that digital devices, both those we use personally, and the ones used by data centres, are made with materials whose extraction causes significant pollution. |
|
|
|
CIREQ Interdisciplinary PhD Student Symposium on Climate Change Tuesday, June 4 - Wednesday, June 5 @ 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., 4th Space, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. (or virtual) Concordia will be hosting the CIREQ Interdisciplinary PhD Student Symposium on Climate Change: Facilitating essential communication and collaboration between disciplines in order to address climate change and the many issues it intensifies. The mission of this symposium is to foster the exchange of scientific knowledge and to lay the foundations for future collaboration among students conducting research on climate change. 2024 Sustainability Research & Innovation (SRI) Congress Monday, June 10 - Friday, June 14, virtual The SRI Congress is a week-long event where experts, researchers, scientists, policy-makers, businesses and the global community bring forth solutions and innovations to achieve knowledge-based sustainable transformation. The 2024 edition is a collaboration between the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress (SRI), and Finland’s Sustainability Science Days (SSD) who share a mission to strengthen collaborative efforts for change. You can join online or in-person in Finland. Free YES Montreal Workshop: Time Management and Productivity Thursday, June 13 @ 6 - 8 p.m.,666 Sherbrooke St W #700 Montreal, QC H3A 1E7 This workshop offers practical tips and tools to support efficient time management, ensuring that each aspect of establishing a creative business is given focused attention. Tuesday, June 18 - Thursday, June 20 @ 12 - 4 p.m., Z Annex 2090 Mackay Three days of action, innovation and connections to help you spice up the student food movement on your campus! We’re bringing together project creators and activists and taking the best lessons from 20 years of campus organizing to host trainings on coalition building, food compliance, case studies, field trips and lots of opportunities for building connections with like-minded people and craft new recipes for transformation. Registration is now open. Peter and the Wolf: A Symphonic Radio Play until Sunday, June 16 (limited online release) Prokofiev's classic reimagined, our young adventurer encounters nature not as a threat to be conquered, but a gift to be defended. Eighty-five years on, Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf still stands among the most revered classical compositions. Sharing the magic of music with the young and the young at heart, it has always been presented in more or less the same way. Until now. Peter and the Wolf: A Symphonic Radio Play is a full orchestration of the original piece, and an enhanced re-telling of the story.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Office of Sustainability |