Fair seeks new blood, fresh ideas on sustainability

On Friday, Sept. 23, the University’s Office of Sustainability will present the first McGill Sustainability Fair to provide the McGill community with information on environmental initiatives on campus by students and the administration, and to provide a forum for suggestions on the kind of environmental projects that people feel need to be addressed. Call it Rethink, rethunk.

By Jim Hynes

Call it Rethink, rethunk.

On Friday, Sept. 23, the University’s Office of Sustainability will present the first McGill Sustainability Fair to provide the McGill community with information on environmental initiatives on campus by students and the administration, and to provide a forum for suggestions on the kind of environmental projects that people feel need to be addressed.

Now if that sounds like the Rethink McGill conferences past, which sought to fulfil a similar mission for the last nine years, well in a way it is – just bigger, better, and especially more fun, its organizers hope.

“We’ve come to understand that this event needs to be fun as well as informative, so this year we’re making it into a tent city with games and activities outside to try and entice people to check it out, especially people who aren’t already engaged,” said Kathleen Ng, Environmental Officer in the Office of Sustainability and the event’s principal organizer.

“This new format is a way for us to get some more attention for sustainability at McGill and to get more people interested and hopefully get even more ideas and more innovation out of it.”

The Fair, which will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be headquartered in a tent on lower campus. It will include presentations and workshops by McGill faculty, students and staff while the new twist of games, food and other fun elements helps draw a crowd.

In the morning session, which will follow a format similar to Rethink conferences past, participants will hear updates on sustainability on campus in general and Sustainaility Projects Fund (SPF) in particular, a report on student sustainability initiatives, and the inspiring story behind the McGill Feeding McGill project, before concluding with an open exchange ideas lab.

The afternoon session will feature a variety of presentations and workshops on initiatives like the Pulse Energy Dashboard, the results of a transportation survey, the City of Montreal’s environmental plan, the launch of a new database to track sustainable materials on campus, the greening of McGill buildings and grounds by Facilities Operations and Development staff, and much more.

For more information on the McGill Sustainability Fair, and for a schedule of its activities, visit the Events section at www.mcgill.ca/sustainability.