Brock University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

1. EcoBoss Energy Competitions
For the past three years, Brock has hosted several different sustainability challenges. One of the most popular is the O-Week Sustainability Challenge initiative, which calls on Brock University students to track their sustainable actions for the chance to win prizes. In partnership with Blackstone Energy Services, Brock University hosts the O-Week Sustainability Challenge each September. Using the EcoBoss app, students can log their sustainability actions, ranging anywhere from taking public transportation to turning off the lights. The five students with the most actions logged by the end of the challenge will be entered into a draw to win large prizes. This challenge alone avoided 7,541 kg of CO2, diverted an estimated 447 kg of waste from the landfill and saved 61,000 litres of water.
[https://brocku.ca/sustainability/2023/05/08/students-logged-sustainable-actions-to-showcase-environmental-commitment-leading-to-earth-day/]

2. Living Planet at Campus Partnership with World Wildlife Fund – Canada
Brock is a Living Planet @ Campus partner with World Wildlife Fund Canada. This partnership allows students to engage in conservation activities or efforts on campus, in their communities, and even globally. As a Living Planet @ Campus partner, Brock provides students with the opportunity to work towards WWF-Canada’s nationally recognized Living Planet Leader self-guided certification. Leading or participating in environmental activities offered by WWF-Canada, Brock University, and their local community, students can adapt the program’s requirements to earn the certificate. Brock University provides on-campus experiences such as campus clean-ups for students to obtain volunteer hours.
[https://brocku.ca/sustainability/2023/04/19/students-show-environmental-stewardship-at-campus-clean-up/]

3. Experiential Course-Based Opportunities for Students:
SSAS 5P03/SSCI 7P02: This course is designed to expose students to contemporary applied approaches to address environmental sustainability issues. It invites an organization to act as a client and prepare a request for proposals for an environmental challenge or initiative they’re looking for support on, allowing the students to develop valuable project management and experiential problem-solving skills. In the winter of 2023 PhD and master’s students from Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) worked with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) on a consultancy project through their respective courses, Engaging with Community in Sustainability Science (SSCI 7P02) and Problem Solving in the Environment (SSAS 5P03). The master’s students that formed the consulting firm, were tasked with creating an assessment framework and implementation tool to evaluate the NPCA’s corporate sustainability practices based on the research findings by Fernandes and España (PhD students). For more information regarding the project please visit: [https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2023/04/sustainability-students-offer-insight-to-local-conservation-authority/]

SSAS 5P01: For the past five years students in the Master of Sustainability program have been able to learn about and explore campus engagement activities directly related to sustainability. This includes a field class held in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve , now known as the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network, in which Brock is located and touring the Central Utilities Building to learn more about Brock University’s co-generation plant.
[Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve, Canada (unesco.org);
Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network (nebnetwork.org);
https://brocku.ca/sustainability/2023/02/14/tour-of-brocks-district-energy-system-experiential-education-for-ssas-students/;
https://brocku.ca/esrc/2023/04/19/reflection-on-my-first-year/]

In June of 2022, the Niagara Region hosted the first annual Niagara Climate Change Summit in partnership with Brock University and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. The Summit was intended to act as a catalyst for the accelerating climate change action in the Niagara region. Following the Summit, four local organizations (Niagara Region, Niagara College, Brock University, and Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority) collaborated to establish the Niagara Climate Change Action Network. In addition to the founding organizations, the Niagara Climate Change Action Network includes representatives from Local Area Municipalities, local utilities, businesses, industries, educational institutions, environmental organizations, and other parties who are working toward world-class climate change action.
[https://nccan.ca/]
Video Recording of the Niagara Climate Change Summit at Brock University, June 2022: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6B41XNmWI]
Brock University’s United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair in Community Sustainability created a Sustainability Poetry contest. The annual Sustainability Poetry contest initiated in 2015, was designed to celebrate the creative minds in the Niagara region and how community members can enhance their role in sustainability in the community. Each year a different theme is selected, in the past themes have been ‘Year of International Plant Health’ and ‘Beyond Sustainability.’ The Sustainability Poetry contest demonstrates the importance of the Arts; it provides an opportunity for community members to better express feelings and emotions and show respect for what we have in the Niagara region and beyond.
[https://brocku.ca/unesco-chair/sustainability-poetry-contest/]

Industrial Chemistry (CHEM 3P60): This course covers principles and practice of industrial chemistry, including surveying of the chemical industry, pollution control, plant design, corrosion, and similar topics. Selected industrial processes are discussed in detail. Tours are provided of chemical plants, industrial laboratories, and Brock’s tunnel system that connects to a majority of the campus buildings.

Facilities Management at Brock provides 4-5 tours throughout the year to students of the District Energy System. The tour highlights the features of Brock’s co-generation facility that provides an energy-efficient source of electricity, cooling and heating to a majority of the campus buildings. The tour provides students with information about Brock’s District Energy Efficiency Project (DEEP) and how through this project Brock aims to reduce its carbon footprint and increase sustainability on campus by replacing the 25-year-old-co-generation engines with state-of-the-art energy efficient units. This project highlights Brock’s efforts to become more environmentally sustainable and a leader amongst universities in reducing carbon emissions.

Brock University offers many courses and projects that use the campus grounds as a living laboratory. There are courses taught from the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, Department of Education, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre. Below are select highlights of the campus grounds being utilized to understand/advance sustainability:
Professor Miriam Richards, Department of Biological Sciences – Studies the behaviour, evolution, and ecology of bees mostly in Niagara region, including on the Brock campus. Richards has a team of undergraduates and graduates whose focus is on conducting research and projects through field experiments, extensive behavioural observations, and molecular biology tools.
[https://brockbeelab.wordpress.com/about/]

Professor Liette Vasseur, Department of Biological Sciences – Offers BIOL 4P05 (Concepts of Biodiversity in a Biosphere Reserve), where students learn about biodiversity monitoring and sustainable development. There is a fieldwork component that involves the students monitoring plots for plants and salamanders on the campus grounds. Vasseur also has at least one or two students researching sustainable agriculture who work in the Brock campus community gardens – they have 4 plots.
[https://brocku.ca/esrc/liette-vasseur/]

Kinder-Forest School Program - The Rosalind Blauer Centre for Child Care Kinder Program is a wonderful alternative to Junior Kindergarten. The Program provides the children with all the educational components of conventional school without the large class size. The class consists of eight children and one Registered Early Childhood Educator. Throughout the year the children explore a variety of topics and concepts including phonics, math, science and art. Because of the small class size the educator is able to engage the children on a one-on-one basis as well as in small groups. In addition to the indoor class program the Kinders also spend two mornings a week in an “Outdoor Classroom” in the forest located on campus. This Forest School component runs from September to June each year.
[https://brocku.ca/childcare/about-us/kinder-forest-school-program/]

Through funds associated with the Brock University Project Charter each fall/winter (2018 to 2023) Brock employed two incoming Master of Sustainability students to assist in leading the coordination and planning of sustainability efforts across campus. A full listing of past and current team members can be found here: [https://brocku.ca/esrc/project-charter/]. Since 2018, these student Research Assistants have helped guide the communications around sustainability initiatives across campus with the aim of engaging with the entire campus community. Over the past year, they have also played a role in research and editing the current sustainability policy to better reflect Brock’s strategic direction.
Staff leading this initiative have also taken each and every opportunity to present and engage with Brock students to explain the institution’s focus on sustainability. For example, Amanda Smits (Centre Administrator, ESRC), Mary Quintana (Director, Asset Management & Utilities) and Drew Cullen (Manager, District Energy) have provided countless presentations to undergraduate and graduate level courses which focus on Sustainability at Brock and the implications of sustainability efforts on campus.