Concordia University
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Local Sustainability and Community Building in Germany (and Montreal). Students learned about the history of sustainability as well as working with small-scale sustainable businesses. The project paired up six Concordia students with students from the Technical University of Fulda in Germany. During the summer of 2013, the Concordia students participated in the project that provided them with first-hand sustainability training in the sustainable practices of small-scale businesses in Vogelsberg, Germany. These businesses included a Demeter farm (an organic form of self-sustaining agriculture) that sells vegetables and dairy locally, a producer of water and wind power, and a producer of rainwater-catching systems. The next summer, in 2014, six German students visited Canada to work with sustainable initiatives in Montreal. During their stay, the students visited Compost Montréal, La Ruche d’Art (Art Hive) in St. Henri district and the Loyola Campus garden, where they discussed the challenges of urban agriculture projects in a city the size of Montreal. They also connected with a number of on- and off-campus groups, such as Sustainable Concordia and Incredible Edibles in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district. Over the course of the exchange, the visiting students partnered with Concordia undergraduates minoring in sustainability to participate in workshops and co-write the final report.

Other article related to the project: http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2014/08/12/exchange-studentslearnaboutsustainabilityandlocalcustoms.html