Université de Sherbrooke
EN-3: Student Life

Campus durable, meaning Sustainable Campus, is a student organization whose mission is to promote and supervise student sustainable development initiatives at the Université de Sherbrooke. Campus durable is actively involved in environmental awareness by coordinating and facilitating peer-to-peer education through the events it organizes and campaigns it runs. It supports all student committees interested in the environment or sustainable development by helping them coordinate and promote their activities. Campus durable also sits on the various committees of the Office of the Vice-President, Administration and Sustainable Development, and plays a communication role between the University management and the committees it represents.

Each of the three Université de Sherbrooke’s campuses has a garden. The main campus houses a collective garden, a community garden embellishes the Oasis (green roof) of the Longueuil Campus and a garden of medicinal and fruit plants has been established at the Health Campus. Launched in 2009, the collective garden (main campus) is for students and employees to use and covers an area of about 150 m2. Season planning, seed purchases, tillage and harvesting are done in groups, which encourages positive interactions between members. It is the result of a collaboration between the Student Federation of the Université de Sherbrooke (Fédération étudiante de l'Université de Sherbrooke (FEUS)), the Master’s, Diploma and Doctoral Students Group (Regroupement des étudiantes et étudiants de maîtrise, de diplôme et de doctorat (REMDUS)), the University and the Joint Fund for Sustainable Development Initiatives (Fonds conjoint pour les initiatives de développement durable). For over six years now, a community garden has been blooming every spring on the Oasis of the Longueuil Campus. This garden, to which the students and employees can contribute, allows registered participants to plant and harvest the fruits, vegetables and herbs of their choice. The area is divided into lots and each person is responsible for his or her section. A green space has also flourished nearby the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (Health Campus). Thanks to a student initiative, the garden Jardin Zen 7 was unveiled in September 2016. This new area includes 18 fruit trees (apple, pear, hazelnut), more than a hundred shrubs and more than 650 perennials, all organized around a fruit and medicinal plants theme. To these gardens’ examples, the Ruche Campus, a student initiative which led to the development of a beekeeping on the main campus, needs mentioning as it plays an important role in urban agriculture and in maintaining surrounding ecosystems.

Located on the Université de Sherbrooke’s main campus, La Déraille is a multi-stakeholder (or solidarity) co-op initiated by a student group. While integrating and developing their managerial skills in this respect, this student group offers its members access to a fully equipped bicycle mechanical workshop. Its main mission is to facilitate the practice of utilitarian cycling by developing the autonomy of its members in the maintenance of their bicycles. Founded in 2013, La Déraille now has nearly 450 members and a team of about ten workshop volunteers per session. In 2015, it installed the first self-service repair terminal on the main campus. Since 2018, the co-op has been working to professionalize its activities, particularly by developing a diversified and quality training offer, such as targeting both its members and the general public. Active both at the University and the City of Sherbrooke, La Déraille defends the interests of its members, within the University's sustainable mobility committee and through actions in collaboration with the city's organizations such as Vélo Urbain Sherbrooke (VUS), the Collectif d'urbanisme durable de Sherbrooke (CUDS) and the Conseil régional de l'environnement de l'Estrie (CREE). Apart from the above services offered, La Déraille also provides on-site workshops to other University’s campuses (i.e. Longueuil Campus), affordable bicycle parts to members, a bicycle loan program for international students and organizes group bike tours in collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke’s student group Club plein air Altitude, which organizes outdoor activities in an environmentally responsible manner. To take advantage of La Déraille’s many services, one becomes a co-op member by paying the modest sum of ten dollars, for life.

The Université de Sherbrooke has implemented various measures to support sustainable development initiatives, including the following: The Joint Fund for Sustainable Development Initiatives (Fonds conjoint pour les initiatives de développement durable), which is intended for students and staff, aims to support initiatives which objectives are to modify practices and change individual and collective behaviors, and are not linked to a teaching activity; The Sustainable Development Projects Support Fund (Fonds de soutien aux projets de développement durable), is also intended for students and staff and aims to ensure the sustainability of projects put forward through the Joint Fund for Sustainable Development Initiatives. More specifically, these two funds support sustainable development initiatives in all aspects of project management and contribute to the development of environmental, social and financial skills. To this, an example on a sustainable finance initiative needs to be mentioned. It relates to the creation of a stock market simulation tool open to all, called "Objectif Wall Street" and made possible through the collaboration of the Trading Room, the University’s Finance Department and the Desjardins Chair on Sustainable Finance. This tool allows students from all faculties to conduct stock market simulations integrating risk, ethics and sustainable finance elements. https://ows.usherbrooke.ca/ http://chairedesjardinsfinanceresponsable.recherche.usherbrooke.ca/?org=chaire

The Environment and Sustainable Development University Training Center (Centre universitaire de formation en environnement et développement durable (CUFE)) holds several conferences on sustainability every semester. For instance, through MIDI-MAD (Les MIDIS pour apprendre et discuter du CUFE), short for “Lunchtime Learning and Discussion”, speaker series are organized where a variety of issues related to sustainability and sustainable development are addressed. Free of charge, these are aimed at students and staff but also to the larger community.

The In-Situ Environmental Practice course aims to learn the historical and artistic foundations of in-situ environmental practice, acquire the basic concepts of in-situ practice and the characteristics of this form of expression and experiment with an in-situ work learning process that integrates various practices and studies of visual arts and other art forms. The characteristic elements of in-situ work aim to create artistic interventions in their context and thus explore their relationship to nature, city, society and human being from selected places. It is in this context that visual arts students offered their artworks over the years for all to be viewed, and particularly one, Guéridon, which is both an artistic object and public furniture, was exposed in the Coeur campus, a park located in the heart of the main campus. Guéridon, which represented a huge table and chairs, was meant as an invitation to meet and discuss environmental and community issues.

The Université de Sherbrooke’s student group Club plein air Altitude offers its members the rental of outdoor equipment at an affordable price and provides support for the organization of outdoor activities. The club also offers a wide range of workshops on equipment and principles of survival, responsible outdoor activities, as well as good practices and respect for the environment, as suggested by the Leave No Trace principles.

The Université de Sherbrooke Équipe verte, meaning Green Team, is a student group that works to improve sustainable development practices at the University. The Équipe verte consists of about fifteen students hired by the University each year. Members of the Équipe verte are trained to educate and raise awareness pertaining to sustainable development issues (i.e. eco-friendly events and activities, waste management, life in residences). The eligibility criteria for students to be part of the Équipe verte (and employed) are as follows: Be eligible for the Work-Study Program; Be full-time students. Students interested in joining the Équipe verte are recruited at the beginning of the academic year or the beginning of a new semester. The main criteria are interest and availability.

The «Droit Vert l'Avenir» is Université de Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Law student environment committee. Its primary mandate is to raise awareness on environmental protection within the student community. Through various awareness-raising activities (conferences, film screenings, quizzes, kiosks, etc.), the student committee wishes to educate on how to do one’s part for the environment by eating locally, improving consumption habits, reducing waste production, etc.