Western University
PAE-20: Inter-Campus Collaboration on Sustainability

In 2005, Beryl Ivey Chair in Ecosystem Health, Dr. Charles Trick, created the Ecosystem Health - Africa Initiative. This initiative "reflects a concerted effort by faculty, staff and students from a number of faculties over the past five years" with the focus on Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Lake Naivasha has been identified as a "window into which one may look to see future calamities that will occur because of our changing climate". While adapting ecosystem health strategies developed at Western to such challenges faced in Kenya,10 student internships and 15 collaborative research projects have been developed with Egerton University in Kenya. This partnership has built cross-cultural capacity by providing training at Western for Kenyan students that creates an understanding of healthy ecosystems and encourages a culture of responsibility to the health of their communities back home. This past year, the Africa Initiative was awarded the Western Humanitarian Award (2011). http://www.uwo.ca/research/excellence/faces/Ecosystem%20Health.html http://web.me.com/ctrick1/Kenya_Trip_2009/About_the_Project.html

This past couple of years, the University has partnered with the Natural Step Canada to provide employers with high caliber students to create sustainability plans and to help their host organization to fully embed sustainability. The Natural Step Canada is a non-profit organization committed to helping organizations and communities across Canada take meaningful steps toward sustainability. Over 100 organizations in Canada are now using The Natural Step Framework in their planning processes, including The Co-operators, City of Ottawa, Landmark Group of Builders, Whistler BC and international partners like Nike. The Natural Step has developed a reputation as a leader in deep, transformative change management for sustainability. www.thenaturalstep.org/canada.

An Articulation Agreement was reached in March 2008 with Fanshawe College and Western to allow students to take environmental programs at both schools. Graduates from either the Environmental Technology or Science Laboratory Technology diploma programs offered by the College can transfer into Western's three- or four-year degree. Students are allowed to choose specific modules in Environmental Science (which may be combined with additional specific modules in Chemistry). Likewise, Western graduates with either a three- or four-year degree, which includes a module in Environmental Science and specific courses, may be admitted to Fanshawe College and complete a diploma, in either Environmental Technology or Science Laboratory Technology, in a period of approximately twelve months. http://www.uwo.ca/enviro/undergraduate/UgradScience.html