Sustainability@DAWSON (April 2013 newsletter, in English)

In this issue:___________

Dawson Goes Carbon Neutral

Earth Week: Mexico Delegation Visit Peace Garden Clean-Up

Green Earth DisplayPhoto Documentary

Environmental Studies SeminarTeachers Workshop

Self-Watering Container Workshop for students only, registration for rest of Dawson Community in May, 2013.

Cin/Comm

Mexico News

Monarchs Without Borders

Sustainability @ DAWSONSustainable News for the Dawson College Community April 2013

Earth Week 2013

Plans are underway for Earth Week, April 22 - 26th, 2013. Our Mexico sustainability partners are visiting; workshops and seminars will be presented to students and faculty. A photo documentary of sustainabil-ity at Dawson will be showcased as well as displays from GreenEarth and others. Please contact us ASAP if you would like to have panels or a table to showcase projects, displays and information concerning sustainability within our community. The carbon neutral celebration will take place on the Thursday of Earth Week. We plan a workshop on the construction of self-watering containers for students and registra-tion for further workshops in May to the rest of the Dawson Community. Watch for notices and posters throughout the college for more infor-mation, including the ‘Sustainable Dawson’ Facebook page & the back page of this newsletter!

page 1 Newsletter editor: Cindy D. Elliott / Layout design: Rosalia Cerro

You can find the Sustainable Dawson annual report and indicators on the web-site at this link: http://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/our-communities/sustainable-dawson

Annual Report

Sustainable Dawson completed an audit of the amount of greenhouse gases our College released into the atmosphere through energy use, non-commuting transportation and waste production last year. This benchmark of 915 mt of CO2(e) was calculated after substantial greenhouse gas reduction measures. We will continue to put initiatives in place to further reduce our CO2(e) footprint and to purchase carbon credits to offset our emissions. Our goal is to become carbon neutral for the last fiscal year!

Carbon Neutral Project

Photo DocumentaryWould you like to participate in showcasing your photos? We know many of the community have taken photos of the Peace Garden, (flow-ers, insects, etc.), and sustainable events, campaigns or projects. We offer anyone interested a panel to display their photos and the oppor-tunity for Dawson people to ‘see’ how we live as a sustainable com-munity. Please contact Cindy Elliott ([email protected]) to reserve display panels.

Cin/Comm Phil Vitone’s Cinema Communications class have once again created a beautiful “EcoJournal” website on sustainability. To view the website, click on this link: http://2012.ejreview.net/ it’s fabulous!!In December they held the ‘Trashing for Fashion’ event, a sus-tainable fashion show to raise awareness of reusing, recycling and reducing through fashion. This year’s theme, in line with the fashion show, is the DIY way to reuse. To see photos of this event please go to this link: http://dawsonfashionshow2012.tumblr.com

GreenEarth Environmental ClubThe GreenEarth Club held an awareness campaign on the impact of disposable plastic water bottle use. The event began on Mon-day, March 18 and ended on Friday 22 (World Water Day). The GreenEarth club members want to avoid the purchase of bottled water and organized a petition for the community. The Dawson community can ask for a free reusable water bottle from the DSU office in room (2F.2 ) and use water fountains or the water bottle refill stations located around the college.

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Mexico News

Dawson Geography teacher, Gisela Frias, in collaboration with Sustainable Dawson, spearheaded a grant proposal for a participatory action research project, which was accepted by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The project, “Sustainable Campuses: Sharing Our Knowledge for Social and Environmental Sustainability”, establishes a partnership between Dawson College and two universities with four campuses in Mexico. With the participation of a Mexican environmental non-profit organization, we are implementing numerous projects at all campuses. Last November, Gisela Frias, Chris Adam and Cindy Elliott travelled to the four campuses to share our experience and initiate many new projects. We met with Federal and State ministry officials, whom support this project. Our trip was jam-packed with media interviews, student presentations, professional develop-ment training and tours. You can follow us through the Facebook project page “Planteles Educa-tivos Sustentables UPN-Normal Superior-Dawson”. Together in March, we created a peace garden at Normal Superior, in the Mexican state of Morelos. In addition, Dawson CRLT student, Ga-brielle Caron, spent the past month at the UPN Ayala campus. From the Facebook page, you are able to access Gabrielle’s blog of her month spent with other students in Mexico on sustainability projects. Mexico has heart!!! What follows is a brief description of current projects at each campus.

Normal Superior

The Normal Superior’s Academic Dean, Leon Felipe, has embraced sustainability in the curriculum and involved the university community in a presentation by Margarita Hurtado Badiola and Cindy Elliott to faculty and staff along with the Director, Carlos Gallardo. The students have also held radio shows that inform the university community of new initiatives to move towards sustainable campus, as well as a beautiful film depicting Mexico culture and environment through sus-tainable initiatives with the project. Working with five classes of students, we started the creation of the newly formed Peace Garden with medicinal plants from the Cuernavaca Ethno-botanical gardens. The second half of the Peace Garden will showcase native cacti. Normal Superior stu-dents have held two conferences on the importance that Mexico plays in the conservation of cacti spe-cies and their cultural relevance.

Front row: Jorge Dominguez (UPN Cuernavaca), Margarita Hurtado Badiola (Coordinator of the project in Mexico), Luisa Montes (Sustainability Coordinator Normal Superior).Back row: Cindy Elliott (Dawson Sustainability Coordinator), Jorge Hernandez (Faculty Normal Superior) and Leon Felipe (Academic Dean Normal Superior).


Universidad Pedagogica Nacional: Ayala Campus

At the Ayala campus students and teachers are actively promoting sustainability. Some of their activities includ-ed an on-campus reforestation campaign; Noni and Neem native trees were planted throughout the campus; an ecological farm fieldtrip to learn about sustainable alternatives, as well as a mural, painted by the students, of different ecosystems to exhibit at the school. Popular educator Margarita Hurtado designed the game: “Sweet oranges and lemons to refresh the planet”. She held a workshop to engage participants in discussions of climate change. This semester, Dawson Alumni Kendall Birker also spent a month at the Ayala campus with Gabrielle. They completed a compost area, made self-watering containers, established a medicinal garden, rejuvenated exist-ing gardens and helped create a Peace mural with the school community. They also introduced students to ball hockey, organizing an inter-campus game that brought our many spectators.

Universidad Pedagogica Nacional: Cuernavaca Campus

The Cuernavaca campus has been busy organiz-ing its student body. In November 2012 students organized a workshop and invited Margarita Hurtado to facilitate and play the game “Sweet oranges and lemons to refresh the planet”. The entire campus got together in a cleanup of their green areas. We had a tour of their beautiful grounds and the university.

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This campus has also carried out several activities to moti-vate students and teachers to organize themselves and work towards making their campus sustainable. In October, stu-dents held a workshop and in-vited environmental educators, Margarita Hurtado and Rocio Arcanda to facilitate and play the game “Sweet oranges and lemons to refresh the planet”. They have planted numerous medicinal Noni and Neem trees around their campus.

Universidad Pedagogica Nacional: Galeana Campus

Monarchs Without Borders

After a successful Monarch tagging pilot project in the fall of 2012, Sustainable Dawson will be expanding this program. If your program or depart-ment is interested in acquiring a monarch kit, please contact us ([email protected]) ASAP as there are a limited number of kits. This is on a first come, first serve ba-sis. Delivery of the kits is early September 2013.


Sustainability @ DAWSON APRIL 2013 / Newsletter editor: Cindy D. Elliott / Layout design: Rosalia Cerro

“ A Better Planet Begins With Each One of Us ”

Contact:Coordinator Sustainable Dawson: Cindy Dale Elliott, Ex. 5096E-mail: [email protected] us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sustainable-Dawson/121479001240144Sustainable Dawson website:http://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/our-communities/sustainable-dawson

Want to get involved within your community?

Peace Garden Spring Clean UpApril 22 - 25 : 10 am - 2 pmin the Dawson Ecological Peace Garden

Self-Watering Containers WorkshopApril 23 : 12 pm - 1 pm in the Conrods, upper AtriumFOR STUDENTS ONLYRegistration for rest of the Dawson Community in May, 2013.

Sustainability @ Dawson Photo DocumentaryApril 22 - 26 : 10 am - 2 pm in the Conrods, upper Atrium

Mexico Sustainability PartnersWorkshops & SeminarsTO BE ANNOUNCED

Sustainable Booths & DisplaysGreenEarth & EcoQuartier

Documents

Sustainability@DAWSON (April 2013 newsletter, in English)