Past SUSTAIN students worked with McMaster’s Facility Services and University Technology Services (UTS) and with Empowerment Squared to coordinate ACCESS Tech, a technology reuse and donation initiative. Empowerment Squared is a local charitable organization that empowers newcomers, racialized, and marginalized communities with tools and opportunities to thrive. Empowerment Squared refurbishes collected devices and works with their network of community organizations to distribute donated technology to local families in need.   

McMaster’s ACCESS Tech staff will be hosting a collection and ‘upcycling’ event to take place on October 20, 2023, from 10am to 2pm. 

SUSTAIN 4S06 students have the opportunity to leverage this event to engage in short, in-person interviews. One group of SUSTAIN 4S06 students will interview IT donors of ACCESS Tech to understand their experiences of and motivations for donating. Another group of SUSTAIN 4S06 students can interview those who upcycle IT from McMaster, which are mainly McMaster students, to understand their experiences of and motivation for upcycling IT.   

Community Project Champion:   

 Sanya Sharma, Coordinator, ACCESS Tech, McMaster University   

Past SUSTAIN students worked with McMaster’s Facility Services and University Technology Services (UTS) and with Empowerment Squared to coordinate ACCESS Tech, a technology reuse and donation initiative. Empowerment Squared is a local charitable organization that empowers newcomers, racialized, and marginalized communities with tools and opportunities to thrive. Empowerment Squared refurbishes collected devices and works with their network of community organizations to distribute donated technology to local families in need.   

McMaster’s ACCESS Tech staff will be hosting a collection and ‘upcycling’ event to take place on October 20, 2023, from 10am to 2pm. 

SUSTAIN 4S06 students have the opportunity to leverage this event to engage in short, in-person interviews. One group of SUSTAIN 4S06 students will interview IT donors of ACCESS Tech to understand their experiences of and motivations for donating. Another group of SUSTAIN 4S06 students can interview those who upcycle IT from McMaster, which are mainly McMaster students, to understand their experiences of and motivation for upcycling IT.   

Community Project Champion:   

 Sanya Sharma, Coordinator, ACCESS Tech, McMaster University

McMaster’s Hospitality Services is committed to making sustainable change to their operations. One way is through the “Choose to Reuse – Bring Your Own Mug” (BYOM) program. Individuals who bring their own reusable mug at participating locations on McMaster campus will receive a discount on their purchase.    

To increase this program’s usage, students in SUSAIN 3S03 worked to create a campaign to promote this program and address the issue of lack of awareness. However, following their campaign, usage increased only slightly. You can read the group’s report here.  

SUSTAIN 4S06 student researchers who take on this project will help McMaster’s Hospitality Services understand why students choose single-use coffee cups over their reusable mug.   

Community Project Champions:  

• Liana Bontempo, Manager, Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, Hospitality Services     

Several post-secondary institutions have banned or are phasing out the sale of single-use plastic water bottles on campus. However, there are some important questions to answer:  

• How can we avoid making the problem worse for the environment and human health, which is what happened when the University of Vermont banned the bottle (Taylor, 2015)? 
• What are current student perceptions of refilling and a potential ban? 
• What are the barriers and opportunities to reuse? 

• Why do students purchase water and/or other beverages in single-use plastic bottles?
   

In the Fall of 2022, a group of SUSTAIN 4S06 student researchers interviewed students who already use a refillable bottle to understand their experiences. The student researchers recommended that future studies focus on first-year students living in residence who purchase beverages in plastic bottles to understand their attitudes, perspectives, and choices.  

Community Project Champion:  

• Monica Palkowski, Living Learning Coordinator, Housing & Conference Services 
• Melissa Gallina, Research Coordinator, Housing & Conference Services  

1. https://facilities.mcmaster.ca/app/uploads/2023/02/Waste-Audit-2022.pdf

McMaster’s ACCESS Tech program facilitates the collection, refurbishment, and donation of technology to Hamiltonians in need (read more here). In addition to computers, monitors, and keyboards, the team also collects smartphones for reuse.  

One challenge to the donation and upcycling of smartphones is that the phones need to be factory reset by the owner before being donated. SUSTAIN 2SS3 students from Fall 2023 developed easy-to-follow guidelines for users to confidently reset their phones prior to donation. The next advocacy challenge is to inspire the awareness, adoption, and action required to generate smartphone donations for communities in need. 

SUSTAIN 2SS3 students will have the opportunity to work with student staff of the ACCESS Tech program to develop their ideas and engagement strategies.  

Community Project Champions: 

Sanya Sharma, Coordinator, ACCESS Tech, McMaster University 

Project Liaison 

Kate Whalen, Associate Director, Academic Sustainability Programs Office 

Past SUSTAIN students worked with McMaster’s Facility Services and University Technology Services (UTS) and with Empowerment Squared to coordinate ACCESS Tech, a technology reuse and donation initiative. Empowerment Squared is a local charitable organization that empowers newcomers, racialized, and marginalized communities with tools and opportunities to thrive. Empowerment Squared refurbishes collected devices and works with their network of community organizations to distribute donated technology to local families in need. 

The goal of this project is to increase the number of devices that are collected, refurbished, and donated. 

ACCESS Tech is hosting their next collection event in late January (date and time tbc) whereby SUSTAIN 2SS3 students can learn about and support promotion/communication, event planning, collection, sorting, and refurbishment. The ACCESS Tech ‘upcycling’ event will follow in early February (date tbc), where SUSTAIN 2SS3 students can learn about and support the student upcycling process and community donation. Students can then apply what they learn to develop an advocacy plan to increase donations for the April 22nd Earth Day collection event and spring upcycling event to follow.  

Community Project Champions  

• Sanya Sharma, Coordinator, ACCESS Tech, McMaster University 

Project Liaison 

• Kate Whalen, Associate Director, Academic Sustainability Programs Office 

If you’re wondering how searching the web can result in more trees, check out Ecosia here. Ecosia is a free search engine that donates its advertising revenue to reforestation projects across the globe. For every 45 searches, approximately one tree is planted. Ecosia has planted over 160 million trees and has approximately 200 million users. In October 2022, Zero Waste McMaster (an awesome student club) collaborated with the McMaster Students Union (MSU) to pilot Ecosia on 20+ staff computers, and then worked with SUSTAIN students and Mills Memorial Library to install it as the default browser on 170 public-facing computers (read the Daily News story here). 

SUSTAIN students and Zero Waste McMaster have continued to collaborate to advocate for the adoption of Ecosia on personal and networked computers alike. In the Fall of 2022, SUSTAIN students worked with McMaster’s GIS department to have Ecosia installed as the default browser on all GIS computer lab computers, and they began discussions with staff leaders of computer labs in Life Sciences as well as Integrated Sciences. Another group surveyed Integrated Sciences students who had been informed of Ecosia by their course instructors. The students reported their interest in a mini, in-class workshop on how to download and use Ecosia on their personal computers.  

This semester’s SUSTAIN 2SS3 students have the opportunity to develop a mini, in-class workshop about using Ecosia that can be delivered by Zero Waste McMaster executive members to classes across campus.  

While the project is open to creativity, SUSTAIN 2SS3 students can expect to create the following: 1) draft email to course instructors requesting the opportunity for either an in-person visit or virtual A2L post about Ecosia, 2) the presentation material for an effective and engaging in-person workshop, and 3) the material for an A2L post that can serve as both a re-cap to the in-person presentation or as a stand-alone presentation/guide. Other ideas include a short follow-up survey to measure the effectiveness of the presentation material and the creation of content that can be modified for social media as an addition to the key items noted above.  

Community Project Champion(s): 

• Nelly Okwu-wolu, Project Team Executive, Zero Waste McMaster 

Project Liaison: 

• Dr. Kate Whalen, Associate Director, Academic Sustainability Programs 

Since 2009, McMaster has continually worked to expand its campus composting program. Compost bins now exist in many buildings on campus in both kitchens and common areas such as libraries, the Student Center, and most residence buildings.[1]  

In addition to the efforts of McMaster’s Facility Services Department, student groups have also been working to foster responsible production and consumption, including composting. Zero Waste McMaster is ‘a club focused on promoting sustainable, low-waste living on campus and in our community’.[2] 

According to McMaster’s 2022 Waste Audit, only 6% of what’s found in the garbage is organic material, signaling the effectiveness of the University’s composting program.[3] However, based on visual audits, some composting bins have very little contamination by items that should have been placed in the garbage or recycling while other composting bins are highly contaminated. Composting bins in eatery kitchens are used most effectively while the public-facing bins are not.  

The challenge for SUSTAIN 2SS3 students is to 1) conduct visual audits to determine and report common misconceptions and/or behaviors that result in improper use of public-facing composting bins and 2) develop two advocacy strategies to address them.  

While this project is open to student creativity, recommendations include: focusing on composting bins in the Student Centre, Mills Library, and John Hodgins Engineering Building; conducting visual audits of human composting behaviors in each building to see what’s working and what’s not; also conducting visual audits of bin material to confirm or revise findings from behavior audits; create advocacy strategies to address the 1, 2, or 3 top misconceptions and/or behaviours.  

Community Project Champion(s): 

• Nelly Okwu-wolu, Project Team Executive, Zero Waste McMaster 

Project Liaison: 

• Dr. Kate Whalen, Associate Director, Academic Sustainability Programs 

1. https://facilities.mcmaster.ca/sustainability/waste/   

1. https://www.instagram.com/zerowastemcmaster/  

1. https://facilities.mcmaster.ca/app/uploads/2023/02/Waste-Audit-2022.pdf  

Encouraging and supporting sustainable mobility to and from McMaster is a priority of McMaster’s Parking Services and Office of Sustainability, both of which have information available to staff, faculty, students, and visitors. Information is posted online, but it is in need of a refresh. 

McMaster’s Parking Services and Office of Sustainability are looking for SUSTAIN students to create a clear, concise, and up to date ‘Sustainable Mobility’ webpage to be hosted on McMaster University’s website.  

Measures of success include ensuring that the information is accurate, professional, engaging, and in-line with McMaster’s online presence. Other measures, which will be tracked in future university-sanctioned surveys, will include the number of staff, faculty, and students who take a sustainable mode of travel to/from campus. 

Community Project Champion   

• Robert Morrallee, Senior Manager, Parking Services, Real Estate, Partnerships and Ancillaries, McMaster University  
• Dr. Kate Whalen, Associate Director, Academic Sustainability Programs Office     

Liaison and Project Mentor  

• Dave Cano, Director, Sustainability, Facility Services, McMaster University 
• Holly Gibson, Manager, Marketing and Communications, Facility Services, McMaster University 

Stop Sprawl HamOnt (SSHO) is a coalition of citizens and community groups advocating in an intense and unprecedented way to maintain Hamilton’s urban boundary and save farmland from sprawl development.   

SSHO led a campaign in the summer of 2023 to engage 18,000 Hamiltonians to participate in a City-led survey. Over 90% wanted to save the 3,300 acres of farmland that was at risk. Now, they are advocating to the province, to undue the provincial decision to override the municipal plan and impose 5,000 acres of development on some of the country’s best farmland. The soil is considered in the top 0.5% of the best soil in the country and we need to save this non-renewable resource as this land is priceless.  

Fall 2023 SUSTAIN 3S03 students planned and hosted a farm event at Manorun Organic Farm on Saturday, November 4 to engage with young, local farmers. The event saw over 120 student attendees. The 3S03 students had to both develop the advocacy plan for promotion and communication as well as plan and host the event.  

The goal for Winter 2024 SUSTAIN 2SS3 students is to develop the advocacy plan for promotion and communication for the Spring and/or Fall 2024 farm event.  

Community Project Champion: 

• Sunit Toor, Member, Stop Sprawl Student     
• Nathan Butterworth, Community Engagement Coordinator, Academic Sustainability Programs Office 

CPC Support: 

• Michelle Tom, Co-Founder Stop Sprawl HamOnt 

McMaster University is signatory to the Okanagan Charter, which is committed to optimizing the health and well-being of campus. Since 2019, McMaster has worked to promote native bees on campus and currently has 75 native bee nests and is a Bee City Campus. McMaster is situated in a native bee ‘hot spot’ with over 200 native bee species.   

In the fall of 2022, a group of SUSTAIN 3S03 students and their Community Project Champions laid the groundwork for McMaster’s ground nesting bee garden. This fall, another group of SUSTAIN 3S03 students and project champions facilitated the planting of native pollinators in the garden — the group planted pollinator species and created the infrastructure for bees to nest.   

This semester, SUSTAIN 2SS3 students have the opportunity to plan an advocacy campaign for Pollinator Week, which will take place June 17-23, 2024. The task involves conducting background research, exploring past SUSTAIN projects, and reviewing previous content posted on the @macsustain Instagram account related to Native Bees at McMaster. 

The proposed social media campaign aims to raise awareness about native pollinators at McMaster through various components: 

1. Informative Carousel Post: Develop concepts (storyboards) for an informative carousel post based on background research, focusing on key messages and visually appealing elements. 
2. Engaging Reel: Brainstorm ideas for an engaging reel using footage from previous events, with the option to record additional nature-focused content from around campus. 
3. Instagram Story Highlight: Recommend consolidation of specific content related to pollinators into a story highlight, planning the sequence and organization. This will serve as a centralized resource for followers interested in learning more about McMaster’s initiatives and the significance of pollinators. 

Community Project Champions  

• Ashley Low, Communications Assistant, Academic Sustainability Programs Office  
• Nathan Butterworth, Community Engagement Coordinator, Academic Sustainability Programs Office  

Liaison and Project Mentor  

• Susan Dudley, Professor of Biology and Pollinator Team Member 
• Noah Stegman, Coordinator of Nature at McMaster and Pollinator Team Member 

Supporting the McMaster Community Fridge While Reducing Food Waste??
 

Did you know that many McMaster students don’t have reliable access to affordable and nutritious food? The MSU Food Collective Centre is a service run by students, for students who may be experiencing food insecurity. The service offers access to non-perishable food items and various hygiene items at no cost and various programs to help support students. The McMaster Community Fridge aims to reduce barriers and support food security by providing food for folks in the McMaster community and surrounding area who need it. The McMaster Community Fridge is a fridge, freezer, and pantry located on campus by Mills Library and Lot B that is accessible 24/7. It provides fresh food and non-perishable items at no cost to those who need it.
? 

SUSTAIN 2SS3 students will advocate to McMaster staff to encourage them to volunteer and support the efforts of the Community Fridge, specifically during the examination period/move-out. Students who take on this project will want to consider ways of engaging with McMaster staff, who may be willing to support the community fridge and the best method to encourage participation.

Community Project Champion(s)? 

• Zachary Nott, Volunteer Coordinator, McMaster Community Fridge? 
• Maureen Saha, Communications Coordinator, McMaster Community Fridge? 
• Jenna Wathier, Society of Off-Campus Students
   

Project Advisors:? 

• Nathan Butterworth, Community Engagement Coordinator, Academic Sustainability Programs Office?