Read about Sustainability Week 2023 Here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/news/love-sustainability-inspiration!
Join us for the fourth annual UTM Sustainability Week! Sustainability Week will be held this year from Monday March 13th to Friday March 17th, 2023 in partnership with UTMSU, the UTM Sustainability Office, and the MScSM Student Executive Council (MSEC).
This year the theme for the week will be Acknowledge. Align. Act. As we collectively acknowledge there is a climate crisis and we all have a part to play, align our skills and values to an area of sustainability, and act towards making important changes for the planet. The purpose of this week is to create impact and encourage collaboration on campus towards a more sustainable community on campus and beyond.
Below is the schedule for the week:
Monday March 13th:
Love + Sustainability: A Panel
In memory of the loss of Professor Barbara Murck and Rose Mary Craig, we will be dedicating this year’s Sustainability Week to these two fierce advocates of both love and sustainability. As such, we will be opening Sustainability Week on Monday March 13th with a panel discussion on Love + Sustainability. Join Professors Shashi Kant, Stephen Scharper, Andrea Olive, and Blake Poland to discuss why both Love and Sustainability are two sides of the same coin.
Love + Sustainability: A Panel
Monday March 13th 9:00-10:30am
KN 137
All are welcome and light refreshments will be served.
City of Mississauga: Project Neutral
Join the City of Mississauga on March 13th from 10am-3pm by the tables on the second floor in Davis to learn about Project Neutral and how you can calculate your carbon score and reduce your carbon footprint.
SAGE: Freestore
Join SAGE on Monday March 13th from 10am-3pm for a Freestore event! Find clothing, and other small items all donated to be given away for free!
If you have clothing or gently used small items that you’d like to drop off, you can find bins in the following locations:
-
SAGE Office: DV3213
-
IMI Lobby: 2nd Floor Kaneff in front of the elevators
OZZI Walkthrough and Incentive: Hospitality and Retail Services
Breakdown:
Step 1: Come by our table in the Meeting Place on March 13th from 11:30am-1:30pm
Step 2: Request an OZZI container as if you were ordering food
Step 3: Deposit the OZZI container into the machine like you would after your meal
Step 4: Get a FREE small Fair Trade coffee!
Sensing Our Relations: A Writing Workshop with SA Smythe
Join the Blackwood Gallery on March 13th from 3-5pm in DV3130 for “Sensing our Relations”, a writing workshop led by poet, transdisciplinary artist, translator, and critical theorist SA Smythe in response to “Movement Two: Ecology”, the lightbox and billboard program featuring Christina Battle’s series “how to make sense of the nonsensical”.
Battle’s images ask us to interrogate regimes of meaning-making in the context of ongoing catastrophe. Across the lightboxes, texts from the series instruct us to “CONSIDER WHO YOU ARE IN RELATION WITH”, among other directives. Smythe will guide participants through a series of writing prompts to engage with the provocations raised by Battle’s work. The workshop is open to writers of any genre who want to think through the relationship between language, violence, and possibility.
To register:
Tuesday March 14th
The Trashion Show!
Brought to you by UTMSU and MSEC, join us for the drop in Trashion Show on Tuesday March 15th at noon in the Meeting Place! Show up in your favourite thrifted, recovered, or creative outfit!
Sustainability Campus Tours
The Sustainability Office invites students, staff, and faculty to join us on a 1 hour walking tour of some of the many sustainability features on campus.
The tour will include an overview of the Instructional Building, including the geothermal system, solar panels, and UTM bees located on the third-floor rooftop. The MN Building green roofs and rainwater harvesting system will also be featured on the tour.
Date: Tuesday, March 14th, 2023
Times: 11am-noon
3:00-4:00pm
Rain or shine.
Attendees will be emailed meet-up location. Maximum attendees per tour is 25 people.
RSVP before Monday, March 13th at 4pm.
RSVP form: https://forms.office.com/r/nuEMzxixZa
Wednesday March 15th
Blackwood Gallery
Join the Blackwood gallery in the CCT link from 10am-3pm to learn about how art and sustainability intersect.
Sustainable Careers Pop-Up Shop
Join the UTM Career Centre for treats and chat about Sustainable Careers from 11am-1pm - they will be tabling on the main floor in IB!
The Waste Ambassadors Present: Just Eat It Documentary Screening
Join the UTM Waste Ambassadors in the Student Centre Presentation Room from 4pm-6pm on Wednesday March 15th for popcorn and a screening and discussion of Just Eat It a documentary about food waste and food rescue. To register for this event please visit: https://forms.office.com/r/C8UgEQGwGN
Thursday March 16th
“Drawing” on Traditional Knowledge as a Community
Learn about the value of traditional ecological practices within the City of Mississauga, and creatively express your thoughts and feelings on achieving a sustainable society. After the informational piece, have fun interacting in groups to draw what traditional ecological knowledge and sustainability in Mississauga means to you!
Thursday March 16th : 10 - 11AM in IB 320
Registration Link: https://forms.gle/wMmJBkBF7WkQwZzA7
This event is being led by the Civic Engagement Team within the Centre for Student Engagement (CSE). If you would like to reach out to us for any questions or concerns about this event, please contact any of the members below:
Chelsea: chelsea.reys@mail.utoronto.ca
Sharvaani: sharvaani.rampersadmaharaj@mail.utoronto.ca
Climate Cafe: "How to save the planet with your vote"
When: Thursday March 16th, 6:30-7:30pm
Where: Student Centre Presentation Room
Why do local politics matter and how can it help the environment? We are providing a space (and snacks!) for the community to congregate and have conversations about politics 101.
Learn this and other tips and tricks about delegating with your city councilors, how to get started in on-the ground activism and more!
We will talk about local environmental issues in our community like the Greenbelt and Highway 413.
You will also gain access to our free guide on Community Climate Action
Registration link for cafe: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-cafe-how-to-save-the-planet-with-your-vote-tickets-565710745067
Let’s Get Together Tech Collect and E-Waste Drive!
Let’s Get Together is a not-for profit organization in the GTA which through their tech collect drive will collect old technology and e-waste material to be refurbished or safely recycled and then circulated back into the community.
Join us on Thursday March 16th from 10am-4pm in the Student Centre to drop off any old materials. They will be accepting:
Laptops, desktops and monitors, consumer electronics, handheld devices, printers and peripherals, batteries, home and business phones, televisions, microwave ovens, and household items that are 35lbs or less.
Also, come and learn about how you can refurbish old technology to help re-circulate old technology back into the community.
Plant Your Future Panel: Global Sustainable Foods
A collaboration between the UTM sustainability committee and GSF can help to empower students passionate about sustainability, and provide them with an avenue to learn more about local sustainable farming and agricultural practices. This collaboration provides students the opportunity to learn first hand from local farmers about sustainable, small scale agricultural practices in our local community. Through hands-on demonstrations provided by our partnered farmers, students can not only broaden their knowledge on sustainable agricultural practices, but learn how to implement those practices in their own lives. Furthermore, by connecting students with local farmers, students can determine pathways for their own sustainability journey and potentially be inspired to start their own sustainability initiatives.
Thursday March 16th, 10am-2pm
To register: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/plant-your-future-panel-tickets-559310551917
Campus Medicine Walk
Join Sam Howden, Coordinator, Indigenous Pedagogies at the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre as they bring students, faculty, and staff around the campus to learn of the medicine on campus all around us. Join us rain or shine!
Thursday March 16th, 11am-2pm
Space is limited, to register, please visit: https://forms.office.com/r/mPe4nwrKt0
Friday March 17th, 2023
SAGE: Freestore
Join SAGE on Friday March 17th from 10am-3pm for a Freestore event! Find clothing, and other small items all donated to be given away for free!
If you have clothing or gently used small items that you’d like to drop off, you can find bins in the following locations:
-
SAGE Office: DV3213
-
IMI Lobby: 2nd Floor Kaneff in front of the elevators
UTM Farm Sampling: Hospitality and Retail Services
When: 11:45am-1:30pm
Where: IB North (Across from IB 110)
Breakdown:
Step 1: Drop by our table
Step 2: Match seed to seedling
Step 3: If you're right, win a seedling to take home!
Share on Social for a chance to win a PRIZE PACK!
MSEC Presents: Mock COP
The MScSM Executive Council is bringing to you the first ever UTM COP (Conference of the Parties)!
An opportunity to solve real world problems while engaging with your peers…
When: March 17th, 2023
9am-1pm
Where: Presentation Room, Student Centre
Cost: It’s FREE!
(Breakfast and Lunch will be served)
We invite all delegates to help us find a solution!
We’d love to see you among us at the event. Come in your business best!
Register: https://forms.gle/bCtAEZJLya3UdZX89
For any questions feel free to email: shreya.agarwal@mail.utoronto.ca
After Sustainability Week...
Wednesday, March 29
Wellness 101: Climate Anxiety
When: 12-1pm
Where: DV 2077(A) (Wellness Hub)
Led by Samantha DiIorio, UTM Sustainability Office. Samantha is responsible for coordinating the Sustainability Office’s programs and initiatives, supporting the implementation of UTM’s Sustainability Strategic Plan, and reporting to the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). She brings valuable experience from her roles at the City of Mississauga, developing and implementing the City’s Climate Change Action Plan, and Urban Agriculture Strategy. Additionally, she sits on the Board of Directors for a Hamilton not-for-profit, Green Venture. Samantha is a graduate of UTM’s Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) program and holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from McMaster University. Samantha deeply cares about the planet and strongly believes we all have a responsibility to take care of it.
Sustainability isn’t just about the health and well-being of the planet, it’s also about the health and well-being of people. Join UTM’s Sustainability Office for a facilitated session using the book All We Can Save Feel Circle as a guide. Open up through meaningful discussion, discuss solutions to cope with climate anxiety, and feel supported by other students.