Articles from:October 2020

  • Five Tips On How to Have a Sustainable At-Home Halloween

    Thursday, October 29, 2020 | By

    Blog Contributor: Mikellena Nettos

    Halloween is just around the corner and even though we are unable to celebrate together, we can still celebrate at home! Brock is working with the Niagara community to encourage a safe Halloween and we thought we might add to that conversation by taking about sustainability. Holiday celebrations can lead to a lot of waste, from tacky plastic dollar store decorations to millions of pumpkins simply discarded incorrectly. That being said there, are a lot of ways we can have more sustainable at-home celebrations! Here are five tips on how to incorporate sustainability into your Halloween celebrations:

    1. Decorations: Instead of buying decor, create them using old clothes, or decorate using compostable items
      • Use old stockings with runs for spider webs (WWF, 2020).
      • Decorate with pumpkins, gourds, leaves and other compostable or edible items (Recyclebank, 2017).
      • Ifyou do buy non-compostable/non-recyclable items, be sure to keep them as decorations for every year! #ReuseReduceRecycle
      • Make your own scarecrow on your front lawn instead of blow-up decor which consumes a lot of energy.
    2. Purchase locally grown pumpkins or grow your own!
      • Don’t forget to compost them or use them to make pumpkin pie or bread (Harvard, 2015)!
      • Save the seeds for a tasty treat, you can find easy recipes all over the internet or even create your own!
      • Painted pumpkins are unfortunately not compostable, so if you don’t want to carve it, dress it up with a fun hat or scarf (Recyclebank, 2017)!
    3. Buy organic treats without plastic wrappers if possible!
      • Because we are not encouraging trick or treating this year, try making your own treats!
      • Try to avoid buying boxed candy sets as they are each individually wrapped with plastic that is not recyclable!
    4. Watch Halloween movies online with friends by using streaming platforms like Netflix Party or sharing your screen on Teams!
      • This is a great way to celebrate the Halloween spirit while staying safe!
      • Some great Halloween movies can be found here.
    5. Make your own costume!
      • Instead of buying a costume you are only going to wear one time, make your own by hand or thrifting (WWF, 2020).
      • Another idea is to use/buy clothing you know you will wear again in the future!
      • You can also rent costumes where available or participate in a costume swap with family or friends (be sure to maintain social distancing when doing so, and don’t forget your masks!)

    If you engage with these tips, we encourage you to share the ways you implemented a more sustainable Halloween and tag #BUSustainableHalloween and @BUSustainable to be featured on our story! Have a happy and safe Halloween, Badgers!

     

    References:

    Harvard Green Team. (2015, June 22). 6 tips for a greener Halloween. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://green.harvard.edu/tools-resources/green-tip/6-tips-greener-halloween

    Recyclebank. (2017, October 23). 29 Fun Ways To Have A Happy, Sustainable Halloween. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/29-fun-ways-to-have-a-happy-sustainable-halloween

    Staff, C. (2020, September 20). Your Guide to the Best Halloween Movies of All Time. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/g3624/best-halloween-movies/?slide=1

    WWF. (2020). 10 Green Halloween Tips. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/10-green-halloween-tips

    Categories: Student Contributor, Sustainability

  • Brock and WWF-Canada Care About Conservation, Biodiversity, and Student Action

    Saturday, October 24, 2020 | By

    Plastic Pollution In Ocean – Turtle Eat Plastic Bag – Environmental Problem

    Blog Contributor: Erica Harper 

    On October 27th from 11-12:15pm EST, Sustainability at Brock and WWF-Canada will be hosting a Brock Cares event to engage students in conservation, biodiversity, and student actions that make a positive difference on the Brock campus and the environment. This event will highlight the new Living Planet @ Campus partnership between Brock and WWF-Canada that provides students with the opportunity to address issues relating to the crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.  

     The speakers for the event include Kathy Nguyen, Specialist of Engagement at World Wildlife Fund-Canada (WWF-Canada) and Connor Thompson, Brock Master of Sustainability graduate.  

     Kathy will explain how WWF-Canada engages in conservation, biodiversity, and habitat protection initiatives that align with the organization’s long-term vision of “creating a world where people and nature thrive”. Kathy will also discuss Living Planet @ Campus, which allows students to be leaders in conservation efforts on campus and earn WWF-Canada’s nationally recognized Living Planet Leader self-guided certification. 

     As one of the first people in Canada to receive WWF-Canada’s Living Planet Leader certificate and a recent Brock graduate, Connor will provide a unique student perspective on his experience completing the certification and how engaging in conservation activities impacted him. This will help other students further understand how they can get involved in conservation initiatives too through volunteerism, academic work, and leadership to name a few. 

     All students are welcome to the event to learn more about how they can make a positive environmental impact at Brock, in the community, and even globally. Click this ExperienceBU link to register for this great event!  

    Categories: Community, Student Contributor, Sustainability at Brock

  • Update to the Niagara Region Garbage Retrieval Schedule 

    Thursday, October 15, 2020 | By

    Blog Contributor: Mikellena Nettos

    In case you missed it, Niagara Region will be updating their garbage retrieval schedule effective October 19th, 2020. Instead of putting your garbage out once per week, you will now only be able to set out two bags or cans once every other week. The region will still collect recycling bins and compost bins weekly, which allows people to shift their waste towards recycling and compost bins instead of the garbage. According to the regional website, more than half of the average garbage bag in Niagara contains materials that could have been recycled or composted.  

    What can you do to reduce your waste?  

    • Order less take out. Most containers and plastic bags used to deliver food end up in the garbage instead of being properly disposed of. 
    • Make sure to rinse recyclable materials before placing them in the bin. Did you know that grease–stained carboard goes into the compost, not the recycling bin? 
    • Know which bin it belongs in – if you are unsure which bin an item belongs in click here  
    • Put all food waste in the compost to avoid rotting garbage. No one wants to deal with smelly garbage for two weeks. 
    • Follow zero waste pages on Instagram or twitter for helpful tips! 

    Additionally, here is a link to a previous post that shares tips on how to “Recycle Like a Pro” in Niagara.  

    Do the right thing – reduce, reuse, and recycle.  

    Together we can make the world a cleaner place. 

    Categories: Niagara, Student Contributor, Waste

  • Summer Wrap Up – Sustainability Coordinator Co-Op

    Tuesday, October 06, 2020 | By

    Blog Contributor: Elenore Breslow

    There is a long list of reasons why summer 2020 was unlike any other. The pandemic surely impacted everyone’s lives in different ways and like many of you, I spent my summer working remotely at my home ‘office’ instead of working in-person.  

    Even with the widespread shift to mainly remote work this summer, I still had an incredible opportunity to work as a Sustainability Coordinator co-op student from my home over 4 hours away from St. Catharines. And yes, my work-from-home setup on most days did include the traditional attire of a dress shirt, sweatpants, and no shoes. Enough about my wardrobe though…  

    The Sustainability Coordinator position was made available through the Brock University Charter Agreement with Facilities Management and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre. Through the Charter Agreement I worked for two exceedingly knowledgeable supervisors – Mary Quintana, Director, Asset Management & Utilities for Facilities Management and Amanda Smits, Centre Administrator for the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre. 

    The pandemic may have impacted where I completed my work this summer, but the actual work I did would have been the same regardless of location. And I was fortunate enough to visit the campus at the end of the co-op term to meet everyone (in-person) on the Brock team that I worked with throughout the summer –  check out my video below from my visit, ‘Day in the Life as a Sustainability Coordinator’.  

    The overall goal of the summer was to increase our knowledge of sustainability at Brock and determine baseline numbers in areas such as, GHG emissions, water use, and waste. Our team wanted to determine where does Brock do well in terms of sustainability and where are areas of improvement. To do this, we began by working on the completion of Brock’s first Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). This was a comprehensive process that involved coordination with several different internal and external stakeholders to collect data and information regarding the 4 main categories of STARS – academics, engagement, operations, and planning & administration. The key aspect about STARS is that it is a holistic approach to measuring sustainability on campus, and then decision makers can use that information to generate new ideas in terms of strategic planning and engaging the community. Making real progress towards sustainability can be a difficult task but starting by measuring all sustainability performance on campus is a great place to start.  

    Throughout the summer I also had the opportunity to help with many other sustainability related projects including being involved more on the operations and project management side of things. I helped with projects that examined ways to adapt current infrastructure to be more sustainable and I learned about how sustainability is incorporated into current operational practices, including the District Energy System. As many of you know, Brock recently celebrated the completion of Brock’s District Energy Efficiency Project (DEEP). It is through innovative projects like DEEP that Brock continues to demonstrate its commitment to environmental sustainability, with the hopes of continuing to be leaders amongst universities in reducing carbon emissions.  

    I am excited to continue my journey with the Brock team until 2021 and I am eager to part of the new initiatives and projects that are beginning this fall. Keep a lookout on Sustainability at Brock’s social media accounts (@BUsustainable) to stay up to date with all things sustainability here at Brock! 

    Categories: Student Contributor, Sustainability, Sustainability at Brock, Uncategorised