ImpAct-Climate Campus Living Labs (Cohort 2)

Why? 

Building off the success of their first round of Campus Living Labs through their ImpAct-Climate initiative, Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) put a call out for submissions as part of their “Cohort 2” project.  This called on colleges and institutes to develop living lab projects that demonstrate ways to implement GHG emission reductions in areas which include:

• Food
• Waste
• Transportation
• Green Building / Landscape
• Indigenous Knowledge and Practices

How? 

For the second consecutive year, Canadore College were honoured to be selected as one of ten living labs nationwide. This project began in May 2023 and ran until April 2024.

The project focused on the 650 acres of land at our College Drive Campus, 460 of which is forested to complete the following:

• Conduct a forest inventory, data collection, and mapping on forest health, structure, and composition.
• Use a boots on the ground approach to measure and calculate carbon sequestration rates.
• Identify themes or opportunities for further integration within our academic programs, departments, and community.
• Increase tree count at campus locations and residence.
• Create a 10-year forest management plan to obtain FSC certification (Forest Council Stewardship)
• Develop a story throughout and increase awareness through social media.

Our project team is purposefully diverse and comprised of Canadore staff and students from a variety of disciplines as well as consultants with a background in forestry. This will help to ensure that the project is fully integrated within the college and prepared to respond to themes and opportunities identified through data collection and mapping activities.  

Activities to date: The inventory, data collection, and mapping took place during the months of July and August.  In addition, the events listed below sought engagement from students, employees, and community members.

• On May 8^th, 2023, 20 new maple and bur oak trees were planted across our campuses and residence buildings. This was a collaborative effort amongst Canadore students, employees, and community members.
• On July 12^th, 2023, students, employees, and community members were invited to the official project launch. The launch took place in our Mshibizhiwgamig “Great Lynx Lodge” and begun with a smudging ceremony led by our Cultural Advisor, Gerry McComb.  This was followed by a teaching from Perry-McLeod Shabogesic that discussed the significance and history of the land on Nipissing First Nation. He also discussed the concept of two-eyed seeing, which involves placing ourselves in the perspective of the land.  See the CTV News story here
• On August 21^st, 2023, forest users from throughout the community were invited to learn more about the project and to share their connection and use cases for the forested land as an exercise to develop a forest management plan. This was followed by a guided measurement activity held by facilitator, Elliott Groen (Forest Gardener)
• On September 20, 2023, employees, students, and community members gathered to plant 110 new trees at our College Drive Campus in honour of National Tree Day. Tree varieties included Bur Oak (25), Butternut (25), American Elderberries (25), Aronia Melanocarpa (25), and White Cedar (8). On September 26^th, we were notified by Tree Canada that our planting event won the National Tree Day 2023 Celebration Contest!  As such, we have been awarded a fully funded tree planting event in 2024. See the story here.
• On September 22, 2023, we collaborated with Organizational Development Talent Management to launch the Campus Biodiversity Walk on campus, becoming the first Ontario College to join. Learn more about our project and the associated goals here.
• On December 13, 2023, we hosted a forest user engagement session via Zoom. The session was open to the public and covered a draft framework including planning objectives, operational strategies, and the community engagement process. It was facilitated by Sustainable Forestry Coordinator Elliott Groen. Watch it here.
• In February 2024, our project was featured in the Globe and Mail. Read it here.
• In March 2024, to conclude SDG Week Canada, we shared the preliminary results of the project as well as sequestration modeling. We also released this project video.

Meet the project team:

• Mike Miscio – Senior Director, Infrastructure and Public Safety
• Lise Paxton -Coordinator, Student Government
• Christina DeRoche – Director, Research Centre
• Carly Renaud – Manager, Indigenous Research and Development
• Josh Willard – Manager, Marketing and Recruitment
• Angela Proudfoot – Project Administrator, Clean Water and Sustainable Food
• Jason Chirico – Coordinator, Sustainability
• Elliott Groen – Owner, Forest Gardener
• Laura Solano Moya – Director, International Recruitment and Business Development
• Michael Haines – Coordinator, Recreation and Wellness
• Kathleen Garvey – Assistant, Facilities and Programming
• Chris Herbert – Owner, Mi6 Agency
• Shane Ralli – Student Assistant, Sustainable Development
• Michael Chong – Student Assistant, Recreation and Wellness
• School of Environmental Studies
• Shawn Chorney – Vice President, Strategic Infrastructure, Indigenous and Learner Services
• Jesse Russell - Project Leader, Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development Goals