Help Campus Housing go green!
Students have an incredibly important role to play in making the University of Waterloo a more sustainable campus. To support students in this journey, we've launched the Green Residence program in partnership with Campus Housing.
The goal of the Green Ambassador program is to build student sustainability leadership skills and experience, support sustainable behaviours across the residence community, and provide meaningful feedback to the University on housing sustainability.
The Green Residence Ambassador program is an amazing opportunity for students to:
- Gain valuable leadership, teamwork, and communication experience
- Make a tangible impact in lowering your environmental footprint
- Fulfil requirements for WWF Canada's Living Planet Leader designation
- Make new friends and have fun!
Fall 2024/winter 2025 cohort
The Green Residence program is excited to continue for fall 2024 and winter 2025. The program will focus on a mix of professional development opportunities for ambassadors, as well as outreach and engagement activities to engage peers on sustainable living in residence.
We are currently recruiting for two Green Residence Coordinator positions who will provide mentorship support to new ambassadors and support training and learning for other student leaders in Campus Housing. The anticipated time commitment is ~2 hours per week from September 2024 through April 2025 (with breaks for Reading Week and other holidays), with a $500 stipend each term.
Organics collection program (UWP)
Since 2021, Green Residence volunteers have been supporting an organics collection program in UWP suite-style residence buildings. Interested students can sign up to borrow a free countertop organics bin that will be collected once per week by a volunteer.
Spots in the program are limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis! The program is anticipated to start running mid/late September.
Volunteers
As a volunteer, you will collect compost bins from student rooms in your building once per week and empty it in the outdoor organics dumpsters. Depending on the number of volunteers, this may be done in pairs. The time commitment is estimated at ~1 hour/week. All training and materials will be provided.
Participants
As a participant, you will receive a countertop compost bin for your room. It will be collected by a volunteer once per week on a designated collection day (to be confirmed). Participants will be responsible for washing out their bin in between collections and ensuring only compostable material is put into their bin.
Testimonials
Find out what what previous Green Residence Ambassadors have to say:
As a double major, I don’t have time to take courses not related to my majors, but through the Green Residence program I was able to continue to learn about environmentalism here in the University of Waterloo and how it relates to local and global initiatives. I was also kept in the loop about Sustainability Office events and even had the chance to volunteer in some of them! I really enjoyed being involved with the repair workshop and the 2022 Eco Summit.
My experiences in the program have allowed me to build friendships with others who are also interested in sustainability. I also learned a lot that I am applying in my daily life. For instance, in our biodiversity discussion we talked about the importance of native plants, and I am currently working towards creating a native plant garden to attract pollinators.