The WUSA Sustainability Project will be on hold for this term.

We will relaunch as soon as we have the resources in place. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Services Manager, Sam at sspizzir@wusa.ca

Learn more about student groups doing work related to sustainability around campus.

What is WSP?

The WUSA Sustainability Project (WSP) was born in 2020 as a rebranded, reimagined form of the Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI). Its mission is to embed sustainability as a core value across the university. To do so, WSP amplifies the student voice and ensures that sustainability considerations are being made in campus decision-making.

In addition to supporting the WUSA Clothing Project and Campus Compost, WSP is grounded in three pillars: Consolidation, Communication, and Consultation.

  • Consolidation means reaching out to different pockets of sustainability projects on campus, including student groups, Faculty teams, and other initiatives.

  • Communication means making information about sustainability and campus initiatives accessible and engaging for all students, regardless of Faculty.

  • Consultation means listening to the students, recognizing their needs, and ensuring those needs are brought forward to campus decision-makers.

Why care about sustainability?

Sustainability means behaving in ways today can be sustained long into the future. In other words, our actions today must be considerate of the actions that will be taken in the future.

Every action we take, big or small, has an impact. We may not see this impact right away or feel it directly, but the impact is there. Our world is in a precarious place with climate change; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls on everyone to take action immediately if we hope for a prosperous world. This includes all of us at the University of Waterloo. Our actions have impacts from local to global scales, and finding ways to embed sustainability throughout our community will help fulfill our roles in this global movement towards prosperity.

How WSP supports students

Aligning with the three pillars, WSP offers three core services:
  1. WSP helps consolidate sustainability resources and programming for students, making them easier to find, synergize their activities, and relate to one another.
  2. WSP helps translate complex sustainability information and institutional governance practices into clear, accessible language. This will help students build sustainability literacy and create transparency within the institution.
  3. WSP consults with students, staff, and external groups to understand their perspectives on the pressing issues facing our world. These conversations help direct WSP’s priorities and the projects that the service implements.

How to get involved

Students are encouraged to connect with the Sustainability Commissioner for anything related to sustainability. The Commissioner is happy to meet with students about a variety of topics, including:

  • Project ideas, including where to access funding or other resources;
  • Project/idea feedback;
  • Suggestions for clubs or organizations to get involved with;
  • And more.

In 2021, WSP also launched the Student Sustainability Committee. This Committee is composed of passionate undergraduate students from each Faculty that are working together to promote sustainable change across the university. They also work independently with their Student Societies to incorporate sustainability considerations into their Faculty-level activities.

Please note that we are not currently recruiting new members. Please check back for more updates or follow us on Instagram @wusasustainability for more updates soon!

Take action now

WSP and other sustainability groups on campus have created helpful resources for taking action in your personal life. Check these out:

Have questions? Feel free to email the Sustainability Commissioner wsp@wusa.ca. Stay up-to-date on WSP activities by following our Instagram: @wusasustainability.

Sustainability in the News

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