Sheridan's going green

Have you ever read The President’s Creative Challenge For Sustainability around Sheridan's campus and wondered what it was all about?

The challenge was launched in September to give Sheridan Students from all campuses the opportunity to pitch their ideas on how to help make our school more sustainable. The winner of the contest has a chance to receive up to $5000 to see their ideas come to life.

The slogan is written on all the new recycle bins around Sheridan to raise awareness about the challenge. The five finalists were announced on March 2.

Synthia Truong and Navi Samra worked together to pitch a paper waste reduction program, and Dani Giles came up with a sustainable connections program. Water filtration and art supply disposal was Kelly Kornet’s idea, and Noly Lomingo brought to the table a bottled water shelter and awareness program. Gabriela Rank, Amy Luong and Sunita Haridas were another finalist group, coming up with the idea of a stormwater management program.

“We received quite a few applications and a tonne of interest, and it really built up the momentum for the challenge internally, from all the various faculties,” said Elaine Hanson, coordinator for Sheridan’s Office of Sustainability.

This is the first year of the challenge at Sheridan, with potentially many more to come, thanks to the new Office of Sustainability, established in 2010.

“In its first year, we really wanted the challenge to be well supported, and there has probably been a little bit more hand holding this year because it is brand new to the institution. So fostering up ideas and spending time with students has been great on both sides,” said Hanson.

“It has been an amazing thing meeting with all these students because we really have a need internally for all these projects. So it’s almost like the institution needs to do a better job, and move forward on sustainability,” Hanson explained. “We are being presented with ideas that are hugely creative, and it’s an opportunity for us to actually use those project ideas to make us more sustainable as a college.”

“As an institution we should feel very, very proud at what we have accomplished, and I am very proud of the students that have gone this far,” said Hanson.

In May, the Office of Sustainability will launch their website with hopes to get more students involved.

“My phone’s been ringing off the hook with people wanting to become engaged,” said Hanson. “The website is going to be a great way for people to go there, tell us who you are what you are interested in, and we will get you career experience that is absolutely cutting edge and leading the way in a lot of businesses today.”