NAITSA is hosting its first ever Sustainability Week from March 21-25th. The week-long event will feature five days of sustainability-minded activities that aim to educate students about sustainable initiatives at NAIT.
NAITSA’s Sustainability Committee first planned the event in response to student desire to learn more about what NAIT is doing to be sustainable. Through annual surveys and direct student feedback, NAITSA’s learned that students would like to see more sustainable practices on campus and more transparent discussions regarding the topic.
Throughout the week, students can attend in-person events, like a film screening on the 23rd or a speaker panel featuring a Q+A with NAIT department stakeholders on the 24th. There will also be two online events happening all week: an eco fair, where local businesses and organizations with a sustainability focus will be highlighted on the @naitstudents Instagram; and a DIY beeswax wrap workshop, where students can complete the online tutorial on their own time and be reimbursed for their materials.
The event is designed to introduce and educate students to the concept of sustainability. “Everyone has a different definition of sustainability,” said Laura Hebert, co-chair of the NAITSA sustainability committee. “It’s an event that you can make of it what you will. How involved you want to be, how much you want to learn, totally up to them.”
The NAITSA sustainability committee also values advocacy, which can be seen in the events happening throughout the week. The speaker panel gives students the platform to meet the important people in the quest for sustainability at NAIT, “so they know there is a touch-down place in case they have questions in the future,” said Hebert. The organizers also encourage NAIT staff to participate in this event, as they are part of the campus community.
“We want to make sure that the students’ voices are amplified and getting across to NAIT or NAITSA.”
In the future, Hebert hopes that sustainability will have a more consistent presence across campus. “This is the first time we are doing a large-scale event like this, but we want the presence of sustainability for both NAITSA and NAIT to be more permanent.”
“It’s about creating a legacy of sustainability, rather than just a trend or one-stop-shop kind of thing. ”
For more information about Sustainability Week, including more details about each of the events and prizes to be won, head to the ookslife page.
