Christian Brum took part in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program in Guelph in 2012. After participating in the IMPACT! program, Christian went on to create the University of Waterloo Green Guide. Congratulations Christian!

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Last September, I met a representative from the Co-operators who introduced me to the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program. I had been looking for an opportunity to make my campus more sustainable at the University of Waterloo, but wasn’t exactly sure how to go about an idea I had. She told me about this program for students such as myself looking to make positive environmental and social change at the local level. She said that applications were being accepted for a two-day training session in Guelph where I’d meet other passionate students from the region who were eager to take action and develop their own project ideas. If accepted, I would also be partnered with a mentor who would be selected to match my project goals as best as possible and that I’d have access to an exclusive source of funding to help get my project running. I saw this as the perfect opportunity for myself and immediately applied.

I was fortunate to be selected and met some exceptional people during our training in Guelph. We reviewed the fundamentals of sustainability and had the chance to brainstorm and develop project ideas. We all felt really motivated following the two-day session and were eager to get started. Previously, I had been very inspired by sustainability initiatives happening at Wilfrid Laurier University. In particular, there had been a Laurier Green Guide which was full of green living tips and described green initiatives happening at the university and in the community. I was amazed at how much I had learned from such a short document, and wondered why there hadn’t been a similar guide at my own school.

I took it upon myself to create a University of Waterloo Green Guide and started immediately planning on what it would look like and the content it would include. The Participant Project Planning Summary template provided by the IMPACT program helped me to address issues proactively that otherwise I might have neglected on my own. I also couldn’t have asked for a better mentor for my project! I ended up being paired with the Sustainability Coordinator at Wilfrid Laurier who had written the Laurier Green Guide herself. Moreover, during the research process, I found that the IMPACT program was recognized by many people and gave me the credibility I needed to get their attention for my project.

My mentor put me in touch with a graphic artist and together we completed the final version of the guide during the summer. It was a very exciting moment for me to see all my hard work come together in a final product, but I was equally nervous about how the guide would be received at the University. I developed a distribution plan to make online copies available for University faculty and students and researched local vendors to make environmentally-friendly prints. I am happy to say that the guide has been well-received and will be found in various locations this September, including Waterloo Residences, the main Student Life Center, and on the University of Waterloo Sustainability web site (given it meets certain requirements).

The self-satisfaction of completing a project on your own and seeing how it will help your peers and the community is very rewarding. If anyone has an idea in mind or is looking for inspiration to make positive local change, I definitely recommend considering an application to upcoming Sustainability Champions Training programs in your area. I see this as only the beginning of taking on more sustainability-related projects in my last two years at the University of Waterloo. For now, I will be working this fall with the main student sustainability group on campus and will advise on new projects being developed.

Written by Christian Brum, 3rd Year Environment and Business, University of Waterloo

This fall, the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program will be taking place in Guelph. Don’t miss this opportunity to get your project off to an accelerated start!