University of Alberta
ER-T2-6: Sustainability Events

SUSTAINABILITY AWARENESS WEEK
http://www.sustainability.ualberta.ca/Projects/SustainabilityAwarenessWeek.aspx

Each year, Sustainability Awareness Week (SAW) demonstrates the diversity of sustainability-related activities and organizations on campus, with the goal of educating and motivating our campus community to live a more sustainable lifestyle. This series of events offers thousands of participants the opportunity to become more aware of environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues, learn more about campus sustainability, and develop sustainability skills. SAW is a week filled with dozens of events coordinated by many sustainability-related campus organizations.

The University of Alberta’s fifth annual SAW took place October 17-23, 2011. This year, the Office of Sustainability partnered with 37 other university collaborators, and 13 outside organizations. With the collaboration of these partners and the assistance of eight sponsors, SAW 2011 featured 54 campus events in six days across three UAlberta campuses, with 8,045 people engaged. Activities highlighted how individuals can make a difference when it comes to sustainability both on and off campus. Events helped UAlberta students, staff and faculty become more aware of sustainability issues, learn more about campus sustainability and develop sustainability skills of their own. SAW 2011 events included:

- A farmers’ market
- Tours of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, Devonian Botanical Garden and a Net Zero home
- A sustainability fair
- Tours of sustainable buildings and features on campus
- A Voices of Nature concert
- Free bike checks

INTERNATIONAL WEEK
http://www.iweek.ualberta.ca

International Week is a huge annual extracurricular educational event and is the largest event of its kind on a Canadian campus. International Week explores local and global challenges that are linked to various aspects of social, economic and environmental sustainability. In 2009, International Week won the Canadian Bureau of International Education's Outstanding Program Award. In 2011, 7,200 people attended over 60 events. Below are themes from the last five International Weeks:

- 2012 - Living Democracy: Citizen Power in a Global Age
- 2011 - World on the Move: Unpacking Migration
- 2010 - To Boldly Go: Charting Our Common Future
- 2009 - Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine & Frenzy
- 2008 - Addressing Global Challenges—100 Years and Beyond

SUSTAINABILITY SPEAKER SERIES
http://www.sustainability.ualberta.ca/Projects/SustainabilitySpeakerSeries.aspx

The Office of Sustainability, in collaboration with various campus and off-campus organizations, launched its Sustainability Speaker Series in October, 2011. The series features renowned leaders in sustainability and focuses on various areas, such as waste, energy, water management and leadership. For example, on November 17, 2011, Annie Leonard spoke at North Campus about her popular web film The Story of Stuff. This event had 220 on- and off-campus community members in attendance.