Campus Ecochallenge
The Drawdown Campus Ecochallenge is a customizable, solutions-oriented engagement program focused on lessening our impact on the earth.
UFV’s Office of Sustainability created a team to challenge UFV students & employees to create sustainable daily habits. With categories such as food, water, waste, nature, community, and more, the actions are designed to help build habits that are good for participants, their community, and the environment.
Ecochallenge impact
The activities undertaken during the Ecochallenge:
- reduced CO2 emission by 162 pounds,
- saved 4,000 gallons of water were saved
- kept 163 plastic bottles and 72 disposable cups out of landfills,
- got people outdoors for 7,111 minutes
- and engaged people in 1,625 minutes of learning about sustainability topics.
Plastic-free July
Plastic Free July is a global initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation that began in 2011. Every July, citizens, businesses and governments come together in their efforts to create a social change movement in taking action to reduce plastic waste worldwide.
The solutions that come from this annual initiative inspire change for people and businesses not only for the month of July, but every day. It’s important to remember that these changes can start small, and work towards something bigger!
To help UFV members get started, each week of July the Office of Sustainability shared tips and ideas for how people can easily incorporate some plastic-free habits into their everyday life. Those were then compiled into a digital guide on some easy plastic-free sustainable swaps that help make in different areas of life including laundry, kitchen, hygiene, and cleaning.
Sustainable holiday market
Our holiday market offers a sustainable shopping alternative that supports local small businesses, vendors, and artists while allowing students, employees, and community members to get ahead on their holiday shopping! From handcrafted goods to locally sourced treasures, discover unique gifts that reflect our values and support our community.
Join us in November for a festive atmosphere filled with live music, and the warmth of community spirit. Bring your items to our sustainable gift-wrapping station to spark creativity and reduce the environmental impact of your gifts. Together, let’s shop with purpose and spread joy!
Sustainable wrapping event
To encourage more environmentally-minded wrapping practices, the Office of Sustainability hosted a workshop for attendees to learn and practice more sustainable options. Participants were encouraged to bring in old t-shirts, tea towels, tote bags, and scarves and were shown how to wrap gifts using the Japanese wrapping technique called Furoshiki. Participants also learned how to sew gift bags that can be reused each season and were provided fresh greenery, pinecones, and dehydrated oranges to create nature-based gift wrap décor.
UFV Sweater Week
To raise awareness about energy consumption and climate change, UFV reduced temperatures by 2°C campus-wide for one week. Instead of burning our usual amount of natural gas, we reduced temperatures and bundled up in sweaters for the week. We were able to conserve energy and have a little fun along the way with Sweater Week! The Office of Sustainability posted daily sweater themes along with educational energy-saving tips, and interactive surveys for how we can each make a difference individually. By reducing the temperature, heating equipment malfunctions were identified and corrected to reduce energy consumption and prolong the life of the equipment.
Planting Seeds for Tomorrow
Aimed at addressing and combating food insecurity for UFV students while also teaching valuable, life-long skills through gardening, the Planting Seeds for Tomorrow project provided free sustainable at-home garden kits and video tutorials to allow participants to learn how to grow food at home. Further, most of the supplies were upcycled items which reduced the amount of waste produced and thrown away.