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September 2014 Project Listings
- Education
- Energy
- Green Space
- Health & Wellbeing
- Transportation
- Waste
- Water
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campus Sustainability Day 2013 | Promotion, education and community engagement are important aspects to developing a culture of sustainability. Students interested in this aspect of sustainability have the opportunity to plan and host McMaster’s 2013 Campus Sustainability Day celebration, which takes place on Thursday October 17. Students will have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of individuals, groups and organizations across campus and within the community to host an event that will educate and engage people in many areas of sustainability. The goal will be to highlight various and diverse aspects of sustainability in a way that is informative and exciting. Students are encouraged to create a communications plan, to engage in community consultation to determine aspects that will encourage people to attend, to ensure that the event highlights diverse aspects of sustainability. Additionally, students may choose to host a follow-up survey to evaluate their success and make recommendations for future improvement. | Zeinab Rahal |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Campus Beekeeping Initiative | Established in the spring of 2012, The McMaster Campus Beekeeping Initiative has rapidly developed from idea to implementation in under eight months. With this rapid growth comes the need for promotion and education back to the community who has supported its development. The goal of this project is to create an educational communications campaign and strategy that will engage members of the university and broader community to take part in this initiative. Educational topics may include: basics of honeybee biology, biodiversity, pollinators, and the decline of health in honeybee populations. The educational communications strategy may include the following components: designing posters and pamphlets, creating an online presence, as well as developing and assisting with workshops. | Brandi Lee MacDonald |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Sustainability Education Outreach | Students will have the opportunity to work with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) McMaster chapter to develop an outreach program for grade 12 students to teach grade 9 students about sustainability. Topics may include water quality, food production and energy conservation. | Tommy Lee tommyleecy@gmail.com |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Small Scale Organic Farming | The goal of this project is to research best practices/models for small scale organic farming and develop metrics for assessing the sustainability of a small farm, focusing especially on water use, nutrient recycling, inputs and outputs, and valuation of ecological services such as carbon storage and water etc. Students may choose to test out their metrics at Common Ground Farm. Additionally, students have the opportunity to research possibilities for marketing this data so that sustainability conscious consumers can witness their effects. | Michael Mikulak michaelmikulak@yahoo.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Cultural Heritage Project | The goal of this project is to organize neighbourhood associations to review the City’s list of 6,000 potentially significant heritage properties using an evaluation criteria (almost) completed by the City, for which training will be provided. Involvement in this project could occur in McMaster’s backyard of Ainslie Wood - Westdale or other neighbourhoods within the City of Hamilton. The benefit will be to identify properties for placement on the Register, allowing 60 days of protection should a demolition permit be applied for a property; at which time the property will be considered for designation, the info for that having been compiled by the citizens. | Brian McHattie
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Sustain 3A03 |
| Social Enterprise Business Plan | Social Entrepreneurs create businesses to solve social and environmental problems. Working with Atman Capital Research, students will have the opportunity to develop a social enterprise business plan to address a sustainability problem. Possible initiatives may include entering the plan in an appropriate business plan competition. Perhaps you'll decide start the business for real like these guys did: http://www.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6575 | Ryan Nelson ryanscottnelson@gmail.com |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Social Impact Bond | Social Impact Bonds are a promising new tool to fund public interest projects without up-front payment from Governments. Working with Atman Capital Research, students have the opportunity to learn all about the Social Impact Bond. Students may choose to identify prepare and present an application for a Social Impact Bond to address a local sustainability issue For more on SIBs see: http://socialfinance.ca/social-impact-bonds http://www.socialfinance.org.uk/resources/social-finance/technical-guide-developing-social-impact-bond |
Ryan Nelson ryanscottnelson@gmail.com |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fumehood Education Program | This project will provide opportunity for students to become involved in the investigation of improved Fumehood operation and efficiency, which is currently underway at McMaster. Students may conduct research on fumehoods to identify why they are energy intensive, how they are not being used most effectively by individuals conducting lab research and could provide solutions for these inefficiencies. This project might entail metering to obtain energy usage data and identifying costs associated. Design and implementation of an improvement plan may be conducted to engage users of fumehoods, including, but not limited to, creating resources for students (i.e. fumehood orientation guide) and educational challenges. Metering to identify improvement as a result of engagement could be conducted and best practices reported. The above description outlines one possible avenue to provide feedback on a process for improving the responsible operation of fumehoods by staff and students on campus with a focus on sustainability. Innovative ideas to achieve the desired outcome are welcome and encouraged. | Joe Emberson Mohamed Attalla |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Build a Clay Oven | Traditional clay ovens are a marvel of efficiency, utilizing locally found materials and thermal mass, they can produce amazing results with very little wood. Students can research different designs and from their research, create their own new and innovative design. The challenge to students is to then build and utilize their oven to cook a meal for them and their group. | Michael Mikulak michaelmikulak@yahoo.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growing the Garden | Students will have the opportunity to prepare the McMaster Teaching & Community Garden for this fall and next spring. Students may choose to take part in the following activities:
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Chad Harvey harvech@mcmaster.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Garden Curriculum Design | Working with Common Ground Farm or the McMaster Teaching & Community Garden, interested students will be able to design a curriculum for a teaching garden geared towards a specific population. Possible topics could include composting, urban permaculture, raised bed construction. Students are encouraged to identify possible sites and develop a project proposal that can be pitched to a community group, school etc. Students will have support to develop and submit a grant to fund this project within the community. Students may choose to also share the knowledge they gain by hosting a pilot workshop. | Michael Mikulak michaelmikulak@yahoo.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Coordinating Small Scale Agriculture | One of the problems faced by small-scale farmers is creating data systems that allow them to track and record a wide variety of information about the farm. Sustainable farming requires that farmers know their land deeply, tracking everything from yields and inputs, to weather, seed variety, germination, disease susceptibility etc. Working with Common Ground farm, students have the opportunity to design a database system that can be used to record, track, and graphically display this data in ways that will help farmers make decisions. | Michael Mikulak michaelmikulak@yahoo.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting your Greens | Students have the opportunity to work with MacFarmstand to prepare educational resources to teach members of the McMaster and broader community about healthy food options and meal preparation using items from local sources. Students are encouraged to focus on the use of food items that are seasonally available. Students may choose to create an online resource, author a cookbook or host a workshop covering topics such as nutrition, culinary techniques, food storage and/or managing healthy meals on a student budget. | Andrew Kamphuis & Jordan Weisz |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Transforming Canada's Food System - Simulations for Policy Innovation | The Social Innovation Simulation and Modelling Team at the University of Waterloo is creating models of different parts of Canada's food system that people can 'play through' to brainstorm and test out policy changes. Students could contribute to this awesome initiative through qualitative or quantitative projects. If you care about open data, geek out over large-scale data visualization, love sim games, and frequently find yourself wondering how your research can make the world a better place, come and join us. | Brianna Smrke smrkebm@mcmaster.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
Bike Racks at McMaster |
McMaster will be installing 10 new bike racks this fall, and another 10 racks in the fall of 2014. Through research and community consultation, tell McMaster where the 2014 racks should go and what they should look like. Research and communicate the impact that cycling infrastructure has on commuter mode choice. If interested, students will have the opportunity to take part in the formal procurement, ordering and creation of the implementation plan. Students engaged in cycling and transportation planning can expect an enjoyable, challenging and rich learning experience. | Carlos Figueira Terry Sullivan |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Hub & Spoke Food Aggregation & Distribution Hub | One of the key issues many farmers and businesses face in provisioning local food is storage capacity. Without a storage and distribution system it becomes difficult to connect local businesses with growers during harvest time. THAAT* is looking to create a one-of-a-kind distribution system that utilizes cargo bicycles to connect local farmers with local businesses and consumers. Interested students will have the opportunity to assist in the research, development, design and implementation of this system. Possible areas for involvement: design and implementation of a (multi) hub-based logistics system. Grant writing, reaching out to local farmers and businesses, market research, developing an efficient logistics system/database, researching designs for walk-in coolers, building said cooler, and/or calculating the total carbon savings of the project. *The Hammer Active Alternative Transportation |
Abram Bergen abram@thaat.coop |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Bike-based Bike Share Logistics | Hamilton is interested in implementing a bike share service such as Bixi. While this is a fantastic service with many benefits to the environment, one area that could use improvement is the movement of the bikes back between locations or to the shop for maintenance. Currently this is accomplished with a pickup truck. THAAT* Co-op believes this redistribution of bikes could be accomplished using human-powered or electric-assist cargo bikes and trailers capable of hauling 6 - 8 bikes at a time. Students interested in finding a viable and sustainable solution to improve the movement of bikes may choose to engage in one or more of the following: research existing cargo bikes and trailers that might be adapted to this purpose, or design such a bike and/or trailer yourself, develop a business and marketing plan that will be proposed to Bixi and the City of Hamilton. |
Abram Bergen abram@thaat.coop |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electronics Collection, Reuse and Recycle | Ever wonder where you outdated and/or unwanted Electronics go at the end of their useful life? This is one of the possible options. McMaster takes part in the Ontario Electronics Stewardship Program to ensure that electronic waste is properly recycled. Each year, as part of McMaster’s Campus Sustainability Day celebration, the Office of Sustainability hosts an event to encourage electronics reuse and recycling. Interested students are encouraged to take part in this event by promoting this opportunity to members of the McMaster and broader community and providing education to highlight the importance of recycling. Students are encouraged to calculate and then communicate the social, economic and environmental impact they achieve through this initiative. For example, how many people took part? How much waste is diverted? How much money is saved? | Ryan Dear niagaraewaste@gmail.com |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Engage with Waste | Students will work Graduate Students Melissa Gallina and Janelle Trant and Undergraduate Student Jeff Chan as part of the GUCEL Program to increase waste diversion on campus. Students may choose to focus on increasing the availability of composting in select campus buildings through promotion, education, community consultation and infrastructure improvements. Learn more about Janelle and Jeff’s waste reduction initiative as well as the GUCEL Program here: http://graduate.mcmaster.ca/thespice/gucel/ *GUCEL: Graduate/Undergraduate Collaboration in Experiential Learning |
Janelle Trant trantjs@mcmaster.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| 3D Unprinter | 3D printing, or rapid prototyping, has been very hot in the technology field in the last decade. Whispers that we are on the verge of a new industrial revolution have been growing in volume. A perfect 3D printer needs only two things to manufacture any object: feedstock and electricity. While sustainable power is being investigated by many eyes, few are tackling the question of how can we get the "ink" of 3D printers (thermoplastic powder, pellets or powder) in the hands of people cheaply and sustainably. In principle, you should be able to turn broken or unused objects made by a 3D printer back into this feedstock the same way you made the object: by melting it down, and converting to the shape you want. The details of how to do this are likely where the fun will be. | Ben Keller kellerbw@mcmaster.ca |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Compost System Design and Build | Nutrient recycling is fundamentally important for the success of local agriculture, and is one of the ways to make farming more sustainable. It helps add organic matter to the soil and reduces the need for off-site inputs. However, it can also be quite labour intensive to create a good compost system. Students have the opportunity to research best practices of different composting systems, to then design and build a composter that reduces farm labour by automating some aspect of the aeration process. The goal is to create a system that can, as quickly as possible, return nutrients to the land. | Michael Mikulak |
Sustain 3A03 |
| Project Title | Description | Contact | Applicable Course(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Grey Water Filtration System | Students have the opportunity to research, design, and implement a grey water diversion system for Common Ground Farm that utilizes plants to filter grey water. The project goal is to develop a system that will filter grey water using little or no energy (gravity fed) and utilizing only natural plants. As part of this project, students may choose to:
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Michael Mikulak |
Sustain 3A03 |
