The Third Mission of higher education entails community service. Sustainability oriented service has benefits, both for the university as well as the community being served. Students in particular have access to experiences unattainable in the classroom and are able to develop skill in bridging theory with practice. In instances, the community becomes a living laboratory for sustainability issues that span the environmental, social, and economic concerns inherent in sustainability.
What do we do?
Global service
In our case, sustainability service is delivered in communities both locally and globally. In the global context, our work is focused largely on furthering the United Nations University鈥檚 Institute for the Advanced Studies on Sustainability (UNU-IAS) programme entitled (RCE). This is a global programme initiated and administered by the UNU-IAS that aspires to use ESD to transcribe global sustainability objectives into the context of the local communities in which they operate. RCEs are committed to further generating, accelerating and mainstreaming ESD by implementing the聽, and contributing to the realization of the聽. We have been involved in the creation of approximately 30 of the 175 RCEs around the world and continue with this work.
Local service
We contribute locally by partnering with 91亚色 experiential initiatives such as the , a 91亚色 International initiative, funded by the Government of Canada鈥檚 Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) where 91亚色 students, drawn from all faculties, work in teams with students from other countries to address community sustainability related issues. It is a way for students and their professors to bring the intent of the SDGs into a scaled realistic, and meaningful action.
We also work in the local community by sharing our sustainability experience and expertise with local NGOs. One example is our work on the Advisory Committee. GReena is a part of the , a non-profit organization聽that promotes dignity, individuality, independence, personal growth, and community inclusion for people with diverse abilities.
As members of the GReena Advisory Committee, we provide leadership and guidance to Reena initiatives focused on environmental sustainability which improves the lives of the individuals they support and the community they live in. Initiatives range from growing food to energy retrofitting and greening transportation services.