As a residence advisor, I often have the opportunity to host events for my community. After attending the UBC sustainability fair and chatting with so many different student groups about sustainability on campus, I realized I wanted to host my own sustainability fair for my residents! The purpose of the event was to increase awareness about on-campus sustainability initiatives, and connect residents that are passionate about sustainability to each other.

I was lucky to have some teammates helping and attending the program- here are some of my buddies at the event!

There were a few different components of the event. First, we invited different UBC sustainability groups to the event, including the following groups:

-UBC Zero Waste Squad,

-UBC Sustainability Ambassadors,

-Engineers Without Borders,

-Dive Into UBC,

-Sprouts, and

-Fly at Risk.

Each of the organizations set up a booth with more information about what they do. I’m excited to share a bit about each group! The UBC Zero Waste Squad is a group of students that attend UBC events and help with sorting waste. We’ve met the Sustainability Ambassadors and Engineers Without Borders before- they work on different projects at UBC (see previous posts for more info!) Dive Into UBC is a UBC arts and culture group that showcases and sells local artwork- it’s sustainable because the art couldn’t get more local! Everything they sell come from students at UBC. Sprouts is an on-campus organization that makes “local, organic, and fair-trade foods accessible to the UBC community”. The group delivers Sprouts Boxes (boxes of local veggies), and runs Sprouts and Seedlings (two awesome cafés on campus with cheap, healthy, veggie foods! Fly at Risk is actually a local tie company run by a Sauder alumni. The company is committed to zero waste production, and donates proceeds to the Clean Clothes Campaign (a socially sustainable organization that advocates for garment workers).

We also organized a mini “thrift store”- we collected residents’ old clothing items, and then gave them away for free at the event in order to promote a closed-loop cycle in residence- why buy something new when you can grab someone else’s older, lightly used, cute clothing item?

I actually saw one of my residents grab one of my old tank tops, and she told me she was going to wear it out over the weekend! It was a top I never wear, so I was very happy to see someone else excited about it.

I think this is the event I’m most proud of organizing through all of my work in Residence Life (and I’ve been in Residence Life for three years!) The whole event ran smoothly, looked good, and there were even plant-based, zero-waste snacks for folks to munch on. I think I also enjoyed the event because it meant something- the program was spreading awareness about sustainability initiatives on campus and celebrating the amazing people and their work at UBC. I am constantly blown away by the passionate folks working hard around me.

I am also super proud that I get to do work like this in Residence Life and at UBC- when I have an idea or something I’m passionate about- I just get to run with it and make it happen! That’s what happened with this event- I got to collaborate with other people passionate about sustainability, and bring a bit of the sustainability world into my world in residence.

Also, lastly, I was impressed by how well the “thrift store” worked out- and am SO EXCITED that UBC will be getting its own, permanent thrift store soon. I think this will be an amazing way to reduce waste and UBC and make clothes last just a bit longer. Plus- who doesn’t appreciate a good thrifting find? I know I’ll be stopping by the thrift store once it opens up.