The Sustainability Living Lab Funding Program (SLLFP) is a matching fund partnership between the Sustainability Action Fund (SAF) and Concordia University’s Office of Sustainability under the VP, Services and Sustainability.
Each year $80,000 is available to support teams of students, faculty and/or staff in advancing applied projects that align with the university’s 5-year Sustainability Action Plan; it is an essential element that ties together key objectives of the Sustainability Action Plan.
The aims of this funding opportunity are to:
— Provide experiential learning through internships, classroom projects and project implementation and learning outcomes;
— Provide hands-on learning activities through leadership opportunities in event coordination & programming, workshops, employment and varied forms of engagement opportunities;
— Foster cross-disciplinary partnerships between faculty, staff and students for the purpose of utilising our campus and communities to incubate innovative solutions to sustainability challenges; and
— Empower community members to propose and implement projects that improve the sustainability of campus operations, foster community, and build thrivable new futures
SUSTAINABILITY ACTION PLAN
Eligibility criteria
In order to be eligible, SLLFP projects must meet the following criteria:
— Project team must include representation from students, faculty and/or staff
— Project must offer experiential learning opportunities to one or more students
— Project must meaningfully address at least one of the 5 streams of the Sustainability Action Plan (Sustainable Food Systems; Zero Waste; Climate Action; Sustainability in Research; Sustainability in Curriculum)
For more information or for assistance, please contact SLLFP@concordia.ca
We regret to inform our community that the Sustainability Living Lab Funding Program is paused until further notice.
Funded projects
Nature Positive Concordia
Nature Positive Concordia's flagship initiative aims to increase native perennial plants on campus and create pollinator gardens with Kanien'kéha-named Montreal species, fostering biodiversity awareness and contributing to decolonization.
Forêt Curieuse Residency Program
The CUFO Indigenous Residency initiative aims to create a welcoming environment for Indigenous and non-Indigenous creatives to expand on their practices in an adapted environment. The small-scale Landback initiative, designed by Indigenous artists and scholars, operates within the intersections of anti-colonial curriculum, sustainability and the arts.
OpenWaste.ai
A multi-year research study under Zero Waste Concordia that seeks to operationalize community-led projects that reduce and divert waste.
Chinatown Re-imagined Forum
A three-day event linking Concordia research to the re-imagining of Montreal's Chinatown for thriving Chinese communities across North America.
Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts
A year-long initiative that aims to explore sustainable alternatives to vinyl signage in museums, galleries, and other arts and cultural spaces-- starting with Concordia.
Urban Agriculture School
A free summer-long hands-on farming course for Concordia students using a hands-on, directed experiential learning approach.
mind.heart.mouth
An intergenerational garden offering a positive and innovative approach to building community care and resilience through nature-based experiential learning.
MATTEReality: Sustainable Studios
An environmentaly sustainable make-over of Concordia's ceramics studios.
Sustainable Transformations Indeterminancy Festival
An interdisciplinary research project and festival focussing on cross-cultural and sustainable practices in the Arts.
Deep Time Walk in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal
A customized walk through time narrating the history of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal through the specialized knowledge of Concordia researchers and Indigenous scholars.
Mobilizing Data for Justice: A Skills Development Workshop in Data Activism
A three-day skills development workshop for activists and critical researchers to learn methods for making sense of and engaging with data in social struggles.
Market Garden Internship Program
Paid internship for a student to work with the Concordia Farmer's Market in order to learn about our food system and complete a report for LOYC 420: Integratve Project, offered through the Loyola College
for Diversity and Sustainability.
Solvent Recovery Initiative
Designing protocols to recycle and reuse solvents in chemistry laboratories at Concordia.
EDML Library of Parts
From the Engineering Design and Manufacturing Lab, a platform and support staff facilitating the re-use of parts and materials by new student projects, at no cost.
Engaging Solarity: Taking Solar Media Mobile
Bringing speculative solar media designs to Concordia students and the general public through a series of ‘pop-up’ events in public spaces and on Concordia’s two campuses.
Land as our Teacher
A five-year research project exploring the benefits of land-based and Indigenous pedagogies for Indigenous youth and post-secondary students.
Concordia Precious Plastics Project (CP3)
A closed-loop recycling system within Concordia, re-purposing plastic waste on-site to create 3D printing filament and other items needed by the students.
To be entirely frank, the sort of practical learning that we’ve gotten to engage in during the internship has taught me [more] that I’ll be able to carry forward in life than I’ve gleaned from any of my other courses. I only wish that there were more opportunities in university to earn credits through activities like this.
-- CultivAction participant
It is sometimes scary to start a project that speaks to your values and transposes that into a vision and mission that encompass a form of activism. But I promise you that if don’t take this chance, you might never know what you could have done, how far you could have gone.
-- mind.heart.mouth team member
Contact
For questions about the Sustainability Living Lab Funding Program:
SLLFP@concordia.ca
