Sustainability Ambassadors Program invites new students to the 2025-26 cohort

The application period is open for students wishing to participate in the award-winning Sustainability Ambassadors Program?

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Since its inception, the Sustainability Ambassadors Program has set the standard for experiential learning at Concordia University, whereby students foster new skills, develop leadership experience, and build networks and projects over each 8-month period of the program.?

Every year, students from all areas of study and degree levels dedicate themselves to bringing sustainable change to Concordia by both volunteering in local initiatives and engaging in collaborative learning sessions. Here, they get creative with solving sustainability problems from a long-term, interdisciplinary approach.?

“It was really important for us that the program reflect the diversity of thought and experience that the real world has,” says Meredith Marty-Dugas, architect of the program. “Our students are able to leave the program capable of communicating with all different kinds of audiences and really valuing the perspective of their peers.”?

In 2023, this multi-stakeholder, holistic, and interdisciplinary approach caught the attention of the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN), which presented the program with the Culture Change for Sustainability Award.?

Student Autonomy?

Key to the program is the advancement of critical thinking skills and autonomy among the students.?

“We are giving [students] an open space to be able to practice sustainability, to gain the skills and experiences that they need to become the types of leaders in their communities that they want to become,” adds Marty-Dugas.?

One of the program’s primary features is completing student projects centered on environmental advocacy and direct impact.?For instance, one Sustainability Ambassador (SA) transformed a classic arcade game into Waste Invaders, designed to teach people how to sort their waste in an interactive way. Players use a joystick and 8 buttons to sort objects on screen into the right sorting. The game has found a permanent home on the 7th floor of the Henry F. Hall Building.?

Another SA saw the diverse and de-centralized landscape of sustainability groups and initiatives at Concordia and therefore designed and coded a systems-based approach to mapping Concordia’s Sustainability Ecosystem. This project was presented at the Sustainability across Disciplines conference and garnered the following recognition: a Sustainability Action Fund Research Award, the CSU Ben’s Sustainability Education Scholarship, and was a finalist for the AASHE Student Sustainability Leadership Award.?

A group of SAs formed the group Pollen Power to establish a thriving environment for native bees on the Loyola Campus. The group identified a need for data on campus native bee populations to further the project of building supportive landscapes. Pollen Power designed an interactive workshop about native pollinators and plants, while also engaging students in citizen science that produced invaluable data for Concordia’s biodiversity plan. “The Pollen Power initiative influenced a lot of what we are looking at in the biodiversity plan because it gave us data on the insects that are specifically around where our pollinator gardens are. So, we know who we have and who we don’t have, and then what plants we need to grow in order to attract what’s missing,” says Urban Agriculture & Biodiversity Coordinator Jackie Martin.?

Projects like these have lasting impacts for both the Concordia community and for the students themselves. “I feel more confident now to speak up about things that matter to me, such as sustainability and climate justice. Pretty much everything that I have experienced in the program has contributed to this change, from the sessions, and the relationships with other ambassadors, to leading a great project in campus,” reflects Diane Maldonado Bravo, a past Sustainability Ambassador.?

Sustainability Volunteer Program?

Throughout the year, SAs volunteer a little bit of time each week with program partners, from the LIVE Centre, to Cinema Politica, to Concordia’s bike workshop, Le Petit Velo Rouge. During the pilot year, Sustainability Ambassadors volunteered 1,090 hours towards learning and educating about sustainability and supporting these initiatives. The very next year, volunteer hours increased to 2,380. Out of the growth of the Ambassadors program and its partnerships came Concordia’s Sustainability Volunteer Program, which connects all students who are looking for more casual engagement with sustainability to opportunities across campus. Students wishing to participate can do so at any time and enjoy benefits such as recognition on co-curricular record for your volunteer hours, a virtual certificate recognizing time spent volunteering (for 25+ hours), and early-bird offers to sustainability events and opportunities.?

Sustainability at Concordia has historically been grassroots and de-centralized, and the Sustainability Ambassadors Program has been a meaningful way to create mutualistic pathways between these initiatives and groups, all the while creating an invaluable experience for students to create a lasting impact on the university.?

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Apply to be part of the 2025-26 cohort of Sustainability Ambassadors.?

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