Day of Reflection to focus on sustainability
Apr11Written by:
4/11/2012 2:11 PM 
I hope you will join your colleagues and me at Day of Reflection on May 3
rd at Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus. This annual event allows us to gather as a College community and discuss ideas and key issues facing our organization. This year is no different. The theme of the 2012 Day of Reflection is “You + NC = A Sustainable Future”. Sustainability is a key strategic priority for Niagara College and something we’ve pledged to incorporate into all our operations.
We are very fortunate to have high-profile speaker Maude Barlow as part of our program. Barlow is a Canadian author, activist and National Chair of the Council of Canadians, a citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across the country. She is the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works internationally for the human right to water. She is also Chair of the Board of the Washington based Food & Water Watch, a founding member of the San Francisco based International Forum on Globalization and a Councillor with the Hamburg based World Future Council. In 2008-09, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly. She has authored and co-authored 17 books.
We are also pleased to have Sasha Gupta join us with a provocative story about his transformative journey in becoming a global sustainability steward. Gupta is a chemical engineer who was raised in Niagara and is currently a Global Maintenance Planner at RIM. Gupta has a keen interest in food and water sustainability and he is the author of “The Cloud that Changed” a children’s story about water with simple yet powerful metaphors that explore the notion of interdependency.
The day will also include an interesting line-up of seminars and displays and a special lunch catered by our Canadian Food and Wine Institute.
In keeping with our theme and more importantly, our goal of reducing our carbon footprint, we are asking all staff and faculty to consider alternative methods of travelling to Day of Reflection. This could include carpooling, taking a smaller vehicle, walking, biking or other environmentally friendly means of travel. The person who is deemed to have used the most creative method of travel to the Day of Reflection will receive a prize of environmentally friendly goods.
Over the next few days you will receive a link to a survey that will help us measure our organization’s carbon footprint. The information will help us learn more about our commuting habits and calculate our collective and individual carbon footprints. The information will also be shared with the Day of Reflection organizers so that attendees can recalculate their carbon footprint by taking into account the alternative method of travelling to the event. We’ll see how our efforts have reduced our footprint, offsetting our carbon emissions.
Doors open at 7:45 a.m. and the program begins at 8:30 a.m. Watch for further updates and information regarding Day of Reflection here on InsideNC. I look forward to seeing you on May 3rd.