YC Celebrates Earth Day

April 21, 2010

Whitehorse – Students and staff at Yukon College will be commemorating Earth Day by holding green activities at the various 12 community campuses across the territory. Activities will take place at the Whitehorse campus and span as far as the remote campus located in Old Crow. The following are some of the activities that will take place on Thursday, April 22:

 

Ayamdigut Main Campus, Whitehorse:

·         Bookstore bans the purchase of bottled water for the day and promotes the sale of water bottles

·         A lunch-hour litter pick-up

·         The 2007 documentary film, “The 11th Hour” with Leonardo DiCaprio shows in the College Pit at noon

·         Cafeteria serves a relatively local-vore and vegetarian lunch special

Tr’Odek Hatr’Unohtan Zho Campus, Dawson  City:

·         An environmental movie

·         In partnership with the city, a greenhouse workshop, a seed exchange, sun salutations, a commuter challenge, a guided bird hike, and a bicycle maintenance workshop

Alice Frost Campus, Old Crow:

·         A community clean up – but the catch is when the snow disappears

 

The Earth Day activities are a small gesture to recognize the larger efforts and accomplishments that the collective staff and students at the College have made towards sustaining the environment over the past year. Such accomplishments include:

 

     
  • Whitehorse Ayamdigut     campus:

o        In partnership with Whitehorse City’s Raven Recycling program, a waste diversion program which diverts the College’s 200 carts of compost and 5120 carts of paper per year from the landfill. Approximately 900 staff and students use the Ayamdigut campus.

o       Soil will be turning this spring to start the first College community garden

 

     
  • The Yukon College     Northern Research Institute of Excellence (NRI) conducts a School-for-Change-Challenge     at Yukon    schools via the Climate Change North website. NRI delivers programming in     schools and teachers post their students’ work on the “student exchange”    portion of the website. http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/O1_Acknowledgements.html

Three prizes will be awarded on April 22, 2010 to teachers who represent some of the 800 elementary students who participated in the program.

 

     
  • The Dawson Climate     Change Adaptation Project,  Yukon     College Northern Climate Exchange initiatives:
           
    • Electric Vehicle: Development     and construction of the conversion of an old compact pick up truck to     electricity. This vehicle is used to collect compost and recyclables in Dawson City.
      •      
    • Community Greenhouse     and Cold Storage project: This aims to increase the amount of locally     grown food produced and consumed in Dawson City.   
      •      
    • Sustainable fishing: In     partnership with the Yukon River Panel, the project develops a     sustainable fishing plan and sustainable fishing practices regulations.
      •  

 

     
  • Tr’Odek Hatr’unohtan     Zho Campus, Dawson    City:
           
    • Organized the first Dawson     Christmas Bird Count in 2009 and participate in Plant Watch each year.
      •      
    • Hosted, in     partnership with Dawson      City and Conservation     Klondike Society, the First Annual Climate and Energy conference.  
      •      
    • Assisted scientists     in setting up permafrost monitoring stations in and around town.
      •      
    • Will be developing,    with a Y2C2 green team, a set of permafrost display panels that will     include a real time display of subterranean temperatures.
      •      
    • Practises and     educates on recycling and has an active worm bin and composting program.
      •  

 

     
  • Yukon College Klondike     Institute Of Art &      Culture School    of Visual Arts
           
    • Art students     scavenged metal objects such as old washing machine parts, hubcaps,    bicycle gears, and ironing boards from the Dawson landfill site. An industrial     Vibrator Compactor flattened the objects which then became unique     printing presses.
      •  

 

     
  • Alice Frost     Community Campus, Old Crow, without road access, values its minimal     resources and practices sustainable measures such as printing on both     sides of the paper, practices and educates recycling programs and stores     materials until it can be sent out, and uses ceramic cups to reduce the     use of paper cups.
     



Contact:

Ann Bowen

Yukon College Relations

Coordinator

867 668 8786

abowen@yukoncollege.yk.ca