By Kade Steffen – Contributor

It’s been a busy month for the Sustainable Development (SD) Office! This summer, the two new sustainable development summer interns, Kade Steffen and Charles Beaudet, worked on many different projects to engage Bishop’s University in social and environmental sustainability. 

The office added many new pollinator zones on campus, planted with native milkweed and annual and biennial wildflowers. These zones represent areas that foster pollination, the fertilization of plants through insects. This fall, more native perennial trees and shrubs will be added so that the zones can become self-sufficient, respecting native biodiversity on campus. These new pollinator zones have been a hit not only with humans on campus but also with the newest buzzing members of the Bishop’s community. 

This summer saw the building and installment of two new beehives and bee colonies. Under the guidance of Jesse Dymond, beekeeper and campus chaplain, the sustainable development interns have been monitoring and taking care of these busy fellows. This coming school year will hopefully see more opportunities for interested students and staff to take part in educational activities, honey spinning and hive maintenance as part of the Bishop’s Bees club.

The office also collaborated this summer with the ArtLab summer camp for kids. Students Kade Steffen and Fréderique LeBlanc-Piette planned and guided an activity each week, combining art, sustainability and environmental education into Waldorf philosophy-informed projects – an educational style that focuses on creativity and imagination to develop pupils’ intellectual, artistic and practical skills. Some activities included creating wildflower bouquets while learning about honorable harvest and responsible foraging practices, and making DIY self-watering planters out of upcycled plastic bottles. 

Another surprising project this summer consisted of repurposing thousands of dollars worth of construction materials. Pomerleau, a construction company in Montreal, rented facilities on Bishop’s campus in July for a weekend team-building boot camp. Many of their fitness and teamwork challenges required construction. Charles Beaudet, SD Office intern, took the lead in managing material distribution, ensuring that as much material as possible could be repurposed and diverted from the landfill.

People on campus may also have noticed the big black plastic tarps laid on the grass near the Peter Curie Marsh. This site will be home to Bishop’s very own community garden, full of garden plots for lease to students and staff. More details to come this fall!

Another project that interns have been working on since the end of the last winter semester is sorting through donated used items. At the end of the semester, a room was set up in the temporary trailers next to the SportsPlex where students leaving residences could donate anything they couldn’t take with them. We had a flood of over one hundred bags and boxes of bedding, food, school supplies, clothing, dorm decorations and more! The SD Office interns spent dozens of hours sorting and distributing donations to various organizations around campus, which included winter clothing essentials for incoming international students, food donations and menstrual products for the community cupboard, art supplies for BUnited and bedding packages for new incoming students. All requested items have found a new life around campus! Donations not requested by campus organizations or departments are being cleaned and prepared to be sold at a special campus thrift store during orientation week.

All of these projects are just the tip of the iceberg. Keep an eye out for what the SD Office has in store for the fall!