Several Canadian university student governments have adopted sustainability policies, and the AMS will soon their ranks.
After a year of calls to create a sustainability policy, the AMS revealed it’s a priority for the 2024-25 school year. Commissioner of Environmental Sustainability Anne Fu reported an update to AMS Assembly on Sept. 24 about the Commission of Environmental Sustainability’s (CES) sustainability policy currently in development. This initiative was previously highlighted as a priority in the CES’s goal plan this year. In a statement to The Journal, Fu explained the importance of working and consulting with Indigenous groups to create this policy.
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“We hope to engage with Indigenous groups and leaders on campus, given the crucial role Indigenous communities have played, past and present, in conserving the environment and combatting the environmental destruction enabled by colonialism,” Fu wrote.
In the latest Assembly report, Fu shared they’ve created a first draft of the policy, and it’s been shared with several service head managers and permanent staff for . CES hopes to consult more groups including heads of faculties and general AMS and complete consultations by the end of the fall semester. Fu said the CES is aiming to consult faculty societies and general AMS after fall consultations finish.
“The AMS is an organization that has great influence on campus and oversees lots of resources, and so it only makes sense that we should have a policy that ensures we use those resources responsibly,” Fu wrote.
Fu stated the policy will create guidelines internally in the AMS to help influence decisions on issues of sustainability in the student government and its services.
This year, the CES is working on various goals, including the creation of a sustainability award to recognize students for improving sustainability, further collaboration with Indigenous students and leaders on campus to create this policy, and a garden development in Nicol Hall. According to Fu, the sustainability award is expected to take up one per cent of CES’s budget this year with the commission having a budget of over $87,000 total.
CES hosted a Sustainability Hub this year which is an environmental fair that hosts local businesses, clubs, activists and representatives from student and municipal governments to learn more about living an environmentally conscious lifestyle.
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