The Third Mission of higher education entails community service. Sustainability oriented service has benefits, both for the university as well as the community being served. Students in particular have access to experiences unattainable in the classroom and are able to develop skill in bridging theory with practice. In instances, the community becomes a living laboratory for sustainability issues that span the environmental, social, and economic concerns inherent in sustainability.
What do we do?
Global service
In our case, sustainability service is delivered in communities both locally and globally. In the global context, our work is focused largely on furthering the United Nations University’s Institute for the Advanced Studies on Sustainability (UNU-IAS) programme entitled Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE). This is a global programme initiated and administered by the UNU-IAS that aspires to use ESD to transcribe global sustainability objectives into the context of the local communities in which they operate. RCEs are committed to further generating, accelerating and mainstreaming ESD by implementing the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, and contributing to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We have been involved in the creation of approximately 30 of the 175 RCEs around the world and continue with this work.
Local service
We contribute locally by partnering with York University experiential initiatives such as the SDGs Students in Action Challenge, a York International initiative, funded by the Government of Canada’s Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) where York students, drawn from all faculties, work in teams with students from other countries to address community sustainability related issues. It is a way for students and their professors to bring the intent of the SDGs into a scaled realistic, and meaningful action.
We also work in the local community by sharing our sustainability experience and expertise with local NGOs. One example is our work on the GReena Advisory Committee. GReena is a part of the Reena Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes dignity, individuality, independence, personal growth, and community inclusion for people with diverse abilities.
As members of the GReena Advisory Committee, we provide leadership and guidance to Reena initiatives focused on environmental sustainability which improves the lives of the individuals they support and the community they live in. Initiatives range from growing food to energy retrofitting and greening transportation services.