Community Partners

Queen's University Alma Mater Society (AMS)

The non-profit Alma Mater Society (AMS) has represented students at Queen's University for more than 150 years. Currently, the AMS serves an estimated 14,200 students at the university. Students obtain access to AMS opportunities and services upon payment of student activity fees. In addition to providing student services, the AMS runs six government commissions, including the Commission of the Environment and Sustainability (CES), which supports sustainable initiatives and a culture of sustainability on campus.

Community Actions

Action	Target	Status	Themes
Bike Shop The Bike Shop provides a centre for bike safety, security and maintenance to promote carbon-free alternative transport and healthy lifestyles by providing students with an outlet that actively encourages community support and enthusiasm for active, pollution-free transportation.	To increase knowledge regarding bike maintenance skills, to monitor local bike theft in an effort to reduce bike theft, and the promotion of social, environmental and economic sustainability.	Ongoing	Primary theme: EC4 All themes by pillar Cultural: CU3 Economic: EC4 Social: SO5
Cross Campus Environmental Forums The CES hosts bi-weekly Environmental Forums, bringing together sustainability-related groups on campus and in the Kingston community. These informal meetings aim to foster collaboration between environmental groups, creating a space to share ideas, partner on initiatives, and meet new people who are passionate about environmental issues.	Increase attendance at the Cross Campus Environmental Forums to 40 people.	Ongoing	Primary theme: CU3 All themes by pillar Cultural: CU3 Social: SO1
Sustainability Assessment Team The Sustainability Assessment Team will be dedicated to evaluating the sustainability of events hosted by the Alma Mater Society. With their sustainable events checklist, they will drop in on events and see what sustainable practices are being employed and more importantly, where there is room for improvement. By the end of the year, the CES will have an idea of the greatest sustainable issues facing the AMS.	To complete 20 event assessments.	Ongoing	Primary theme: EN1 All themes by pillar Cultural: CU3 Environmental: EN1 Social: SO1
STRIVE (Students Taking Responsible Initiatives for a Viable Environment) STRIVE is an entirely student-run committee that focuses on awareness and advocacy on environmental issues. The committee encourages students to adopt positive attitudinal and behavioural changes through sustainability-related educational campaigns on campus. The committee generally selects two environmental issues per year on which to base their major campaigns, incorporating educational components, workshops, and guest speaker events.	Host a conference and run three environmental education campaigns.	Ongoing	Primary theme: SO1 All themes by pillar Cultural: CU3 Environmental: EN1 Social: SO1
Greenovations Greenovations began in 2007 as a project to offset the carbon emissions generated by student travel through Destinations (now Tricolour Outlet) by completing free energy-saving retrofits on homes in the student village. The committee has since expanded to hosting retrofit workshops and providing home retrofit kits to students. This initiative encompasses all pillars of sustainability: the retrofits have environmental benefits with reduced energy consumption, economic benefits with lowered utility bills, and social benefits through the provision of information on energy use and urban sustainability to students.	Complete 12 retrofits on houses in the University District and host two bulb exchanges.	Ongoing	Primary theme: EN1 All themes by pillar Environmental: EN1 Social: SO1
Youth Mentoring Youth Youth Mentoring Youth will see, host, engage and mentor students in grades 4-8 in the Limestone and Algonquin school systems. Using 5 display stations, the visiting class will split into equal groups and rotate to each hosted station. The objective is to foster behavioural change via the students then influencing their families and peers to take action in the journey to sustainable practives in the management of energy, water, waste, transportation and food.	Educate 500 elementary school children.	Annual Program	Primary theme: SO1 All themes by pillar Environmental: EN1 EN2 EN3 Social: SO1