April 15, 2013

A team of Camosun students recently took first-place in a Capital Regional District climate change learning competition, “Ready, Set, Solve.”

The annual contest hosted by the CRD challenges post-secondary students from Camosun, the University of Victoria and Royal Roads to develop creative, innovative approaches to solving real-world problems. This year 18 teams participated; nine included students from Camosun.

The winning Camosun students Jessica Shamek, Oliver Terry, Jane Patterson, Ashley and David Bronaugh created an inventory and map of bicycle parking facilities and amenities in the Town of Esquimalt. The group found a total of 4.56 kilometres of bike lanes, 42 bike racks, 124 signs and road surface stencils referring to cycling and 303 bike parking spots in the municipality.

Esquimalt’s Sustainability Co-ordinator Marlene Lago said the students’ findings will provide the municipality with a starting point for deciding how to improve its cycling infrastructure including the best locations to place bike racks for access to businesses.

Fourth place went to the Camosun team of Sarein Basi-Primeau, Kirsten Hundza, Yannick Neufeld-Cumming, and Goldie Rich who designed tools to educate and inform the college community on how to reduce waste. Camosun’s Facilities Services and the Office of Environmental Sustainability will be taking this team’s recommendations to improve waste diversion rates at the college.

Other Camosun teams helped map local ecologically sensitive lands, developed strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, created an education program on how climate change affects oceans, developed social media strategies to promote Earth Week, and more. Marina Jaffey’s marketing and communications class helped create the marketing and promotions plan for the entire event.

“Congratulations and a huge thank you to all the students who dedicated their time to this valuable initiative to help solve real environmental challenges,” said Maria Bremner, Camosun’s Manager of Environmental Sustainability.

More information on the Ready, Set, Solve projects is available at: www.crd.bc.ca/readysetsolve

Contact

Maria Bremner
Manager, Office of Environmental Sustainability
Ancillary Services
Camosun College
bremnerm@camosun.bc.ca