NC, the time for action is now.
The 2024-2029 Sustainability Plan: A Time for Action is our bold approach to shape a sustainable, inclusive, and healthy campus community for today and generations of Knights to come. Sustainability – in words and in actions – will guide organization-wide planning, promote a culture of consciousness, and deepen Niagara College’s commitment to environmental stewardship.
Social inclusion and environmental sustainability have been strategic priorities since 2009. This plan aligns with our current Strategic Plan and directly supports the goals of this key area of focus.
Niagara is rich with nature’s abundance, and we have the good fortune to live and learn in this amazing place on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples. But life as we know it is being threatened by the climate crisis. We see and feel it happening all around us: record-breaking temperatures, ice melting, water rising, volatile weather, and biodiversity loss. The impacts are felt as Niagara’s climate becomes warmer, wetter, and more intense, examples of which are challenging our wine and agriculture industries.
Rooted in an equitable, socially-engaged approach, NC’s Sustainability Plan represents our shared values and collective responsibility. As students and employees, it is a roadmap of steps we can all take to be accountable for our actions and better stewards of our community and our world.
Our distinct ecological and geographic locations in Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake make our campuses living laboratories – ideal places for students to learn about sustainable development. As a place of higher learning and as educators of the next generation of changemakers, NC has a responsibility to model sustainable practices and to instill its importance in every field of study, so our graduates are equipped to sow the seeds of change for a prosperous future for all.
I am proud of the work we have done to date as a leader in advancing sustainability in positive and meaningful ways. Please join me in our continued commitment to this work, which recognizes that the sustainable practices we carry out today have a transformational global impact now and well into the future.
While our school colours might be blue and white… we are so very much green.
NCSAC, in partnership with Niagara College, is taking steps in the right direction every day to engage, and more importantly, educate, the Niagara College community about Sustainability. Not only are we doing so on campus, but also throughout the region, across the country, and around the world. NCSAC is glad to help lead the Student Sustainability Action Committee, and to bring the student voices to the table.
NC students have a sense of pride in the fact their academic institution is focused on good sustainability practices and is working towards making a better future for everyone. The collaboration between NC Sustainability and NCSAC is outstanding. We have created this incredible open space to exchange ideas, be transparent and make decisions together with student input.
This partnership ensures that when we have events or activities on campus, we are connecting them directly to the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a wonderful way to spread awareness and education about all the small ways we can support sustainability initiatives on campus.
As students at this incredible college, we are very fortunate to have campuses surrounded by some of the most biodiverse areas of the Niagara Region! The newly created Niagara College Sustainability Plan will help us ensure that we are not impacting these areas, but rather supporting them for years to come.
On behalf of the Niagara College Student Administrative Council, I welcome all students and staff to not only read the Sustainability Plan but incorporate it into your daily lives too!