Join a national movement committed to sustainability and climate action!
CICan’s ImpAct-Climate Challenge unites the college and institute community in addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Climate Action. It incorporates Indigenous knowledge, raises awareness of greenhouse gases, and inspires behaviour change.
Integrating the challenge into your courses can enhance academic learning, build a sustainability mindset, and provides students with meaningful ways to make a difference.
93% of past participants said they learned new insights from the challenge and 98% felt inspired to implement sustainable practices in their daily lives!
How does the challenge work?
Engagement period:
The challenge runs over six weeks, with each week dedicated to different sustainability themes: intro to climate change, energy, food, transportation, and waste. Each week includes educational content, a quiz, and a challenge.
Content:
Participants receive weekly content with an educational overview, key facts, myth busting, practical strategies for reducing emissions, and inspiration from eco-initiatives across Canadian campuses. Indigenous perspectives are woven throughout. Each week includes a quiz consisting of 3-4 true/false questions to test their knowledge of the theme.
Challenge:
Participants are asked to commit to a small but meaningful action to increase their awareness and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, such as using a carbon footprint calculator, eating more plant-based meals, or going zero-plastic for the week.
Time commitment:
It takes about 15 minutes to review the educational content and complete the quiz each week.
Recognition:
Participants who complete all the content can be recognized with a badge for their LinkedIn profiles, showcasing their commitment to environmental stewardship and enhancing their professional profiles.
Interested in running the challenge? It will soon be released as an Open Educational Resource. Stay informed and be the first to know when it becomes available by subscribing to our mailing list.
Ideas for course integration
Thematic assignments
Align coursework and projects with the challenge themes.
Credit for participation
Encourage students to participate by offering course credit or extra credit for active involvement in the challenge.
Reflective projects
Use the challenge as a basis for essays or projects that reflect on climate change.
Case study
Confederation College
Brett Sharman, a Confederation College business instructor, successfully integrated the challenge into his Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability course. Students gained participation marks by engaging in the weekly challenges and writing reflections on what they learned and how it influenced their behaviour. For their capstone project, they conducted a detailed analysis and prepared a presentation on the effectiveness of the challenge and suggestions for improvements. Not only did this provide an opportunity for students to analyze a real-world marketing campaign, but it also cultivated a deeper understanding of environmental issues and inspired students to take actionable steps towards a more sustainable future.
Join us in fostering sustainability!
Confederation College
Brett Sharman, a Confederation College business instructor, successfully integrated the challenge into his Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability course. Students gained participation marks by engaging in the weekly challenges and writing reflections on what they learned and how it influenced their behaviour. For their capstone project, they conducted a detailed analysis and prepared a presentation on the effectiveness of the challenge and suggestions for improvements. Not only did this provide an opportunity for students to analyze a real-world marketing campaign, but it also cultivated a deeper understanding of environmental issues and inspired students to take actionable steps towards a more sustainable future.
The ImpAct-Climate Challenge is an opportunity for us to stand united as the national college and institute community to address climate change. By incorporating the challenge into your teaching, you enhance student engagement and promote environmental stewardship among the next generation of leaders.
For more information contact impact@collegesinstitutes.ca