By Liam Floyd

UNB Saint John’s campus food service provider is currently searching for student projects to promote sustainability on campus. The Chartwells Campus Project is currently underway, searching for ideas from student groups across Canada that could receive up to $5,000 to develop and execute their proposal.

Examples of past successful projects include the development and launch of a reusable on-campus mug sharing program and the development, sourcing, and cultivation of campus-affiliated community gardens.
The Baron spoke with Lynn Burns, acting food service director of UNB Saint John, about the project. The importance of the project, she said, comes not only from the opportunity to “raise awareness about sustainability” but also “from a business perspective, setting up something that’s viable, that’s doable, practical, practical for learning, and something that can be viable past the student.”

“I think it would be a vital experience for a lot of [students],” adds Burns.
Burns says that the project is essential not only at UNBSJ’s campus, but for university campuses at large. “It’s important to Chartwells overall for something like this. We’re very invested in partnering with students and with the university and doing things sustainable and doing things local and trying to sustain ourselves.”
To enter a student group must jointly, with Burns, submit an application to Chartwells’ head office, by October 9.
Burns admits that even though she is short on ideas, she “would really love to see someone from here get something going”.

The Baron also reached out to the UNBSJ Green Society but received no comment on their involvement.

More information on the initiative can be found on Chartwells’ website, www.compass-canada.com, or through contacting Eli Browne, Chartwells Canada’s Manager of Campus Engagement of Sustainability, at eli.browne@compass-canada.com.