1% Campaign update

Last week, 13 groups with projects ranging from magazines, bicycle shops, lending dishes as well as groups like the People’s Potato put it on the line in a 10-minute presentation hoping to get a slice of the 1% Sustainability Action Fund.
It’s the second round of proposals for the 1% Campaign this year. Out of the program’s $66,000 budget, $17,000 remains from the other projects approved last semester.
Mohamed Shuriye, the 1% Campaign co-coordinator, said a limited budget will regulate who gets funding, and for how much.
“It depends. Some applicants we may fund, but I doubt we’ll fund any one applicant one hundred per cent,” says Shuriye.
Marie-Claude Blanchet, another presenter, hopes that the money from the 1% Campaign will aid the production of her business sustainability magazine. The magazine’s creator wants an initial distribution of 2,000 copies at Concordia, with issues being published four times a year. Blanchet said her magazine is one of a kind at Concordia and in Canada.
“The magazine will encourage people and businesses to have meaningful jobs while still helping the environment,” said Blanchet.
Other presenters included some already established projects, like Concordia’s R4 “Loan-A-Dish,” a popular project among students. Loan-A-Dish hopes to receive additional funding in order to buy an environmentally friendly industrial dishwasher, as well as other cleaning equipment. The group estimates that they reduced the amount of Styrofoam plates making it to the garbage dumps last year by 20,000.
Among some of the proposed projects at the consultations was a $3,500 request from the group Right To Move. The group plans on using the money for a paid summer coordinator who would help cater to their popular bicycle repair shop. The new coordinator will help serve their growing clientele and ensure the smooth operation of the shop.
Other groups like Pistol Press, The Art of Living Foundation and the People’s Potato came to the consultations with new ideas. The 1% board members will be meeting this week to decide who which groups will receive funding.
Projects approved last semester were the Sustainable Business Conference, the R4 Loyola Compost, the Generations Tour with David Suzuki and Peter Schiefke which promoted sustainable projects for Canadian universities, a proposal from the CSU to buy an office machine that will reduce the amount of paper used and a coordinator to help run the Greenhouse at Concordia.
The One Per Cent Campaign, which was approved in March 2007, costs students 25 cents per credit. Created by Shuriye and Schiefke, the project is scheduled to run on a five-year trial term and if successful, will become permanent.
Concordia students can critique the projects by contacting the 1% Campaign Co-ordinator, Mohamed Shuriye, on the Sustainable Concordia website, www.sustainable.concordia.ca/contactus/