SP0305: Sustainable Futures Festival at Bellairs

As part of the Bicentennial Celebrations, Bellairs Research Institute, a McGill field station located in Barbados, will be hosting a Sustainability Day Event. In keeping with the objective of the Festival, celebrating the future of sustainability at McGill and beyond, the day allows for partnering with the local government initiative, We Plantin, which seeks to plant one million trees across Barbados. As such, there will be a distribution of 100 palm trees grown at our facility, to students and schools around the island. Leading the charge on the first day of the Bicentennial's Sustainable Futures Festival – Barbadian schools, government, McGill, business representatives, alumni, local and international community partners will be invited to come together to learn about Bellairs’ work and McGill University in general along with gaining information on how they can join the sustainability movement. Feature addresses from prominent McGill and Government representatives will accompany the tree give away ceremony, coupled with a tour of the facility’s food security project. As part of the day's educational activities, there will be talks and information shared on climate change, food security, economic sustainability, vertical farming, aquaponics, and other key themes. This project has positive long-term implications for McGill staff, students and the wider McGill community as it presents opportunities for learning as part of a course or casual information gathering. It also positions Bellairs, a McGill facility, to harness relationships which would be beneficial to the many McGill students who use our facility each year. The ground work would be laid for McGill students to visit the various recipients of the plams to deliver presentation on their courses of study and to partner with the institutions for other projects. Funding from the SPF will subsidize the materials and equipment required to organize an event of this magnitude. It will include the repair of the greenhouse, potting, preparation and distribution of the palms as well as the production of the plant-care instruction manual. There is currently no audio visual equipment and this is a necessity not only for the day's program but for thr McGill courses such as the Barbadoes Field Study Semester (BSFF) and others.