UNBC Life 5

Dome Greenhouse opens: closed food loop at UNB@
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Kelley Ware
Multimedia Coordinator

our years ago, Cameron Bell had an idea.

He did not realize it at the time, but
this idea would put Students for a Green
University (SGU) through four years of red
tape, fundraising, organizing community
partners, and a lot of manual labour before it
finally culminated into something beautiful.
The UNBC Dome Greenhouse officially
opened on September 12, 2014.

“A friend of mine told me about these dome
greenhouse kits and I was thinking about the
UNBC Green Fund because I knew it was a
source of money for sustainability projects on
campus,” Bell said. “So originally I thought we
would just be able to apply for some funding
from the Green Fund and build a dome.”

The initial Green Fund proposal was turned
down, forcing SGU to resubmit for the
funding. Fortunately, they were able to
gain community partners, such as Integris
Credit Union, and find a compromise with
the university. The students involved

with SGU believe that without Integris

on board, the university may not have
bought into the project when they did.

Co-presidents of SGU, Keaton Freel
and Raychill Snider, are proud

to have tangible results. “It’s
really exciting. This has
been a project of ours

for four years, so way

tangible results.”

The introduction of a food system at UNBC
that is open for students to be engaged in is
something that shows campus sustainability
in a different light--something that every
single student can see and touch. Minetta
Norrie, president-alumni of SGU, spoke about
the places where this closed loop can be seen:

“(The Dome is] a closed food-loop system
where students have access to volunteer
and learn at every level of food production.
So we’re growing food here in the Dome,
we are preparing it in the Moose and eating
it in the Moose, and then composting
through PGPIRG... you can grow a leaf,
prepare it, eat it, and compost it.”

The aspect of having campus-grown food at
the Thirsty Moose Pub has the possibility
of reaching students all over campus.

The Thirsty Moose Pub stated:“The Dome
Greenhouse is an important, student driven
project that [we’re] excited to

be a part of. The

Thirsty

Moose Pub tries to use local products as
much as possible... and you really can’t get
any more local than right on campus. The
harvested vegetables from the Dome will
be used in hearty soups or seasonal salads
depending on what vegetables are being
grown, creating a changing “Dome Special.”
The Dome gives students the opportunity
to really experience being part of the

food distribution chain and we hope that
showcasing their harvest will engage other
members of the UNBC community around
the discussion of food sustainability.”

The Dome Greenhouse on campus is an
important statement of student achievement.
As Snider mentioned, “the most important
part of the Dome is that it is a student-led
project. This is the perfect example of what
students can accomplish.” Norrie added, “It
was the first student-initiated building on
campus. It is an important project showing
the student leadership capacity here at
UNBC. So often we think of students as
short-term thinking and frivolous, but
this is a project that shows
that students

before I even got
to UNBC,” Snider
said. “For a really
long time there
was a lot of

red tape, just
getting

permits

and things

like that.

Now we

actually

can work on a project for four
years and have it completed.”

The fact that students are making moves
towards sustainability helps UNBC live up
to its self-proclaimed name of Canada’s
Green University. As Bell mentioned;
“universities are an incredible place to
pursue sustainability because they have
access to funding streams that other
organizations don’t: they have access to
research capacity; they have students that
are essentially a workforce that that can do
research on different forms of technology,
different approaches to food production,
energy production, sustainable building
design... lots of different things. So it is
important for a university to be a birthplace
for these ideas, not that we invented the
dome greenhouse, but just that by fostering
these ideas we can help people in other
communities, help local governments, help
non-profits, help corporations, even, bring
these ideas out to the greater public.”

“Tt is just the beginning,” Freel told Over

the Edge. “We spent the last four years

fundraising and planning, and going through

red tape to get this built. Now we have to
figure out how to actually grow things...

It’s really only the beginning of what
we are going to do with it. We need

volunteers. We love volunteers.”

The first crop of lettuces
and radishes is expected
to be harvested and

available in October.

If you want to get
involved with this
project, contact
sgu.unbc@
gmail.com.

have