The Green Review

University communities are essential in the effort to build sustainable futures. As UNB works towards its climate change action plans and sustainability goals, UNB Sustainability is excited to highlight students, faculty and staff who are making a difference on campus as “Green Champions”. Know someone who should be a Green Champion? Let us know at sustain@unb.ca.

Our newest Green Champion is Heidi Harding, an E-Learning Developer in the College of Extended Learning.

I’m Heidi Harding, and I have worked at UNB for the past 8 years. I currently work in the College of Extended Learning as an E-Learning Developer, but have also had roles at UNB as an instructional designer, user analyst, and website strategist. These roles have given me the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people across UNB’s campuses and learn about many of the different programs and efforts happening at our university.

Sustainability is near and dear to my heart, and I recently had the opportunity to work with UNB Sustainability to develop a series of sustainability learning modules that are available both in UNB’s online environment for students and faculty and on UNB Sustainability’s website for the general public. I was excited to work on the project, funded by the Environmental Trust Fund, to help grow awareness of not just important issues in sustainability, but also how we can each support and take sustainable actions ourselves.

I have had several opportunities to hear from students about their growing concerns about the future in the face of climate change, plastics pollution, and the biodiversity crisis, and those fears and anxieties resonate with my own. It is why I make time to learn about and support sustainability initiatives, take action in my own life, and educate myself on the issues so I can both vote thoughtfully and reach out to elected representatives in government when there are environmental issues up for debate.

On a personal level, I’m proud to share that my yard was recently certified as wildlife-friendly habitat by the Canadian Wildlife Federation!