A new sustainability awareness campaign called Are You Sure? includes a lyric contest challenging students to suggest how the University might get closer to sustainability in social, economic and environmental areas.

“It’s meant to bring awareness to some of the major issues and how we deal with them,” says Maurice Nelischer, director of sustainability.

The challenge includes having people write a couple of verses of new lyrics for a song called Are You Sure by the Staple Singers. “The submission can be as simple as a written verse you came up with as you walked home from school, or better yet, it could be you and a bunch of friends singing the new lyrics on YouTube,” he says.

Nelischer chose the song because of the title. He says, for example, that many people think that by recycling, they are doing enough for the environment and sustainability. “But are you sure that’s enough? There is so much more that has to be done. We have to change the way we think, the way we treat the environment and people, and how we operate our economic system.”

Nelischer has posted a video on YouTube about the contest. The top three entries will receive an iPod touch or cash equivalent. Submissions should be sent to Nelischer via email at mnelisch@uoguelph.ca by March 1.

Appointed to his new position in September, Nelischer, who is a retired landscape architecture professor, is planning numerous other initiatives to highlight sustainability issues on campus. He’s also building connections among faculty and staff members to help the University meet recommendations of the 2010 President’s Task Force on Sustainability.