Sheridan and Oakvillegreen turn pavement into garden at Trafalgar Road Campus

Sheridan's Trafalgar Road Campus is home to a new naturalized garden thanks to a partnership between Sheridan’s Mission Zero team and Oakvillegreen to ‘de-pave’ an unused area of asphalt on campus. The ‘De-pave Paradise’ project is the latest collaboration between Sheridan and Oakvillegreen, and aims to create natural habitat for local wildlife, better absorb rainwater, reduce heat absorption and beautify the community.

Over the course of two days, volunteers from Sheridan and Oakvillegreen donned their gardening clothes, grabbed their tools and worked together to remove a 100-square-metre section of pavement, then fill the area with soil, mulch and native grasses and shrubs. Piece by piece, chunks of pavement were cut, then lifted, then carried to a bin to be taken to an asphalt recycling facility. Oakvillegreen supplied all of the required specialized equipment, tools and expertise, while Sheridan staff and volunteers took the lead on removing the pavement and installing the garden.

“We are proud to continue our partnership with Oakvillegreen to create this beautiful, sustainable garden at our Trafalgar campus,” said Herb Sinnock, Sheridan’s Director of Sustainability. “As Sheridan continues to lead as an institutional model for sustainability, community partnership projects like these demonstrate our commitment to restoring biodiversity, building stronger communities and projecting true global citizenship.”

De-pave Paradise is a project of Green Communities Canada and community partners across the country, including Oakvillegreen. The project supports volunteers and neighbourhoods to remove unwanted pavement and plant gardens filled with native species in its place.

Over the past six years, Sheridan and Oakvillegreen have partnered on numerous sustainability initiatives.

“This transformation was possible due to the enthusiasm and hands-on effort of Sheridan students and community volunteers,” said Melanie Rose, Oakvillegreen’s Executive Director. “Working together, we were able to create a vibrant new greenspace, improving our local environment, while also instilling a sense of pride in our community.”

This is the first De-pave project at the Trafalgar campus. Benefits of this new biodiverse garden include:

• removal of the impervious ground surface which reduces the area’s heat island effect
• creation of natural habitat that supports pollinators, birds and other wildlife
• absorption of rainwater to prevent flooding and reduce storm water pollution
• beautification of neighbourhoods and creation of gathering spaces with access to nature

The project involved an empty section of pavement on the corner of Ceremonial Drive and Trafalgar Road, at the end of Parking Lot 1A. No parking spots were impacted by the addition of the garden.

About Oakvillegreen

Oakvillegreen Conservation Association (Oakvillegreen) is a non-partisan environmental charity that has been helping to protect and restore nature through community education and local action since 2000. Their objectives are to reconnect people to nature, protect local water quality, increase climate resiliency, increase natural habitat and tree cover and improve local biodiversity. Through direct engagement, and the promotion of nature-based climate solutions, Oakvillegreen is working to create a greener Oakville.

Pictured above: Sheridan and Oakvillegreen staff and volunteers remove pavement and plant new shrubs at the Trafalgar Campus.