McGill University 2006 Campus Sustainability Achievement Award Application
Category
Four-year and graduate institutions over 10,000 student FTE
Contact
Kathleen Ng
Environmental Officer
McGill University
Montreal, QC
(514)398-6247
kathleen.ng@mcgill.ca
Governance & Administration
Preamble. The University’s environmental policies and associated strategy for action were approved by Senate in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The University created an Environmental Officer position in late 2002, and an incumbent has been in office since recruited in February 2003. Environmental projects at McGill University are coordinated under the umbrella of the Sub-Committee on Environment (SCE), a working group of the Senate Committee on Physical Development. Through its monthly meetings, the SCE provides a forum for all members of the McGill community to participate in a multistakeholder dialogue to advance projects on all fronts of the sustainability movement on campus.
Policy. Initiated by students and supported by the SCE, a paper use policy that encouraged sustainable purchasing and use of paper was approved by the Board of Governors in 2005. This bolstered the University’s existent environmental policy and principles. Moreover, a proposed amendment to include principles of sustainable building practices in the existing environmental policy was approved in January 2006. In March 2006, the Environmental Officer was called before Senate to provide University senators with a status report about initiatives to date and what steps were to be taken in the future.
Master Plan. The University embarked on development of a master plan and involved the environmentally-minded community – staff, students and faculty alike – by public consultations both a priori and throughout. The University Environmental Officer is an invited guest to all meetings of the Master Plan Task Force and privy to participate in discussion of many of the issues backstage. As such, the Master Plan’s Guiding Principles specifically include clauses towards sustainable development, including aspects from circulation and transportation to building design and construction.
Organizational memberships. In 2005, McGill became an institutional member of Reseau environnement, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of science, promotion of expertise and support of environmental activities. McGill is also actively represented at the CREPUQ (Conf
