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McGill University 2007 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

Four-year and graduate institutions over 7,500 student FTE

Spruces were moved from a construction site on campus and replanted in front of a building nearby, hence the visible supports. Photo credit: Eric Champagne, Horticulturalist

Contact

Kathleen Ng
Environmental Officer
Environmental Health and Safety, New Chancellor Day Hall, 615-3644 Peel Street
Montreal, Quebec
+1 514 398 6247
rethink@mcgill.ca

Governance & Administration

Preamble. The University has long been a signatory of both the Halifax and Talloires declarations. 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 while an incumbent has been in office since recruited in February 2003, the University seeks to add human resources to this unit. 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, principles of sustainable building practices were added to existing environmental policy in January 2006. At the 6th annual Rethink conference in March 2007, the Provost publicly committed to presenting an over-arching University sustainability policy to the group by the same time the following year. McGill’s sustainability will be the topic for strategic discussion at the annual joint Senate/Board of Governors meeting this year.

McGill’s landscape policy provides for the replacement of trees lost to disease, storm damage or construction. During the recent construction of two new buildings, for example, all trees that needed to be moved were relocated to the east side of the lower campus, and new trees were planted on the construction site. Similarly, 60 diseased Lombardy poplars were replaced by a mix of indigenous and naturalized species. McGill’s intention is to replace a monoculture of imported trees with a mixture of native and naturalized trees.

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. 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. The University is also a member institution of AASHE, as well as actively represented at the CREPUQ (Conférence des recteurs et principaux des universités québecois –i.e. association of Quebec universities).

Other institutional commitments to sustainability. The University has publicly supported the sustainable development plans of Quebec and the city of Montreal. The University is a partner in the implementation of the municipal sustainable development strategy, reiterating its commitment to specific actions on various issues ranging from operations to education. McGill had also expressed support for sustainable transportation and development in briefs regarding the municipal master plan and transportation plan respectively.

Operations

Energy. The University has previously been recognized by Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency for its efforts to improve its energy efficiency by identifying and implementing infrastructure improvements, and continues to move forward on this issue, notwithstanding low hydroelectricity prices and funding structure issues that make revolving loan funds impossible.

Alternative fuels. The Gault Nature Reserve launched its biodiesel project in 2005, after previous experimentation with ethanol use in its vehicles. The Nature Centre now has four vehicles converted to running on 50% biodiesel during the summer season, as well as one of its tractors to 20% biodiesel use (since 2006).

Food and Dining. Dining Services have

• participated in a student-led pilot composting project over the past two years;
• since 2006, provided discounts for coffee purchases with reusable mugs;
• invested in a solid and grease extractor in its kitchen sinks, with the residue collected intended for biodiesel production;
• implemented a recycling system and aggressively promoted recycling with workshops and peer educational initiatives;
• currently aiming to further manage their waste by investing in a composter and converting to compostable dishware and utensils.

Dining Services continues its commitment to reduced packaging, fair trade/organic goods where available, in addition to the usual commitments to quality, nutrition and client needs.

Waste. In addition to recycling, the University’s Clean and Green program was initiated in an effort to recuperate space by encouraging building occupants to dispose of their superfluous equipment and furniture in an environmentally friendly manner. In the past two years, the campaign resulted in more than 150 metric tons of material being collected, the majority of which was recycled or re-used (95% in 2006). At other times of the year, McGill members may request pick-up of their e-waste through the Waste Management Program; services are expected to include used fluorescent lamps in the future. Purchasing developed and launched an internal auction system (similar to eBay) for departments to redistribute their assets, with bids open to students after the first week.

Paper use. McGill Printing Services has long printed course material recto verso; however, since adoption of the University paper use policy, all course material and exam booklets printed by Printing Services (approximately 20M sheets p.a.) is printed on EcoLogo certified paper. EcoLogo paper is now used on all public University photocopy machines, and McGill Copy Service is now using 80% post-consumer recycled paper for all its black and white prints and copies. They are also promoting double-side printing through an appropriate pricing structure.

Since the University began providing employees with the option of paperless pay stubs in October 2005, over 3000 employees voluntarily opted in. With these impressive results, effective July 1, 2007, pay deposit slips will no longer be issued for those paid on the semi-monthly and bi-weekly payrolls. Students are now sent electronic invoices in lieu of paper copies – this saves approximately 15,000 sheets of paper (data excludes envelopes) monthly, and anticipated annual savings are $65K-100K (including printing and mailing costs).

Curriculum & Research

Preamble. McGill University’s Faculties of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Arts, and Science pooled their resources to create the School of Environment (MSE) in 2002. The Sub-Committee on Environment continues to work with the MSE to provide students with service learning opportunities for course credit.

The Brace Centre for Water Resources Management brings together staff from several McGill faculties, to undertake research, teaching, specialized training, and policy and strategic studies in water resources management, both in Canada and internationally.

McGill researchers also work as part of the ArcticNet research consortium that evaluates the impact of climate change on northern communities. With funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), ArcticNet is developing models to predict the amount of erosion and better understand the impact of climate change on northern people.

Last year, the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences launched a M.Sc. in Environmental Assessment. This one-year, non-thesis program, offered by the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, is an initiative of the McGill-UNEP Environmental Assessment Collaborating Centre.

The Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre (GEC3) is a new cross-disciplinary, multi-university research centre bringing together more than 40 researchers from five Quebec universities to study processes, modelling and impact of environmental and climate change. The GEC3’s mission is to:

• To promote an outstanding research program at all levels focusing on the integration among physical, biological and chemical processes that regulate the climate system, and their socio-economic impact.
• To facilitate scientific cooperation among a cross-disciplinary group of Québec researchers in climate and global change science and impact assessment, and to promote Québec research at the national and international levels.
• To assume a lead role in global change issues and to provide input to the academic and public debate on environmental and climate change in Québec, Canada and internationally.

The VERT group, a consortium including professors from Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, focuses on research on alternative (fuel) vehicles. This includes the solar car and electric snowmobile projects, as well as work with the Quebec electric vehicle association (CEVEQ).

Individual faculties and departments have courses that include sustainability themes, such as the Social Context of Business course in Management, an Environmental Law stream in the Faculty of Law, and civil engineering courses with a focus on sustainability and life cycle costing. There are also often special events, workshops and research symposia, such as the Pan-American Green Chemistry Summer School in 2006 and a symposium on water, agriculture and climate by the Brace Centre to present research on climate and its effect on water for agriculture and how a changing climate might alter agriculture in Canada.

Obviously, it is impossible to describe the breadth of major research initiatives with sustainability as a central focus in only 500 words: sampler of such research was featured in the spring 2006 issue of Headway (a McGill publication with focus on research, discovery and innovation on campus).

Campus Culture

Peer to peer sustainability outreach campaigns. The Environmental Residences Council consists of a student residing in each of the University residence buildings, led by a student coordinator paid by University Residences. The students are encouraged to work on projects to advance the sustainability in their residences. The University also won a grant from Recyc-Quebec in 2006 to organize the innovative “Get Caught Recycling” campaign, which used a viral marketing campaign to increase recycling awareness on campus, reducing contamination levels in recycled material collected.

Openness and transparency. The University encourages dialogue from all members of the community to advance sustainability projects on campus. These include an open invitation to meetings of the Sub-Committee on Environment as well as annual forums, called “Rethink conferences”. These forums help disseminate information on past, present and anticipated activities related to campus environmental issues - the 2007 edition was called “BackCast: Sustainability, Student Life and Learning”. Campus sustainability was also a topic for discussion for the winter edition of the Principal’s Town Hall in 2007.

Sustainability pledge. As part of Week of Action on Climate Change (January 25-29, 2007), McGill’s environmental officer announced the launch of the Rethink sustainability pledge. At the suggestion of Associate Vice-Principal (University Services) Jim Nicell, the pledge form was modified so that staff members could register on behalf of their departments. The University reached the goal of having over one thousand pledges from individuals and departments to take action to reduce the environmental footprint on campus and/or in their residences.

Informal learning opportunities. The Environmental Office coordinates informal workshops during the year open to all. This included “Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming”: In collaboration with the National Wildlife Fund, McGill hosted a live broadcast featuring positive, practical solutions to global warming being implemented by higher education campuses around the country. The Environmental Office also has outreach days wherein an information kiosk is set up in a high-traffic area (such as a cafeteria) and promotional material is disseminated to passersby not otherwise exposed to the issue. There are more than seventeen student groups that focus on various aspects of sustainability, including Education students in “When You Teach You Learn” whose focus lies on visiting local schools to educate youth on sustainability principles.

In parallel with infrastructure upgrades, education is an integral part of energy efficiency. McGill sponsored an inter-residence competition, with prizes (trophies and party) going to the residence with the greatest proportional reduction in energy consumption compared to a previously established baseline. McGill also participated in the Energy Action Coalition’s Week of Action, where the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” was screened across campus daily between January 29th and February 3rd, culminating in a presentation by University of Victoria professor Michael McGonigle, author of “Planet U”.

Printing Services also worked with student groups to promote the paper use policy and practices by design and installation of posters and signs in appropriate areas, as well as peer to peer outreach such as class announcements.

Community Service & Outreach

Over the past two years, the University has held a variety of events for outreach to both its internal and external community, including (but are not limited to) the following:

• The launch of the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium Series, held just prior to the UN Conference on the Climate Change Convention. The inaugural symposium, “Climate Change and Energy”, offered the general public the opportunity to hear about the key issues at stake and to debate proposed solutions;
• A community clean-up, involving meeting citizens in the Milton-Parc community (the McGill Ghetto) so as to hear their perspective on how students affect their neighbourhood. The outreach effort was an opportunity to publicize the many ways in which McGill students contribute to civic life, and to encourage new students to participate in the community around them.
• The School of Environment Public Lecture featured Bruce Mau’s presentation “The Future of Environmental Design” in 2006, and David Orr slated for 2007.

McGill was the first Quebec university to participate in International Car Free Day, coordinating street fairs with students while making arrangements for street closures with municipal/appropriate authorities. This was deemed an annual event in 2006, with our downtown campus green closed to vehicular traffic in favor of sustainability-themed kiosks and student activities. As McGill is a member institution of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (AMT)’s allégo transportation demand management programme, staff participated in the Car Free Day parade in 2006 and 2007.

Buying green. Where possible, McGill departments support the social economy: for example, e-waste is processed by an ISO140001-ready NGO that provides employment/teaches job skills to troubled youth. Bags for a major research conference (approximately 6,000 participants) were procured from a local NGO that did the same for abused/disadvantaged/immigrant women; recyclable grocery bags were procured from another agency involved with job creation in the disadvantaged Saguenay region.

Campus Green. In 2007, the University launched a website for a virtual “Green tour” of McGill University’s downtown campus, offering a taste of the wide range of tree species and gardens situated on campus. The University also engaged in partnership with a local NGO, Santropol Roulant and Alternatives, to install a greenroof on the campus. The container garden is installed on the roof of an underground garage, reducing the heat island effect of the area. Vegetables grown would be used in their Meals on Wheels programme, whereas flowers would also be grown for aesthetics. This is a service-learning opportunity for students in Architecture and Urban Planning, as well as for visitors from the outside community who visit this highly visible installation.

As a partner with the municipal strategic sustainable development plan, the University joins other Montreal institutions, ranging from NGOs to enterprises to community groups, to take action to reduce their environmental footprint. This includes information sharing on topics of interest, such as biodiesel implementation, green driving habits, addressing the heat island effect, recycling, and others. The Environmental Office also supported the Montreal GreenDrinks networking programme.

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