| The University of Calgary's Sustainability Stewardship Program aims to halve the amount of solid waste on campus within two years. "We're working towards that goal," says Don Neary, team leader for building services at the University of Calgary.
At present, the last waste audit, completed by the university’s Sustainability Stewardship Program revealed a 12 per cent diversion rate on campus; meaning 12 per cent of solid waste was diverted from traditional landfill disposal. According to a survey by the program, the campus produced just less than 20 metric tonnes of waste per hectare, per year, one of the lowest waste rates of 11 post-secondary institutions across Canada. Comparably, the University of Waterloo ranked the highest with almost 90.0 metric tonnes of waste per hectare per year.
Bottle and can recycling saw a 25 per cent increase in return rate from 2005 to 2006 and is just one of many initiatives seeing success on campus. Cody Wagner, Student Union's VP of operations and finance at the University of Calgary, says paper, bottle and can recycling have been largely successful since their implementation several years ago.
He estimates the Student Union Sustainability Board (SUSB) has about 200 bottle and can recycling containers around campus. "We are expecting substantial increases in recycling as our availability of recycling containers will be improved dramatically," says Wagner. He adds the SUSB has purchased 20 bottle and can recycling containers and 20 new three-in-one reciprocals. However, Wagner believes despite the success of several recycling initiatives, there is a need for a campus-wide waste management and minimization program. "While the students do something about recycling around campus they still would like to see more variety and more access to programs that help to limit their ecological footprints," said Wagner.
In response to this growing demand for integrated sustainability initiatives, a director of sustainability is being hired in early May to implement and oversee projects in all operations, curriculum and research activities on campus. "I feel the University of Calgary can, and should, take a leadership role in sustainability," says Michael W. McAdam, vice-president of finances and services at the University of Calgary. This decision will make the University of Calgary the third campus in Canada to have an individual completely dedicated to sustainability plans, goals and initiatives, according to McAdam.
While McAdam acknowledges the importance of reducing solid waste by half, solid waste reduction is just a part of the "sustainability puzzle," he says. "We're going to continue to work to make the campus a greener, more efficient model for business and other university campuses throughout North America." One project with Direct Energy aims to significantly reduce the university's energy consumption, and additional courses will be offered to students to provide more opportunities to solve real-life sustainability issues. "It's important to know that students are the core to the sustainability process," says McAdam.
William Ross, an environmental design expert at the University of Calgary, believes there is huge potential for sustainability and recycling programs at the university, city and even the provincial levels, if people are willing to recognize the systemic issue.
Ross believes people need to acknowledge and critically analyze the importance of sustainability and make producers responsible for assuring their products stay out of landfills. This will drive producers to find more efficient ways of producing and will, subsequently, help them market their products better. "Societies that look seriously at this – I'm thinking European societies – impose substantial costs on the producer for everything that might show up in a landfill," says Ross. Provincially and federally, Canadians need to consider a more "modern and sophisticated" approach to recycling, according to Ross. |
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