A STRATEGIC COMMUNITY BASED APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTING CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

University of Ottawa north america’s largest bilingual institution

CAMPUS GROWTH in 1974 there were 17,244 students on campus in 1974 the campus was 210,000 m 2 in 1993 there were 25,106 students on campus in 1993 the campus was 360,000 m 2 in 2010 there are almost 40,000 students on campus in 2010 the campus has grown to 550,000 m 2

SPEAKING A COMMON LANGUAGE CAMPUS CULTURE COMMUNITY CURRICULUM & RESEARCH

LEVERAGING SUCCESS the operations staff on campus have always been very progressive the office aggregated all the like minded actors and units on campus drawing on their credibility the office was able to broaden its scope

ENERGY despite a tripling in the floor space and population of the campus, we only use 5% more energy this news was exciting enough to rally more support on other fronts

CULTURE the SUDCOM reports directly to the President and all the VPs the Sustainable Development Committee was created in 2007 it is composed of faculty, staff, student, and external representatives

REACHING OUT TO STUDENTS they have since gone on to open a sustainability and hire two more coordinators recognizing the impact the SUDCOM was having the students hired a sustainability coordinator students voted on the creation of a green fund

CREATIVE FINANCING partnerships were established to co- finance new positions through operational savings various forms of free financing were exploited outreach opportunities were merged with one-time capital costs

MORE SUCCESSES waste diversion numbers began to climb aggressive emissions goals were met sustainable transportation proliferated on campus

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT uOttawa took top spot for 2 years running as the Canadian RecycleMania champions during Earth Hour the university reduced its energy consumption by 12% the campus “Car Free Day” grew to be the largest CFD celebration in the city

COMMUNITY INFILTRATION a Green Reps program was created in residences to solicit community buy-in physical resources service has a representative designated for every building on campus an Eco-Champions program was launched to create further employee partnerships

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES worked on the “pet projects” of individuals with influence developed connections with keystone individuals created high profile opportunities for media coverage

VISIONING PROCESS the Vision 2020 process now includes an environmental sustainability component sustainability was officially adopted as one of the strategic paths for the university new audacious goals were suggested to inspire the community

VISION 2020 GOALS to effectively eliminate cars from the University of Ottawa campus to become a carbon neutral campus and reduce emissions by 34% of 2005 levels to become a zero waste campus

BREAK DOWN THE SILOS moving to create partnerships with the faculties on curriculum and research by implementing a living laboratory on campus we are bridging operations and academics

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ENV 3301 students created sustainability plans for the campus EVS 3101 students are studying the effects of plants on indoor air quality ENV 1101 students helped redesign the campus recycling system

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