How Maritime universities are promoting sustainability

It's Sustainability Month at campuses across the Maritimes.

Students are being encouraged to make greener choices with a goal of creating lifelong habits. The changes to better the planet can be simple.

"As individuals, we all play a role in choosing to make our lives sustainable every day, as well as at an operational level," said Alexa Goodman, a sustainability manager with Dalhousie University in Halifax.

"There's many things that we can all do in playing a part to improve sustainability here at Dal and beyond."

Over the course of the month at Dalhousie University, each week will focus on transportation, food, energy, and waste.

"Waste sorting is one of those topics that we are continually educating folks on because it's complicated, and whether you're new to Halifax or from a different municipality or from a different country, waste standards are different everywhere," said Goodman.

The Dalhousie University sign is pictured. (Source: Stephanie Tsicos/CTV News Atlantic)

While sustainability is in the spotlight this month, there are initiatives throughout the year at Dalhousie.

"We collected items when students moved out of residence in the spring, we sorted them, we cleaned them and then we made them available to students for free, and we had an overwhelmingly positive response," said Goodman.

"We ran out of stock in two days, redistributing roughly four tonnes of previously loved goods, which is equivalent to around $10,000 in used value, which is quite fantastic to see these items being rehomed and being able to contribute to a circular economy and ultimately reducing our footprint."

While Dalhousie has hosted similar events in the past, this was the first free pop-up. Goodman said they are now working to find a permanent space for the free store but will continue pop-ups in the meantime.

The University of New Brunswick (UNB) has also been hosting free store pop-ups as part of Sustainability Month.

"So far, we've had it open for two half days and we've been pretty successful. So we're looking forward to collecting more donations throughout the month and having that store open for students and faculty staff to take things for free," said Sedona Cluett, a sustainability manager with UNB.

"If there's any household items, kitchen supplies, unopened toiletries, clothing as well, anything that students, staff, faculty, the UNB community isn't using, they can donate to us and we will put it out in our free store.”

Cluett said educating young people on sustainability and the climate crisis is key for the future.

"It's probably one of the largest issues that our students will face when they leave UNB," said Cluett.

"The whole point of our sustainability work and sustainability month and events like that are to help students learn something that they can take with them and bring it to wherever they're going after they're done at UNB."

Outside of Sustainability Month, both universities are hard at work reducing carbon footprints.

"Throughout the year we have different events and we're always working. We have a Climate Change Action Plan and a Campus Sustainability Plan. A lot of that work is kind of done behind the scenes and students don't get to see it," said Cluett.

"We are working towards a carbon neutral future and we're trying our best to be leaders in sustainability and environmental stewardship across Canada."

Dalhousie also recently reached a significant milestone in its efforts.

"We are not only on track to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but we actually exceeded our goal of 30 per cent emissions reduction from our baseline in 2010 to 2030. So right now, we are at a 46 per cent reduction and our next target is 55 per cent by 2030," said Goodman.

"We are well on our way there." 

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