| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 72.00 |
| Liaison | Jessica Krejcik |
| Submission Date | Dec. 22, 2021 |
Concordia University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Cassandra
Lamontagne Sustainability Coordinator Office of Sustainability |
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign:
The pilot project was conducted in the GM building on three floors in April 2014. Removing trash bins from desk sides and adding compost bins to the kitchenettes in those office spaces resulted in a diversion of 80% of waste from landfill to compost and recycling. The campaign continues annually. As of 2019, 85% of office buildings have been converted to an entirely low-waste office model. This means that standard desk-side trash bins are being replaced by mini-bins which users sort out into landfill, compost and recycling at centralized waste sorting areas. This saves a remarkable amount of recyclable and compostable waste from landfill.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
Measured positive impacts of the campaign include: 80% of office waste diverted from landfills, doubled compost collection since 2015-2016 (combined with the Waste Not, Want Not campaign), an additional 165 kitchenettes and common areas with composting options, and the replacement of 2,600 desk-side trash bins with mini bins that need to be sorted by the user.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Waste Not, Want Not’s mission is to help the community compost, sort and decrease waste at Concordia University. Their model is to couple top-down infrastructure improvement with credible grassroots broad-impact education. On their website they provide toolkits to help spread the word on composting at Concordia. They also have a Youtube channel with educational videos on composting. They organize regular outreach activities to inform and encourage the Concordia community on the benefits of composting.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Measured positive impacts of the campaign include: 16% of overall waste reduced per person since 2016, twice as much annual composting since 2015-2016 (combined with the Low-waste Office Campaign) and half the contamination in compost bins since 2016.
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
CUCCR (Concordia University’s Center for Creative Reuse) is a campaign and a physical space dedicated to increasing reuse. Through educational workshops, outreach campaigns, and a material reuse program, CUCCR diverts materials from inside Concordia’s waste-stream and offers them to the general community free of cost.
There is a member registration station and a check-out system that sends real-time statistics on waste diversion, money saved, and membership breakdown to the website. Measurable positive impacts include 2700 members, saving approximately $172,000 while diverting 14 tonnes of free materials from Concordia’s waste stream.
Metrics page: https://www.cuccr.ca/what-we-do/metrics/
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.