McGill University
EN-9: Staff Professional Development and Training

McGill Office of Sustainability (MOOS) staff offer workshops entitled "Envisioning Sustainability at McGill," "Embedding Climate and Sustainability in the Workplace," and "Waste: What Goes Where?," all of which are offered through the Organizational Development (OD) office.

Other OD workshops are sustainability-inclusive, mostly focused on employee well-being: "Surviving and Thriving Through Times of Change," "Mental Health in the Workplace," "Mental Health First Aid," and "Managing Stress," among others.

The Equity Team (under the Associate Provost, Equity and Academic Policies) also regularly offers staff training. Some examples of workshops include "Accessibility, COVID-19 and Returning to Campus"; "Accommodating Employees with Disabilities"; "Equitable Hiring and Promotion"; "Gender Diversity and Inclusive Language"; "Working in Diverse Teams"; and "Managing Challenging Conversations in the Workplace."

Moreover, all of McGill’s Procurement Services staff have received 6 hours of training in Sustainable Procurement. They can now pass on this knowledge to other staff within the faculties and units to help them navigate towards better, more sustainable, choices. Procurement Services also offers the “Sustainable Purchasing 101” course that is open to all McGill staff members.

McGill was a Host Institution for the 2020 AASHE Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education. The MOOS communications team promoted the conference heaviliy and encouraged faculty, staff, and students to attend. 30 employees and 51 students attended (as of Nov. 5, 2020).

McGill Office of Sustainability (MOOS) staff attend conferences, webinars, and other training revolving around issues of sustainability throughout the year. In 2020, for example, MOOS staff members participated in AASHE webinar "Staff Engagement: Embedding Sustainability into Campus Culture and Operations" and a Second Nature webinar, "Urban Forestry Carbon Offset Protocol: Developing Projects through the Offset Network."

In May 2018, a MOOS staff member attended the Sustainability in Higher Education Canada Conference, which involved networking and best practice exchange with Canadian sustainability educators and practitioners.

Another staff member completed training with the Conseil québécois des événements écoresponsables (Quebec Sustainable Events Council) in May 2020.

McGill University, in general, encourages professional development opportunities for all of its staff, including sustainability training. For example, a member of Teaching and Learning Services has participated in a number of sustainable education and awareness initiatives/courses/workshops, including the Climate Reality Project.

McGill's staff performance reviews are called "performance dialogues," which are annual meetings between an employee and their supervisors to ensure clarity around an employee's tasks, potential challenges encountered, developmental needs, recognition, and a sense of contribution. McGill offers a set of guidelines for supervisors wishing to incorporate sustainability into the performance dialogue process. Examples of incorporating sustainability within the dialogue include encouraging a staff member to plan sustainability certification for an event; to lead the employee's team to sustainable workplace certification; to reduce business travel and encourage telecommuting, etc.

The performance dialogue process also includes an assessment of the employee's professional development needs; if a staff member shows an interest in developing their understanding of sustainability, this may be included in their professional development plan.