Thompson Rivers University
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), Canadian College and University Environmental Network (CCUEN; https://www.ccuen-rccue.ca/), and Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan; https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/).

TRU is involved in the following five sustainability networks that are either focused solely on the higher education sector within BC, or open to other types of public sector organizations as well as institutions of higher education.

1. Recently, TRU joined a network of four other British Columbia universities called the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (https://pics.uvic.ca/), which operates out of the University of Victoria. The four universities are Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of Victoria. TRU has signed on to join a task force to investigate the issue of greenhouse gas measurement and reporting within institutions. Since TRU‘s involvement is very new, it is not listed on their website, however questions can be directed to Researcher in Residence, Devin Todd (picsnet@uvic.ca).

2. In January 2020, as well as January 2019, TRU partnered with several other BC institutions of higher education and invited the entire network of all 24 BC public institutions of higher education (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_in_British_Columbia) to join the 'BC Cool Campus Challenge' (https://www.tru.ca/sustainability/get-involved/bc-cool-campus-challenge.html).
Although only four institutions accepted the invitation and participated in 2020, and five in 2019, all institutions were invited to join this initiative. The main goal of the initiative was to bring awareness of the need to conserve natural gas to mitigate against climate change, and asked students, staff and faculty members to take a pledge to take personal actions to this end and reduce their use of fossil fuels.

3. TRU is a member of the Energy Wise Network, which is a BC-wide organization with an Advanced Education division that is dedicated to energy conservation and energy behaviour change initiatives (https://www.prismengineering.com/case-study/energy-wise-network/). All member organizations commit to completing one annual energy conservation campaign (either electricity or natural gas, or both)
that involves changing behaviour of those working/studying/living within their organizations.

4. TRU is also part of the BC 'Public Sector Climate Risk and Resilience Community of Practice', which hosts monthly webinars on important topics regarding climate change. This initiative is open to the whole network of BC public institutions of higher learning as well as other BC public organizations, and where member institutions can actively participate in the discussions in the webinars, present in the webinars, and request topics for future webinars (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/public-sector/managing-climate-risk).

5. Finally, last year in February 2022 (as well as in February 2021), TRU invited students, staff and faculty from all institutions in the network of 24 BC public institutions of higher education to join a virtual event to try to raise awareness of the need for energy conservation - as well as to help with the loneliness and poor mental health that Covid 19 caused everyone (in particular students) - and join an evening event called 'The Energy Dance' (it was 'The Sweater Dance' in 2020). Both were virtual dance parties with a live DJ and both attempted to get people to take steps to reduce their energy consumption while enjoying a Friday night dance with those in their Covid bubbles. The event started with an Energy Wise Trivia contest, and also asked to participants to 'pay a cover charge' to attend the event (since it was free) by making an 'Energy Wise Pledge' (energy-conservation options were listed here: https://www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/energy-saving-pledges-list54714.pdf).

Two members of the TRU Sustainability Office staff, James Gordon and Aaron Wiebe, were co-presenters at the annual conference of the organization Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) on April 28, 2021. The title of their presentation was 'Five big goals to keep on keeping on: How TRU plans to keep sustainability in the spotlight'.
James Gordon was also a presenter at the 2022 CICan Annual Conference: Navigating Anew (April 25 – 27, 2022, Halifax, NS). The tilte of the conference was 'Reach for the S.T.A.R.S. Join CICan’s Globally Top Ranked Institutions for Sustainability to Inspire Your Net Zero Journey'.
Finally, on May 19, 2022 James co-presented on the topic of TRU's first year running its 'TRU Campus Tree Program' at the AGM of the Canadian College and University Environmental Network (CCUEN).

Presented by
Chris Adam, Dawson College, James Gordon,
Thompson Rivers University, Kate Flynn, Mohawk College and Michael Chapman, NSCC

On September 1, 2022 the TRU Sustainability Office had its post of a case study accepted into AASHE's Campus Sustainability Hub (https://hub.aashe.org/). The case study is called 'TRU Campus Tree Program: What We Learned From Year One' and it's listed in the 'Grounds' topic list.
Here is the Project Overview:

The TRU Sustainability Office started the new TRU Campus Tree Program in September 2021 as a one year pilot. The program was designed to allow members of the TRU community to actively get involved in helping maintain one of the planet’s most vital sustainability attributes: thriving and healthy trees and forests. Members of the TRU community were encouraged to volunteer in the 1-year pilot, whose three over-all goals were planting, care and preservation of trees on the TRU campus. The office worked with members from the TRU Grounds and Horticulture Departments who supervised all program activities, as well as other members of the TRU community who helped to ensure the success of the program. The program launched on September 22, 2021—the 10th anniversary of National Tree Day in Canada—with an opening ceremony in front of the new Chappell Family Building for Nursing and Population Health building on the TRU Kamloops campus. Ten Celebration Maples were planted. By the end of the last tree-planting event in April 2022 (there were 5 planting events in total during the fist year of the program), 51 large trees (6’-12; tall) and 51 small trees (3’-6’ tall) were planted on the campus. 51 represented the age of the TRU institution. Four tree care events also took place in July and August 2022, when volunteers and staff reapplied mulch to bases of existing trees.

James Gordon, the Manager of Sustainability Programs in the TRU Sustainability Office sits as a committee member (Feb 2022 to present) on the National Planning Committee (NPC) on Awareness Raising for a Net-Zero Campus, which is a committee of Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan. The mandate of the committee is:
Support awareness-raising among the students, faculty, staff, local communities, and employers of Canada's colleges, institutes and (in the province of Quebec) cegeps (Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel) about the effects of GHG emissions and how they can change their behaviours and enhance their engagement to reduce their impact.

James Gordon, Manager of Sustainability Programs for the TRU Sustainability Office, has a mentoring relationship with his counterpart, Margot Croft, at Vancouver Island University. He has talked both with her and one of her colleagues about how to try and get better buy-in from members of their university community (in particular executive office administration) to support sustainability programs more broadly on their campus. Also, James has mentored Margo on various aspects of running sustainability events over the years.