Sustainability ideal sparks new policies and projects

 

It has been a busy first semester on the job for Melissa Garcia Lamarca. As the university’s first sustainability co-ordinator, she reaches out to Concordians to make the university more socially and ecologically viable. "So far, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive," she said.

Garcia Lamarca has brought together five professors who are working to create an interdisciplinary graduate program in societal and environmental sustainability. They are Frank Müller (Economics), P.K. Langshaw (Design Art), Ramdas Chandra (John Molson School of Business), and Catherine Mulligan and John Hadjinicolaou (Civil Engineering).

Students taking a civil engineering course in environmental impact assessment have already benefited from the support of Garcia Lamarca and her colleagues in Environmental Health and Safety and Facilities Management. The students did projects on topics such as water consumption, building material recycling and air quality.

In collaboration with Sue Magor, director of Environmental Health and Safety, Lamarca has drafted an environmental policy for the university. This was a result of recommendations in the Concordia Campus Sustainability Assessment (2003). It is built off the Talloires Declaration, a 10-point plan signed by more than 300 university presidents in 40 countries around the world, including Concordia’s Frederick Lowy in 1995.

A new part-time position has been created. Chantal Beaudoin is running a project called R4 Concordia: Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, which expands the recycling program. The four Rs are rethinking consumption and waste production, reducing, reusing and finally recycling.

Through R4 Concordia, Chartwell’s cafeteria operations on campus were assessed, and an action plan was drafted to improve service. Some of the suggestions are to eliminate individually wrapped sugar, milk and cream, provide fair trade coffee, and offer hormone- and antibiotic-free meals on the menu.

Garcia Lamarca, who is an alumna of the Sustainable Concordia Project, works with SCP students. One of the working groups, Energy Action, is planning seminars this term with another student group, Engineers Without Borders, on renewable energy sources and on how green technology might be implemented in the developing world.

Another SCP project would turn the greenhouse on the roof of the Hall building into a space for students and faculty (particularly from Fine Arts and Engineering) to grow food and plants and carry out projects.

Then there’s the Allego program, created by the Agence Metropolitain de Transport to encourage alternative modes of transportation in various institutions.

Garcia Lamarca has been asked to coordinate the Allego project, which will involve surveying of the university community to understand transportation habits. The results will be analyzed and a plan developed to encourage public transit use, walking, biking, and carpooling.

In October, Garcia Lamarca participated in two conferences in the U.S. that gave her a chance to spread the word about Concordia's own sustainability program and exchange ideas with others. “It was useful to see how sustainability initiatives are unfolding on different campuses — and to recognize how unique and special our process is.”