 | Community education is goal of UCC’s green initiatives
12/9/2008
Plastics be gone. It's estimated that more than a third of UCC students carry stainless steel bottles — and refill them from the College's filtered-water taps.
That's just one of the great results UCC's Green School projects have achieved this term, says a report prepared by Premek Hamr, senior sustainability fellow for UCC's Centre for Environment and Sustainability.
"Although part of our responsibility is to shepherd our own resources, an even greater responsibility is to educate College community members about what we have done, and what is possible in their own homes and businesses," says Steve Griffin, head of the Upper School.
To promote reusable water containers instead of bottled water, the Green School program teamed with the Parents' Organization to sell stainless steel bottles at UCC’s annual "Sweet Ties" Christmas sale, November 24.
As well, the filtered water fountains appear to be used extensively both at the Upper School and the Prep, and a survey is planned to document this.
Another initiative involved Green Club members and Prep parent Francisca Quinn who together are spearheading the UCC Low Carbon Commuting Project.
"After preliminary surveys, the school recognized that a large part of its ecological footprint is associated with school commuting," explains Hamr. "A traffic study made by the Green Club during October 2008 observed that 83 per cent of students came by car during one morning, of which 45 per cent of the vehicles only had one student to be dropped off."
There is a large potential to reduce this footprint by creating alternative options for students and parents — for example, organized car pooling, bike clubs, public transit and school bus. For the Prep, this could be complemented with a "walking bus" by foot or bicycle and TTC chaperons.
At the Prep, some of the main initiatives included a sustainability-oriented used clothing drive, the removal of certain vending machines and the Sports Uniform Recycling Project with Mountain Equipment Co-op, which is going to help recycle used sports uniforms. They will be dropped off and sent to Japan to be respun.
There are also some energy conservation projects in progress and on the horizon too.
"Geothermal technology built into the new hockey arena means an end result of 40 per cent less energy consumption compared to traditional arenas," says Peter Colasante, operations manager, facilities.
There are also high efficiency domestic hot water heaters in the Upper School kitchen, Beattie Building, student centre, Hewitt Athletic Centre, lower dining room and the Head's house. There are high efficiency furnaces in the Beattie Building and the Head's house. The Prep also has variable speed drive on ventilation and heating pumps.
Please direct any comments or questions about UCC's projects to Premek Hamr, Senior Sustainability Fellow, at phamr@ucc.on.ca.
For more information about the environmental efforts and successes of the Green School please see the downloadable Green Progress Report, September - November 2008.
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