Environmental Sustainability at TRU

A lot has happened since I posted my first blog so here we go again! I experienced my first orientation period at TRU. Anna-Maria made a superb presentation at the International Student orientation and we had a table at the first year and general orientation events. We held a draw for three prize packages including a $40 gift certificate at Heartland Coop, a reusable water bottle and coffee mug (thanks TRUSU) The winners will be announced on the website this week. The initial response to the website has been very positive and I am pleased about that. In this day and age internet communication is a key part of getting the word out about sustainability. We also got a lot of volunteers for the Guerin Creek Cleanup which is taking place on September 27^th organized by TRU in cooperation with the Kamloops West Rotary Club and local citizens. One last comment on orientation. I really enjoyed the chance to flip burgers at the back to school BBQ for two reasons…no one got food poisoning from my efforts and I met a lot of new people.

As we were preparing to support the positive approach to encouraging people to drink tap water and wean them away from bottled water I discovered that there are almost 50 places where staff, faculty and students can refill their water bottles on campus including the 6 new refilling stations that will be added in September. At about the same time Memorial University got a lot of press for their ban the bottle campaign but TRU has implemented many of the measures that Memorial is just know committing to. It was truly amazing that the various departments, faculties and clubs on campus were able to work in a coordinated fashion to make almost 3,000 water bottles available to returning students…all featuring the new sustainability website URL. In addition TRUSU is going to give out another almost 1000 bottles in their campaign to encourage the drinking of tap water in the early fall.

I have a household garbage tip. I have been using cardboard containers such as milk cartons as storage places for garbage before I take it out. It cuts down on the use of plastic bags. We are making progress in the replacement of one way plastic by reusable bags. How do I know? Statistics Nah!! Better…the plastic bag manufacturing companies have come out with sponsored research that purportedly shows the dangers of using reusable bags!!!!

September represented a changing of the guard. Anna-Maria Viaud and Adam Hockin have returned to their full time studies and Kaitlin Boyd is the new coop student. Kaitlin comes with a wealth of experience including active involvement it TRU ECO and a coop term working for the City of Kamloops environmental programme. Among other things Kaitlin is going to be looking into developing a programme that will allow our existing buildings to be LEED certified.

Speaking of TRU ECO I had the pleasure to have dinner with Tria Donaldson, who was the student representative on my hiring committee and who is now the Director of Go Beyond. We talked a lot about her upcoming trip to Copenhagen where she will participate in the Climate Change Conference (Yes, Diana I did mention the need for her to complete the course work for the degree and Marion Hannaford joined us and had some helpful suggestions for Tria).

Last but not least I took the train to Edmonton, leaving early in the morning and spending virtually the whole day in the observation car of the Canadian. Wow! It was something I had always wanted to do and it was worth it. This country we live in is breathtakingly beautiful and especially so on the train. However, one negative thing did strike me, even though it was raining that day. Wherever I looked along the way the sloughs, creek beds, ponds and other catchment areas for water were bone dry. We are rapidly moving toward a water shortage if we do not already have one and we will have to some immediate action to prevent a crisis in the near future.

Finally, hats off to Liv Andrew who organized the Gazebo party…….a good time was had by all.