File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Adam Donnelly

TRU

TRU tops Sierra Club rankings of sustainable universities

Sep 3, 2019 | 3:30 AM

KAMLOOPS — Last fall, Thompson Rivers University received a platinum rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This year, the university is kicking off another impressive recognition for its sustainable practices. Tuesday (Sept. 3), the university announced it has been ranked as the “Coolest School in 2019” by the Sierra Club, thanks to all the work the institution has undertaken to lessen its environmental impact.

Canyon Sinclair has his sales pitch for TRU’s “Fill It Forward” initiative dialed in. He was handing out reusable water bottles and coffee cups at orientation on Tuesday on behalf of the university’s sustainability office. The goal is to help reduce the number of single-use items his fellow students consume.

“We really want to reduce the amount of plastic waste we generate on campus,” Sinclair told CFJC Today. “So fewer plastic bottles, fewer [disposable] cups.”

That campaign was just one of several the Sustainability Office was telling students about while also celebrating a huge milestone. On Tuesday, it was announced that TRU was officially the “Coolest School of 2019” based on many of the programs, policies, and initiatives around reducing the institutions’ environmental impact.

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“It’s a fairly prestigious recognition,” Jim Gudjonson is TRU’s Director of Sustainability explained. “There are almost 300 institutions — mostly in the U.S., but there are a few in Canada who participate — and we were pretty excited to be number one.”

Gudjonson says being recognized by the Sierra Club is a special honour that has come as a result of TRU’s work to improve energy efficiency in many of its facilities.

“They weighed [the scoring] quite heavily on our greenhouse gas emissions and our climate change strategies,” Gudjonson said. “We have a lot of low-carbon electrification, we’ve reduced a lot of our energy use, and we purchase clean, renewable energy. That pushed us over the top.”

The list includes many well-known schools across the United States, including Arizona State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Connecticut. TRU beat them all with a score of 88.63, which was 1.68 points ahead of their nearest competitor. The only other Canadian university in the top 20 was the University of Calgary, which finished 17th.

“We hosted David Suzuki back in March, and he said you have to tell people what you’re doing here,” Gudjonson said. “Because it’s what organizations can do to prove that we can actually save energy, be more sustainable, and have it be cost-effective.”

While being named the Coolest School of the year is a special honour for TRU, the work in sustainability doesn’t stop there. Canyon and his fellow sustainability co-op students continue to spearhead new programs — like “Fill It Forward” and the new Electric Bike share program — in the hopes the idea of a more sustainable future catches on with more students.

“Just because we’ve achieved number one in those rankings doesn’t mean we’re done,” Sinclair said. “What about water use? What about waste streams? What about education? There’s so much more we can do.”