Culture of sustainability

Actions from various departments and teams at Waterloo to foster a culture of sustainability and accountability have included, but are not limited to:

2024

• Developed tools to integrate campus feedback, including the 2024 Sustainability Survey, which had over 1,500 respondents
• Delivered guest lectures to dozens of undergraduate and graduate classes, reflecting on global and campus sustainability topics, reaching over 850 students
• Facilitated centralized waste sorting at Black and Gold Day
• Hosted a Free Store pop up as part of orientation’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” activity 
• Relaunched the Green Residence program, focusing on interactive pop-up booths to educate residence students on sustainable living and learning
• Created co-curricular opportunities to recognize sustainability efforts of students within and beyond the classroom, through the Sustainability Leadership Certificate
• 30 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 7 Platinum, 9 Gold, 9 Silver, and 5 Bronze
• 8 labs achieved Green Labs certification, including 5 Gold, 2 Silver, and 1 Bronze
• Received STARS Gold designation
• Received Water Efficiency Excellence Award from the Region of Waterloo for the Campus-wide Water Fixtures Retrofit Project

2023

• Developed a new Get Involved webpage to provide clarity on the unique roles we play as students, staff, faculty/instructors, and managers
• Sustainability Guide redeveloped
• Facilitated a training workshop with incoming O-Week leaders on strategies and best practices for integrating sustainability into orientation planning, providing an  opportunity for group brainstorming and sharing
• Climate Leaders hosted the first annual Climate Con
• Created the Sustainability Playbook to help employees make more explicit connections from broad institutional goals to day-to-day activities they can do
• 36 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 2 Platinum, 11 Gold, 14 Silver, and 9 Bronze
• 6 labs achieved Green Labs certification, including 2 Gold, 3 Silver, and 1 Bronze

2022

• Waterloo celebrated its 10th annual Eco Summit at Fed Hall with over 175 campus community members
• Hosted a series of training sessions with student orientation leaders
• Four new students were certified as WWF Canada Living Planet Leaders, bringing Waterloo’s total to 10 leaders
• Launched the Climate Leaders Program
• 35 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 3 Platinum, 4 Gold, 15 Silver, 13 Bronze
• 2 labs achieved Level 3 in the Green Labs framework
• Co-led the inaugural SDG Week Canada campaign

2021

• The Sustainability Office launched the Green Volunteer program
• The Sustainability Office launched an account on LinkedIn
• WUSA Sustainability Project launched the Student Sustainability Committee
• Updated the structure and delivery of the Sustainability Certificate offering for departments and on LEARN for individuals
• 25 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 3 Platinum, 2 Gold, 12 Silver, and 8 Bronze
• 4 labs achieved Level 2 in the Green Labs framework

2020

• The Sustainability Office launched WAT's Sustainable Podcast
• Organized training sessions for interested Orientation Week leaders
• Created and shared sustainability content through various campus channels as part of virtual orientation weeks
• WUSA launched the Sustainability Commissioner role
• 32 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 3 Platinum, 3 Gold, 14 Silver, and 12 Bronze
• Updated the Green Office scorecard to include more remote-working action items and resources
• Waterloo received the "Breakthrough Award" from Sustainable Waterloo Region for the development of Shift:Neutral

2019

• Launched monthly sustainability newsletter to highlight campus stories
• Students began organizing the Impact Alliance
• Waterloo launched the Green Residence program
• 27 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 1 Platinum, 2 Gold, 12 Silver, and 12 Bronze
• Waterloo became a Pledging Partner for climate change with the Regional Sustainability Initiative, utilizing the commitments of Shift:Neutral

2018

• Piloted the Green Residence Ambassador program to expand reach among first-year students in residences in partnership with Campus Housing
• Launched the Sustainability Diploma, available for undergraduate students in any faculty
• Joined the Living Planet @ Campus program, facilitated through WWF Canada
• 22 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 2 Gold, 7 Silver, and 13 Bronze
• Assisted Waterloo Global Science Initiative in development of Energize game framework
• Engineering Outreach hosted camp focused on sustainable development for high-school students

2017

• Provided new employees with sustainability information during orientation
• Integrated the Sustainability Guide into student orientation kits
• Integrated a session on sustainable living into Maximize Potential leadership program
• Formed the Sustainability Network after consultations with students from multiple clubs and societies
• 21 departments achieved Green Office certification, including 1 Gold, 6 Silver, and 14 Bronze

Employee Training

The Sustainability Office maintains a list of employees who have completed sustainability training since its launch in 2018. This includes participation in the in-person offerings from 2018-2020, the online LEARN modules that have been offered since 2020, and specific offerings provided to departments or units.

To calculate the participation rate, the Sustainability Office utilizes employee headcounts from Human Resources.

Green Office

The Sustainability Office maintains a list of participating departments and ambassadors. The tiered certificates are based on a common scorecard which highlights actions that the department can undertake and is managed by the Sustainability Office.

To calculate the total number of offices, the departmental listings for Academic, Academic Support Unit, and Ancillary units were utilized on the main university “About” webpage and filtered for duplicates.

Because the Green Office program allows departments some flexibility to join as smaller units within a larger department (for example, Plant Operations – Design Services), the number of departments reflects a slightly larger range of units than strict financial org units.

Green Labs

The Sustainability Office maintains a list of participating labs and ambassadors. The tiered certificates are based on a common scorecard which highlights actions that the labs can undertake.

Student engagements

The Sustainability Office tracks attendance and/or participation for sustainability-related outreach and programming, including in-person engagements through events, outreach booths, and class presentations, and online engagement through participation in the Sustainability Leadership Certificate.