In partnership with Grounds Services, the Sustainability Office invites you to share your feedback on a proposed Sustainable Land Care Standard for the campus. This is a virtual consultation session for members of the community who are not able to attend the open houses in person.
During the meeting, we will share relevant information about the development of the Sustainable Land Care Standard and provide an opportunity for thoughts, reflection, and comments.
The virtual Sustainable Land Care Consultation will be held on Microsoft Teams on Thursday, September 29 from 12-1pm.
Background
The University of Waterloo owns over 1,200 acres of property, with a mix of built, managed, semi-natural, and natural areas. These grounds support the University’s core mission to create spaces for community gathering, recreation, learning, and researching. As a steward of many parts of the local community's ecological heritage, the way we manage our grounds has important impacts on local biodiversity, water resources and air quality, local infrastructure, and more.
Although we have many longstanding sustainable practices, these have not been standardized. The proposed Sustainable Land Care Standard is meant to guide how our campus grounds and natural areas will be developed and maintained over time, including eight focus areas:
- Soil and vegetation
- Fertilizers and pesticides
- Biodiversity
- Water management
- Snow and ice management
- Equipment
- Stakeholder engagement
- Continuous improvement
Next steps
- Public feedback will be reviewed throughout fall 2022
- The final Sustainable Land Care Standard is anticipated to be released in early 2023