François Rochon
There are plenty of sustainable development awareness campaigns out there telling us to turn off lights or reduce our “carbon footprint.” The famous three “Rs” — reduce, recycle, reuse — are the mantra of the environmental movement. But is the message changing the way people think and do things?
It was this question that inspired Lucie Keech, former communications officer with the Sustainable Development Office and Julie Lalonde, manager of internal communications. “After reading about a green office challenge at Simon Fraser University, I thought the University could do something similar. The idea was to generate greater awareness of daily habits at work and how they impact our environment,” said Lalonde.
The first group to take on the challenge was the Communications Office under the guidance of Jonathan Rausseo, sustainable development coordinator. The group of employees was judged in six main areas — paper consumption (printing), energy (lights, computer), water (no bottled water), transportation (alternate modes), air (plants in office) and lunches (recycling). “There are some things people take for granted,” says Rausseo. “For example, how much litter does your lunch create or how much printing do you do in a day and is it all necessary?”
Participants were asked to track their performance in each of the main areas for two weeks. The exercise was an eye-opener for several of the staff members. “The challenge definitely forced me to improve in the printing and litterless lunches categories, and encouraged me to do even better in areas where I was already strong,” said Francois Neville, communications assistant and one of the participants in the challenge. “This exercise allowed me to think twice about some of my undesirable habits and look for long-term solutions that I can apply every single day.”
Based on the two-week performance record for each participant, Rausseo assigned an overall grade of B+ to the Communications Office. “Ultimately the results are not what’s important,” he concludes. “It’s getting people to think about their impact on the environment and to act upon it.”
The Gazette and the Sustainable Development Office are expanding this challenge to various sectors on campus. If you are interested in having your office participate, contact Jonathan Rausseo at jrausseo@uOttawa.ca.
