This was the most comprehensive survey on sustainability at the college in 10 years, with questions on sustainability culture (how people feel) and literacy (what people know).  The survey results are used to help inform our Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) report and develop programs and initiatives. 

Here are some highlights from the survey results.

Sustainability Culture

The culture of sustainability at the college is resoundingly positive.  Most staff and students said that environmental sustainability is important, they want to learn more about sustainability, and they consider social sustainability when making purchases.  This echoes the value of sustainability in the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan.

Environmental Priorities

With sustainability as a value that guides us, there are many different areas we can focus our efforts.  Staff and students identified reducing / minimizing waste and other waste diversion programs as the most important environmental sustainability issue to address.  Waste reduction and diversion are some of the most visible sustainability programs at the college.  The second priority identified is to increase awareness and education, followed by support for sustainable transportation.  All three priorities help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustainability Literacy

Understanding sustainability and its main concepts can help affect change. When asked to identify the three main components of sustainability, 41% of staff and 31% of students successfully identified economic, environmental and social, while 43% of staff and 52% of students selected reduce, reuse, recycle.

This is not surprising, given the effectiveness of the 3R messaging and the decrease in visibility and communication on sustainability during the pandemic.  Historically more staff answered this question successfully.  This year had the lowest successful response rate.  

For the other literacy questions, most staff and students could successfully define a life cycle analysis (89% / 68%); define the concept of Zero Waste (91% / 77%); and identify the food with the highest carbon footprint (81% / 67%).

Social Sustainability

Social sustainability is fundamentally interconnected with environmental sustainability.  We asked staff and students to identify examples of social sustainability.  Most staff (76%) and students (68%) identified truth and reconciliation, which could be connected to increased focus and education.  A much smaller number of staff (29%) and students (18%) identified accessible technology (using closed captioning in course materials).  For this question, all the answers are examples of social sustainability at the college.

The survey results showed that staff and students value sustainability and have a good understanding of the concepts.  The results provided us with feedback on what’s going well and where we can improve.  Thank you to everyone who completed the survey, your answers provide valuable input and help inform sustainability work at the college. 

With the recent launch of RRC Polytech’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026, In Front of What’s Ahead, it is time for many departments to set their own priorities and create strategies to complement and support the college’s bold vision. The Strategic Plan lists sustainability as one of the values that helps shape how we do our work and affirms our organizational commitment to “approach[ing] all our work with humility and a desire to improve the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being all Manitobans.” We are excited to work towards the outcomes outlined in the Plan, but to do that effectively we need to have a better understanding of where we’re starting from. That is where STARS comes in.

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for post-secondaries to measure their sustainability performance. Developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), in consultation with the higher education community, STARS is a comprehensive tool that looks at the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability across an entire institution. Ratings (platinum, gold, silver and bronze) are achieved based on the percentage of applicable points earned. By undertaking this assessment, we will be better able to understand and communicate where we are as an organization and how we compare to our peers.

STARS by the Numbers

• 679: post-secondary institutions worldwide have earned a STARS rating
• 63: Credits across four categories: Academics, Engagement, Operations, and Planning & Administration
• 4: bonus points available as Innovation & Leadership credits
• 11: institutions have earned a Platinum rating

RRC Polytech last undertook STARS in 2012 and earned a silver rating. As a result, we were able to identify key areas for improvement and advance sustainability significantly at the college. It is time to do this again. Using STARS as a benchmark, we will gain a better understanding of what we’re doing well and where the gaps exist. This will provide a strong foundation as we build towards realizing the vision set out in the Strategic Plan.  

Below is the project timeline:

While this project is led by Environmental Stewardship & Campus Renewal, it is a college-wide initiative and we want to thank all of you who have been and will be involved throughout this process. If you have any questions about STARS, or want to know how you can be involved, please contact us, we’d love to hear from you! 

When you purchase a fairtrade product, you are ensuring that farmers and workers in developing countries that helped bring that product to market are receiving adequate compensation for their hard work, that they have safe working conditions, and that environmental standards were met in its production.

Show How You Support Fair Trade and Win!

Show how you support Fair Trade and be entered to win!

During Fair Trade Campus Week, get caught with a certified fairtrade product on Campus and be entered to win free coffee for a month*! We will be popping up all week at the Notre Dame and Exchange District Campuses catching you in the act of supporting Fair Trade and entering you for our prize draw.

Never in the right place at the right time? Don’t worry! You can also share with us how you support Fair Trade on social media and be entered to win. Simply:

1. Take a photo or video demonstrating your Fair Trade commitment.
2. Post it on social media using the hashtag #FTCampus
3. Make sure you tag us (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Fair Trade Fair

Thursday, September 28 | 11AM – 1PM | Library Hallway, Notre Dame Campus

ACC Students will be handing out Fair Trade Banana Rum Biscotti at the Fair Trade Fair.

Our office has partnered with the ACC International Baking Students again to bring you a free Fair Trade treat: Banana Rum Biscotti dipped in chocolate made with fairtrade sugar, bananas (donated by Discovery Organics) and dark chocolate (donated by Camino). See the full list of ingredients here.

And what’s biscotti without coffee or tea? De Luca’s will also be there sampling their fairtrade coffee and we will sampling the fairtrade Numi teas that are now available on campus.

We are also excited to have Ten Thousand Villages selling their beautiful fairtrade products. Start your holiday shopping early, or pick up something for yourself.

Fair Trade is a true embodiment of sustainability – working to address economic, social and environmental issues of our globalized economy.  This is why Red River College is working to become the first Fair Trade Campus in Manitoba. Here are some of the ways you can engage with Fair Trade on Campus:

• 

  Fairtrade tea is now available at the Buffalo, Voyageur and Culinary Exchange

  Purchase De Luca’s fairtrade coffee from Food Service locations (except Tim Hortons). Select from College Blend, Ethiopian Dark Roast, and Decaf.

• *NEW* Purchase Numi fairtrade organic teas from non-Tim Hortons Food Services locations. Available varieties include Golden Chai, Moroccan Mint and Honeybush.
• Opt for a Dairy Milk fairtrade chocolate bar from the Ox, the Mercantile or a vending machine
• Buy Fair Trade items at the Campus Store.
• Participate in Fair Trade events, including Fair Trade Campus Week.

[rg-headline content=”Did you know that you can now buy fairtrade Numi Organic teas at RRC cafeterias? In April 2017, we held a tea tasting and you voted for your favourites – Golden Chai, Honeybush, and Moroccan Mint teas – which you can now buy at the Buffalo, Voyageur and Culinary Exchange.”]

Fair Trade Campus Week is generously sponsored by Fair Trade Canada as well as many other companies who donate their fairtrade products to participating campuses. We would like to especially thank the following for their support:

• Red River College Food Services
• Discovery Organics
• Camino
• Divine Chocolate
• Doi Chaang Coffee Co.
• Numi Organic Tea
• Glee Gum

A big congratulations goes out to Nora Sobel and Bradley West from the Diversity and Intercultural Services department who accepted the inaugural Sustainability Leadership Award at Red River College’s RED Forum last week. They received this award for developing an online course to raise awareness about gender and sexual diversity issues among Red River College students, staff and faculty.

This award was created to shine a spotlight on the great sustainability work being done by faculty and staff throughout the College. Being recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for 7 consecutive years doesn’t happen without dedication, innovation and commitment from our entire College community. The Sustainability Leadership Award is one way we’re recognizing staff and faculty who are putting sustainability at the forefront of their work.

“The course allows the College community to access information to support their learning journey, 24/7. This supports access and flexibility in how students interact with the content. Common elements of social sustainability”, Bradley said. One of the first to be developed in Canada, the course is offered in six 50-minute modules. Each module can stand alone, or the entire series can be offered together as a comprehensive learning experience. The course covers topics like Terminology; Cultural Considerations; Manifestations of Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia and Heterosexism; Strategies for Inclusiveness; History of Pride and LGBTT* Rights; and College, Local and National Resources. “A strong collaborative approach throughout the development and implementation of this course is really one of the highlights of this initiative. RRC Teaching Learning Technology Centre (TLTC) supported our work through regular consultations with instructional designers and LEARN specialists, as well as with the filming, editing and closed captioning of video segments led by the eTV Studio. And now we are working with various academic programs -such as the Nursing program and the Allied Health Sciences programs- to employ this course to support student learning outcomes”, Nora said.

In addition to educating the College community about an important topic, the recipients of this year’s Sustainability Leadership Award serves a secondary purpose by raising our collective awareness of what it means to be a sustainable campus. All-too-often, conversations around campus sustainability focus on recycling and energy efficient buildings. But Red River College’s sustainability lens encompasses the three pillars of sustainability – social, economic and environmental. The Gender and Sexual Diversity course promotes the pillar of social sustainability. Social sustainability is about people – individuals and the community. While no universally accepted definition exists, it is generally agreed that socially sustainable communities are characterized by equity, diversity, inter-connectedness and good quality of life. These are values we espouse for our students, staff, faculty and our broader community.

The Sustainability Leadership Award recognizes and celebrates the outstanding contributions and cooperative efforts of employees who advance environmental, social and/or economic sustainability in a meaningful and enduring way at Red River College.

This year, we have worked on many social sustainability projects and one local organization with whom we are proud to be growing our relationship is Winnipeg Harvest. Below are some of the ways we have connected with Winnipeg Harvest this year to support social sustainability locally.

Drop off baby food, cereal and formula at C519 (NDC) until Dec 23rd at noon for Winnipeg Harvest.

In a sustainable society everyone has access to basic needs like food, shelter and clothing. In Winnipeg however, almost 54,000 people rely on Winnipeg Harvest for emergency food each month. More than half of those in need are children, and over 1,600 of them are infants. This month, the Sustainability Office will be collecting baby food and formula to donate to Winnipeg Harvest to support their First Steps program. If you would like to help, you can drop off the following items to our office (NDC, C519) by noon on December 23:

• Baby food jars of chicken, beef, vegetables or fruit
• Infant cereal such as oatmeal, barley or rice
• Formula with added iron (While donations of infant formula with added iron are needed, Winnipeg Harvest supports breastfeeding.)

Please also consider donating other non-perishable food items to the Student Association Food Bank. Collection bins are located at NDC: outside the SA Office (CM20)/The Ox and at EDC: at the SA Office (P110).

We collected 604 plastic bags for Winnipeg Harvest.

Winnipeg Harvest uses approximately 1 million plastic bags a year to deliver emergency food kits. So, as part of Waste Reduction Week this year, we partnered with Winnipeg Harvest and MMSM (Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba) on their Bag it Forward program to collect used plastic bags for reuse and recycling. Due to high interest, we extended the collection period and last week dropped off 604 plastic bags (8 lbs) to Winnipeg Harvest. Due to the success of this pilot, we’re working with the Students’ Association, Winnipeg Harvest and MMSM to set up a permanent collection for used plastic bags at RRC – stay tuned!

This year, RRC participated in Winnipeg Harvest’s Grow-A-Row project for the 4th year in a row. This year, the grounds crew grew, harvested and delivered 1,032 lbs of onions; 1,555 lbs of potatoes; and 290 lbs of carrots to Winnipeg Harvest.

RRC participated in Winnipeg Harvest’s Grow-A-Row program for the 4th year in a row this year.

In 2017, we pledge to continue our work towards social sustainability, and to build and strengthen partnerships with Winnipeg Harvest and others. Here are some ways you can help:

• Bring baby food, cereal or formula with added iron to our Office (C519) by noon on December 23^rd to help with Winnipeg Harvest’s First Steps program
• Drop off non-perishable food items to the Students’ Association Food Bank at any time
• If you’re a gardener, consider growing an extra row for Winnipeg Harvest next year. We also need help harvesting our extra rows every fall, so stay tuned for this volunteer opportunity next year.
• Watch for plastic bag collection bins in the new year at RRC and donate your gently-used plastic bags to help Winnipeg Harvest deliver emergency food kits (in the meantime, if you have plastic bags you can drop them off to our office (C519))
• Donate money to Winnipeg Harvest or another cause that is near and dear to you
• Donate time to Winnipeg Harvest or another cause that is near and dear to you
• Spread the word through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, IRC, text message, phone, telegram – however you communicate.

We heard some amazing stories, many from our international students who spoke of their first-hand accounts of labour conditions in their countries.   One student shared her knowledge of the sport ball industry in her home country of Pakistan.  She explained that the majority of sport balls came from one city “just one city” in Pakistan.  Did you know that there are over 250 manufacturers of sports balls in Sailkot and only 6 are fair trade? Fair trade magazine; Summer/Fall 2014 |Issue 4; p14

We had over 100 entries in our secret word and fair trade trivia contests;  I was impressed that everyone was correct in their trivia answers;  and that I even learned a few new places to buy fair trade in Winnipeg.

Here’s what RRC staff had to tell us about fair trade:

• There are 21 Fair Trade cities and towns in Canada.
• The City of Brandon and the Town of Gimli are 2 Fair Trade towns in Manitoba.
• You can find Fair trade products at: Organic Planet Worker Co-op, Canadian Museum for Human Rights Boutique, Ten Thousand Villages, RRC Campus Stores, Constance Popp Chocolates, Organic Planet Worker Co-op, Safeway in Neepawa, The Fresh Carrot, Caulfield’s Organic Market, Ann’s Flowers and Gifts, Ben and Jerry’s, Bulk Barn, Vita Health, Superstore and Costco.

The benefits of Fair Trade are:

• Empowerment of farmers and workers – This is a goal of fair trade.
• Small farmer groups must have a democratic structure and transparent administration in order to be certified. Groups are supported by Fair trade International to develop their capacity in this area.
• Reduces poverty in developing communities around the world; Improves the livelihood of the millions of farmers and working in the developing world who benefit from fair trade.
• Promotes the empowerment of farmers and workers, allowing them to have representatives on a committee that decides on the use of the Fair Trade Premium (the amount paid).
• Fair pay and working conditions.
• Farmers & workers get a fair price for their products and income stability.
• Supporting farmers by providing stable prices
• Fair trade helps protect forests Ensuring farmers and producers are paid a fairly – the price accounts for a number of factors including cost of production and adequate living standards.
• I think the most important benefit of Fair Trade is that it establishes safer and healthier working conditions; also people are paid more fairly- so both sides benefit from the product.
• Improves lives, No child labour, safer working conditions, more money to the people actually doing the work – farmers, craftspeople, etc.

Thank you again to our sponsors, Fair Trade Canada and the Fair Trade Network for arranging the donation of promotional items that included  free chocolate and tea graciously donated by Camino and Four O’clock tea.

Congratulations to all of the people who visited our fair trade booth, and participated in the fair trade trivia and secret word contests.

Prize winners are as follows:

Bird and Rock sculpture: Richard Berard

Fair trade chocolate and tea basket for the office:

• Mary Anne Shukla – Steinbach Campus
• Ellen Acton – Interlake Campus
• Tanis McCallum – NDC
• Tabitha Ann Nordby – Roblin Centre
• Lori Lobchuk – Language Training Centre (Via Rail)
• Brenda Lesiuk- NDC

Please contact Sue Hayduk at 204.632.2144 to claim your prize!

Did you know that RRC is working to become the 10th Fair Trade Campus in Canada?

On September 22nd and 23rd staff and students are invited to find out about our journey, what partners we have in place, and what Fair Trade products you can find on campus.

Shop the global market, learn about the Fair Trade movement and indulge in a variety of delicious Fairtrade-certified products.  Ten Thousand Villages will be on hand with items for sale (cash only);  Fair Trade Manitoba and the Sustainability Office  will have FREE Tea, Chocolate and “maybe even bananas” courtesy of Fairtrade Canada.

• Tuesday, September 22 from 11:00 am-2:00 pm
• Notre Dame Campus – Library Hallway
• Wednesday, September 23 from 11:00 am-2:00 pm
• Roblin Centre – Atrium

• Regional campuses can participate in Fair Trade Trivia!
• Answer our skill testing question, and you will be entered to WIN a Fair trade tea and chocolate basket for your office.
• Q:  Using one of the websites provided, how many Fair Trade cities and towns are there in Canada?  Send your name, campus and answer to: shayduk@rrc.ca by Sept 25th.

Can’t make the market?  Drop by RRC’s Campus Store any time for Fair Trade and ethically-sourced items– dresses, scarves, jewellery, stationary, mugs, etc.

For more information, contact the Sustainability Office at 204.632.2166