Vision 2020 - Creating a Sustainable McGill Ideas

Bad temperature control in buildings affects occupant comfort and wastes energy resources.

become carbon neutral by 2050 - reducing ghg emission by 50% by 2025

become a waste free campus!

I have noticed that people using the uPrint devices print things that they don't want and leave the paper on the machine or lying around.

Also, I noticed that many of the uPrint devices are located in hallways and other spaces which don't have a paper recycling bin close by.

I think it would be very helpful and useful to have a paper recycling bin at every U-Print device. Paper only recycling, so a single narrow slot... more »

There should be a centralised place on campus where staff, students and faculty can drop off old electronic devices, batteries, toner/printer cartridges, smoke detectors and other hazardous materials for reuse or safe disposal.

Tied into the idea of better asset management, the idea would be to have a store front where surplus items from around campus can be stored in (rather than stuffed into little rooms around campus taking up valuable space) and sold out of.

 

There are other Universities with programs along the same lines.

http://www.uiowa.edu/uisurplus/index.html

http://www.msusurplusstore.com/servlet/StoreFront

Require any building or renovation projects at McGill to include provisions for the recycling of the construction waste generated during that project. Have it built into the contract bidding process as a requirement that the contractors have to follow.

 

Use recycled material whenever possible for projects.

Test the waste water leaving McGill campus, identify any pollutants, identify sources of these pollutants, eliminate or mitigate these sources. Inact measures/education schemes to prevent these types of pollutants from entering the sewers.

Eliminate sytofoam cups and plates from campus.

 

Switch to reusable or completely biodegradable cutlery, dishware, coffee cups, an food containers for all food events and food services on campus.

Replace any auto-flushing type urinals with motion controlled ones. This will result in a huge savings in water consumption

Conduct a campus-wide inventory of the energy consumption of vending machines. Make sure that they operate as efficiently as possible and be sure to factor in their relative energy use when considering their use. Seek vending machines which are more efficient in their use of electricity.

Every 2 years new research machinery gets bought from grants, but these grants don't provide the funding or training for upkeep, maintenance, or upgrading. McGill now has thousands and thousands of tonnes of lab equipment that's collecting dust because they have broken down, become obsolete in two years, or research interests have shifted. We need a system in place to maintain this machinery, reuse it, or supervise the... more »

Mac campus is unique and offers opportunities for innovation not present downtown--in buildings, energy, food, waste, creating sustainable systems... Take advantage of these!

Why don't we have bins beside the printers where we can put our one-sided paper? This way we would not recycle paper that can still be reused.

Why does Mcgill libraries not have a adequate supply of headphones for rent? They could be 3-6 hrs rentals, that way we would not over consume the cheap headphones the library supplies students with right now. The rent-able headphones could be bought from a north american company.