Movers & Shakers
MEMBER NEWS
EMPLOYERS EARN KUDOS FOR THEIR CULTURES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS The City of Calgary and the University of Alberta aren’t engineering or geoscience firms in the traditional sense. But they do have APEGA Permits to Practice, and they do employ APEGA professionals playing key roles in their green initiatives. Here’s something else they share: they’re among Canada’s Greenest Employers, an honour bestowed annually by national publisher Mediacorp Canada Inc. Both public-sector organizations made the 70-employer list, which recognizes organizations for creating a culture of environmental awareness. For the City of Calgary, this is the
second year in a row on the list. The city supports several green community programs, like the Pathway and River Cleanup, Bike Calgary, and Carpool.ca. It also has formal policies to integrate environmental considerations into long- term decisions about growth, planning, infrastructure, transportation, and development. The city’s Sustainable Building Policy sets LEED requirements the city meets in new construction and major renovations of buildings staffed by city employ- ees. (LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a popular green certification program developed in the U.S. but used worldwide). The city’s water conservation strategy includes a 30-in-30 plan, which aims to reduce water consumption by 30 per cent over the next 30 years. And several city buildings use solar energy for their power — among them the Southland Leisure Centre, with 600 solar panels on its roof. Another key city initiative in 2017 is the city's continued work on flood mitigation and climate resilience. In Edmonton, the University of Alberta is one of only seven employers — and the only Canadian post- secondary institution — to make the green list for nine years in a row. Green initiatives get students, faculty, and employees invested in environmental sustainability. This includes a waste-diversion program for students
URBAN HARVEST The University of Alberta’s Prairie Urban Farm has helped the school become one of only seven employers in Canada to make Mediacorp’s green list nine times in a row. -photo courtesy the University of Alberta
moving from campus, an annual Sustainability Aware- ness Week, and the on-campus Prairie Urban Farm. The university received kudos from Mediacorp for its recycling and waste-reduction initiatives — and for giving engineering students a real-world learning opportunity to audit the school’s waste management system and suggest new approaches. Other highlights that earned the U of A top points are the green roofs (roofs with vegetation) of the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, the university’s investment in solar energy on several newer buildings, and a rainwater collection system on the roof of Triffo Hall. Sustainability is not new for the university, going back long before climate change was widely in the news. The school’s Energy Management Program, part of its Campus Sustainability Initiative, has been in place since 1975. The program has saved the university an estimated $353 million in utility costs and has prevented over 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas from being emitted. Many private companies also made the Mediacorp green list. Watch for information about them in The PEG winter edition.
18 | PEG FALL 2017
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