Here at the UofO there are 2885 residence beds spread out over seven residence buildings on campus. In addition, there are some residence houses in the Sandy Hill community and a few students that stay over at the St. Paul residence. So in the end, we are talking about 10% of the community that lives on campus.
So imagine our reaction here at the Office of Campus Sustainability when the idea of a model room in residences started floating around.With such a huge number of the campus community living in residences, it would be a gigantic win for us if we could get students to practice sustainable living habits.
So here is what we are proposing, an online residence room that shows everyone the top things that they could do in their rooms to be green. Hopefully we will be able to create an interactive dashboard to really draw people in. As of late, we have been collecting ideas from other universities but it would be great if we could get ideas from the community too.
University is usually the first time a young adult gets to move out of the home and start doing things for themselves. It is technically at this time that independent living habits are created and with a little nudging, maybe this is the time that sustainable living habits could be created.
Just as a quick reminder, the average Canadian:
- produces 2.1 kg of domestic waste annually (one of the worst on the planet)
- uses about 4,383 litres per day (one of the worse on the planet)
- produces about 20 tonnes of GHGs every year (one of the worst in the world)
- is among the most handsome people on the planet (come on.... I couldn't let it be all doom and gloom)
If you have any suggestions, tips or tricks to make residence rooms greener, we would love to hear them. Send us an email.
~jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo