Getting to Zero Waste at Concordia

Last November, Concordia launched an ambitious five-year Sustainability Action Plan, developed in consultation with students, faculty, and staff. Covering topics of Food, Waste, Climate Change, Research, and Curriculum, the plan will contribute significantly to Concordia’s newly-committed efforts to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Following the launch event, we are offering our community the opportunity to learn more about each of the topics through a Q&A panel event series.

The third event of this series focuses on the Zero Waste Plan, which aims to reduce Concordia’s waste by 50% and divert 90% of materials from the landfill. The plan’s strategies focus heavily on reducing and reusing waste, and finding innovative solutions to long-standing challenges, including how to shift campus culture from single use to reuse.

Join our panelists in discussion about the plan, it’s major challenges, and how you can get involved. Our panelists lead the Zero Waste Concordia Program, the Sustainability Ambassadors Program, and the Concordia Centre for Creative Reuse, run a class conducting a bike tour of  waste management sites in Montreal, and conduct research on recycling/upcycling processes glass.

We’ll dig into questions like:

- How can we create an awareness of the connection between campus actions and the resulting lifecycle impacts beyond our walls?

- How can we encourage community members to innovative, and increase collaborations with between our operational, research, and curriculum sectors to tackle waste challenges?

- In what ways can waste actions initiatives be more inclusive of underprivileged voices and communities who often bear the brunt of impacts of our extractive, take-make-waste systems of consumption.

- What strategies can we use to include departments, student groups, and other Concordia communities in self-generating their own contributions to the plan?

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the Zero Waste Plan and come prepared to discuss with our panelists!

The Sustainability Action Plan panel event series is organized by the Office of Sustainability in collaboration with the Concordia Student Union.

How can you participate? Register for the Zoom meeting or watch live on our Facebook.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca

Panelists

Alice Jarry is Assistant Professor in Design and Computation Arts, and conducts research on recycling and upcycling processed glass.

Liz Miller is Professor in Communication Studies, and offers a class conducting a bike tour of waste management sites in Montreal.

Faisal Shennib is Environmental Specialist in Facilities Management, and leads the Zero Waste program at Concordia. He also coordinated the Zero Waste Plan drafting committee.

Arrien Weeks is Material & Tool Literacy Coordinator in Facilities Management, and leads the Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse. He also participated on the Zero Waste Plan drafting committee.

Moderator

Meredith Marty-Dugas is Sustainability Ambassadors Program coordinator in the Office of Sustainability.