“I think other schools are laughing at us,” says fourth-year political science student Chris Berube. No, he’s not talking about our football team, on-campus food, or even our lack of school spirit. He’s referring to the University of Toronto’s institutional apathy toward the climate crisis. Universities in Canada and abroad are taking on the challenge, yet U of T has yet to act. And it’s no laughing matter. As the largest post-secondary institution in Canada, U of T has a key role to play in the greatest challenge facing our world. Yet our institutional commitments have been paltry, alongside with our reputation as a leading educational and research facility. The message is clear: Simcoe Hall just doesn’t care.
What the powers at be fail to realize, however, is that students do.
The student environmental movement at U of T has boomed in recent years. Individual students alongside the UTSU Sustainability Commission, Students Against Climate Change, the Toronto Undergraduate Geography Society, the Forestry Undergrad Society, and the Environment Student Union are demanding a sustainable university.
Joanna Dafoe, an undergraduate active within the Sustainability Commission explains this explosion in interest: “We see this movement coming together on campus because students fundamentally care about the world we are going to inherit. Naturally, this movement is taking place within the university because of how much potential schools have for discovery, innovation, and leadership.”
These groups are working on a number of initiatives, starting with greenhouse gas reduction. According to current estimates, campus buildings (not including the federated colleges) generated 144,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2007-2008. Waste disposal produced 3,000 tonnes in 2006- 2007, and transportation (the staff, faculty and student commute) accounted for 17,000 tonnes in 2006.
Students can help reduce U of T’s footprint by turning down the thermostat in their dorms, eating food that doesn’t require large carbon emissions to produce or transport, and by walking or taking the TTC to school every day. But individual actions are simply not enough. For effective reduction, there needs to be an institutional commitment.
According to Charlotte Lin, president of the Toronto Undergraduate Geography Society at U of T, “To have emissions-reductions targets would require massive investments and changes, because emissions touch on every single operation of the university.”
The Sustainability Commission has is pushing Simcoe Hall to adopt the President’s Climate Initiative. University presidents who sign the PCI commit to developing a Climate Action Plan, which includes creating a planning committee, taking inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, and identifying strategies to meet reduction targets.
The initiative began in the United States, and now has 614 signatories there. It made its way across the border into BC last year when Simon Fraser, the University of Victoria, Royal Roads, Thomson Rivers, the University of Northern British Columbia, and UBC banded together to sign the University and College President’s Climate Statement of Action on March 13, 2008. Carlton and the University of Ottawa are also on the brink of a signature. “If a really big school can sign onto something like this, it sends a message to political leaders that are failing to do the same thing on the international stage,” says Dafoe.
If the PCI were adopted, there are several ways U of T could reduce its footprint. Creating energy-efficient facilities should be the top priority, says geography professor Danny Harvey, but it’s not. “We could have started from the premise that every new building going up uses half the energy. That’s the minimum, but we don’t do that.” Harvey argues that new buildings can use two-thirds less energy they would otherwise don’t cost more in construction, but they require creative design and, of course, a willing client.
What about existing structures? After all, U of T is home to some of the oldest buildings in the city. This is where retrofitting—which can reduce emissions by as much as 90 per cent—comes in. The initial financial investment for retrofitting is high, but saves money on hydro and gas bills over the long term.
U of T went through its construction boom in the 1960s when the need for new buildings to accommodate the baby boom was high. The result was Northrop Frye, the Medical Science Building, and most of the concrete jungle west of St. George. These buildings shackled U of T to decades of high-energy dependency. But there’s no need to spend millions on erecting new structures on an already crowded campus.
As for updating buildings to have the most energy efficient technology, we have a lot of catching up to do. For schools on the leading edge of environmental reform, efforts began well before the PCI. UBC has been Canada’s leader in emission reduction since 1997, when it became the first Canadian post-secondary institution to adopt a sustainable development policy. Since then, the UBC Sustainability Office has developed a number of programs aimed at reducing the school’s footprint.
UBC’s ECOtrek program allows for major upgrades to existing campus facilities, rather than depleting resources so, UBC has reduced its emissions by 8,000 tonnes a year, saving $2.6 million in utility costs. It will take less than 15 years for the school to make up its initial $35-million investment.
Meanwhile, the UBC TREK program is dedicated to improving transportation options by promoting transit, carpooling, walking, and cycling. The result has been a 185 per cent increase in transit ridership, a 13 per cent reduction in vehicle use, and a 4.8 per cent reduction of single occupancy vehicle use—despite a 22 per cent growth in student enrollment.
U of T commuters, cover your ears for this part: the TREK program also includes a UPass providing students with universal and comprehensive access to Vancouver’s transit system that costs $23.75 a month. The average student saves $800 a year in transportation, and the program saves the atmosphere 16,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
A common concern is that our campus is situated right in the middle of an urban centre, making environmental reform difficult. We’re bound to the energy grid, the waste management system, urban food supplies, and to the major throughways slicing through campus. But this supposed weakness could actually be a strength. The University of California at Berkeley, one of the 614 American signatories of the PCI, is also located in an urban location, across the bay from San Francisco. U of T could learn a lot from this model of urban sustainability.
Utilizing the Northern California waste management infrastructure, Berkeley has managed to divert 57 per cent of its solid waste away from landfills. The per capita landfill tonnage decreased 21 per cent between 1995 and 2006.
It has also improved its diversion of organic waste, increasing the tonnage composted by over 100 per cent since 2000.
Cal Dining, which provides food for all residences at Berkeley, has made use of the environmentally friendly food resources now found in most urban centres. The dining bars in all four of the school’s cafeterias are entirely organic, and they’re working towards making one quarter of all food purchased from local suppliers. Almost one-fifth of Cal Dining’s total purchases are sustainable in some capacity, being either local, organic, fair trade, or humane. This meal plan is cutting greenhouse gases by reducing the number of goods that come from far away. Plus, it’s healthier.
Like U of T, Berkeley also has a public transit system at its fingertips. The Parking and Transport department has worked to ensure more and more people use it. Since 1990, ridership has more than doubled, and 92 per cent of students get to school on foot, bicycle, ridesharing, or transit.
It’s not all doom and gloom here in Toronto. Upon hearing about the PCI, Trinity college bursar Geoff Seaborn brought it to the attention of the Trinity provost, trustees, and students, who began collecting emissions data specific to the college. The Trinity Board of Trustees has approved the federated college’s signing on to the agreement, and Trinity provost Andy Orchard’s signature is expected any day now. This will mark the first institutional commitment at U of T.
“Institutionally, its the right thing to do,” says Seaborn. “We’re pushed by our students who are really active on sustainability, especially in the last few years. And the commitments are well on the way to being met.” Trin already has a planning body, a complete inventory of utility consumption and waste stream, and is working on a transportation plan. Additionally, the college has one of the few green spaces on campus. Atop the St. Hilda’s residence is an ecosystem full of plants and animal life. It’s a green lifeline that also provides insulation for the building.
On another positive note, there seems to be an increase in the number of environmental research efforts on campus. The Centre for Global Change Science, established in September of 2005, promotes interdisciplinary research programs to better understand and predict the global scale effects of human society on the earth’s climate and environment. Lin, who is part of the centre, is starting a journal to publish original research or review papers on global change science in an effort to circulate ideas and generate awareness.
Then there’s the much larger Centre for the Environment. It has a research strategy based on applied environmental science, the environment and health, environmental policy including energy policy, environmental ethics, and the environment and international development. U of T’s research and educational efforts can play a big part in fostering new technology, policies, and ideas.
It is U of T’s responsibility to handle the challenges of environmental sustainability. Simcoe Hall should demand that more funds go into future-oriented projects, instead of pumping more and more money into research geared toward the industries of old. Oil is going to run out within our lifetime. It is time to search for new solutions.
Robarts may not sprout seedlings anytime soon, no matter what Simcoe Hall does. But signing the PCI would be a symbolic and pragmatic thunderbolt, sending a message to the academic and political community that U of T is taking steps toward solving the climate crisis. A place that lets other schools worry about the greatest challenge of our time is not a university we want.
