First campus-wide Sustainability Report features Facility Services initiatives

Sustainability, in all its forms, matters to the McMaster community.

The focus on environmental sustainability runs through every part of the university, from teaching and research to the campus environment and operations. In years past, Facility Services created a standalone report detailing how our team is reducing carbon emissions, waste, and energy use on campus. Now, a snapshot of collective measures to advance environmental sustainability from across our institution, the communities that surround us and around the world can be viewed together as McMaster’s first university-wide Sustainability Report.

Facility Services’ team initiatives and expertise is highlighted throughout all three pillars within the Sustainability Report, which also features all faculties and many areas across the university.

It features stories about the solitary bee homes or waste bin relabelling projects on campus, both student collaborations with Facility Services. McMaster’s Net Zero Carbon Roadmap, rainwater harvesting, LED lighting retrofits, waste reduction benchmarks and the Trash to Treasure IT refurbishment project are also Facility Services initiatives highlighted in the report.

In the coming year there is a lot of work to do to continue to promote sustainability at McMaster. The Office of Sustainability will engage with the McMaster Sustainability Advisory Council, which was formed in 2019 to better coordinate sustainability programs campus wide, will be working to develop a Sustainability Plan for our campus. To create the plan, perspectives and inputs from students, faculty members and staff across McMaster will be sought. In future, this report will feature progress on this plan.

You can find McMaster’s first campus-wide Sustainability Report online in two formats, including a website and downloadable PDF. You can also find a story on McMaster’s Daily News website that shares more about the significance of the report and the importance of sustainability at McMaster.

If you would like to learn more about how to participate in sustainability initiatives on campus or contribute to next year’s Sustainability Report, please connect by emailing sustainability@mcmaster.ca.