Thompson Rivers University's (TRU) commitment to sustainability has once again earned the university recognition as a leader in environmental protection and stewardship.
The university's Sustainability Office is the recipient of the 2024 Recycling Council of BC's (RCBC) Environmental Award in the Public Sector category.
The award was presented on Thursday, June 13, at RCBC's Annual General Meeting and Awards event in Vancouver.
TRU was recognized for its ongoing commitment to attaining zero waste, for university staff and students' decade-long commitment to sustainability and for voluntarily piloting and leading initiatives that have recently become either common practice or government-mandated.
TRU Sustainability Programs Manager James Gordon
"This is a great honour to be recognized by an organization like the RCBC, one of the pioneer environmental organizations in BC," said James Gordon, manager of Sustainability Programs. "All of TRU should feel very proud since there are many within our community who work very hard to manage our waste streams as responsibly as possible.
"A special shout out to Sustainability Programs and Support Co-ordinator Anna Rogers, who heads up our Zero Waste Program. She's really taken the program to the next level by implementing many initiatives to keep us on track to meet our ambitious goal of being truly a zero waste' campus, diverting 95 per cent of waste away from landfills, by 2035."
The annual RCBC awards event brings together government policy experts, private sector organizations, non-profits, community groups and academia to discuss environmental challenges, solutions and policy ideas. Founded in 1974, RCBC is Canada's longest-serving recycling council.
Recognized for their engagement in and commitment to sustainability goals and initiatives, the university's Sustainability Office team received national attention at the recent Colleges and Institutes Canada's (CICan) Connection Conference in Calgary, Alta., winning the 2024 Gold Leadership Excellence Award for Managerial Staff. TRU team members included Vice-President of Administration and Finance Matt Milovick, Associate Vice-President of Campus Infrastructure, Sustainability and Ancillary Services Warren Asuchak, Sustainability Programs Manager James Gordon and Manager of Energy Natalie Yao.
TRU also received national and international attention earlier this year at World Congress 2023 in Montreal, Que. At the event, TRU received the bronze award from CICan for Excellence in Sustainable Development and the bronze award from the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics for Sustainable Development Goals.
Sustainability has been a core value at TRU since 2013, when it was identified as a strategic priority. TRU achieved a platinum rating in 2018, the first Canadian institution to reach that level, and again in 2022, for its sustainability initiatives and achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's STARS program. The university was the first in Canada and one of six in the world to have achieved double platinum.
