By Sam Arseneau
Photo credits: Ben Macintosh
Whether you believe in the climate emergency or not, everyone can agree that doing things to take care of our environment is beneficial. Especially when it comes to big corporations and institutes.
It is for that reason that the Cadre will be investigating the environmental impact of PEI’s institutions, particularly UPEI. For the rest of the school year, I will be exploring how environmentally friendly UPEI is through research and interviews.
Staff, faculty, and students will be interviewed as part of the investigation. Specifically those in environmental fields and waste management.
There are some major questions that will be asked and researched such as:
Where does our garbage go?
Garbage gets put into neatly sorted bins around campus, but then what?
Where does it go? Does it remain in those nicely sorted piles?
What has UPEI been doing to be environmentally friendly?
Is UPEI looking at eco-friendly choices for supplies brought in? Has UPEI considered it’s ecological footprint?
Looking at services available on campus and businesses will be important in seeing how much waste is produced by the university. The Fox and Crow is one campus business that I am interested in looking into.
Of course, the sustainable engineering building will also be a major topic. The engineering building is a breakthrough for self-sustainability in buildings.
There are jobs surrounding sustainability on campus and I hope to see what the people in those positions have done for the campus over the years. As well as that, I want to see if there has been any improvement in the last few years with how eco-friendly UPEI has been.
Protecting and taking care of our planet is very important, especially as we see negative things happening to it daily. People can begin their personal journey to being more eco-friendly, but it is important to see what businesses and institutions are doing as they can produce massive amounts of waste and pollution.
For that reason, over the rest of the school year, the Cadre will be continuing on the path to discovering what impact UPEI has on the environment and what is being done on campus to protect the earth.