{"id":13127,"date":"2017-01-04T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=13127"},"modified":"2017-01-03T10:29:11","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T18:29:11","slug":"camosun-places-on-north-american-post-secondary-sustainability-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/01\/04\/camosun-places-on-north-american-post-secondary-sustainability-charts\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun places on North American post-secondary sustainability charts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun College recently placed 10th in the Associate\u2019s Colleges category in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)\u2019s 2016 Sustainable Campus Index.<\/p>\n

The college uses AASHE\u2019s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). In January of 2016 Camosun College got a STARS silver rating for its sustainability achievements.<\/p>\n

Camosun College acting manager of environmental sustainability Jonathan Siqueira says that this award is a way to gauge Camosun\u2019s sustainability progress, which is also what STARS does. Although STARS is a voluntary program, Siqueira sees being involved in it as a way for the college to be even more active with sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not required to do this,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s in the interest of sustainability and getting some markers for where we\u2019re at and where we need to improve. I think it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun\u2019s Jonathan Siqueira (photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Siqueira says that the recognition is a great start and considers it a victory for the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in many ways sustainability is new to all of us; there are still lots of challenges to overcome in terms of being better at it,\u201d he says. \u201cWith that said, I personally believe that being sustainable takes time. It\u2019s not something you rush into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society sustainability director Shauna Nedelec says that it\u2019s impressive that Camosun got this award, taking into consideration the size of the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that we\u2019re so small, it\u2019s quite the achievement, considering we don\u2019t have as much resources as some of the bigger schools in Canada,\u201d she says. \u201cI was quite surprised we were 10th, but, then again, British Columbia is one of the greenest places in Canada, if not the greenest province. So I think it\u2019s quite an accurate rating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nedelec hopes that this will bring on some friendly competition between colleges and universities and that it will help people become more aware of sustainability and how they can help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about how driven each individual student is,\u201d she says. \u201cI know I found it hard to get students to do stuff for Camosun, and a lot of the people that I know at the Lansdowne campus are taking maybe one or two classes, and they come and go. It\u2019s one thing to have ideas, but to be able to put them into motion is what really counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nedelec says that she would also would like to see the Camosun board of governors do more in terms of sustainability for the college. She adds that she has a few ideas of her own that she\u2019d like to see put into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know [Camosun president] Sherri Bell is quite into sustainability for a business and education model,\u201d she says. \u201cI was thinking about talking about a policy for sustainability and the way resources are pooled\u2014things like equipment and materials\u2014and have it more regulated so we aren\u2019t wasting what we don\u2019t need to. It\u2019s amazing how many little things could add up to make something more sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun College recently placed 10th in the Associate\u2019s Colleges category in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)\u2019s 2016 Sustainable Campus Index. The college uses AASHE\u2019s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). In January of 2016 Camosun College got a STARS silver rating for its sustainability achievements. Camosun College acting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-4-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13130,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions\/13130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}