MCMASTER UNIVERSITY JOE EMBERSON, DIRECTOR, ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY.
LED LIGHTING OUTDOORS.
SHAHID NAEEM, ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY ENGINEER.
focus on retro-commissioning older facilities, particularly science facilities. A pioneering electric grid balancing system also provides support to the provincial grid by managing system demand and utilizing McMaster’s cooling plant. The Energy Management Plan builds on efforts McMaster has made over the last decade. Between 2003-2005 the university completed an energy savings performance contract to green McMaster’s older buildings and infrastructure. This initiative is estimated to have saved $1.5 million annually, in addition to reducing CO2 emissions by 11,252 tons in 2005, which is the equivalent of taking over 1300 cars off the road. CAMPUS PARTICIPATION McMaster’s sustainability agenda stands out in large part because of McMaster’s ability
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to engage students in its programs and initiatives. The Campus Energy Dashboard and Benchmarking system provides real time energy updates to the campus via digital displays in high traffic buildings. Different buildings also compete for the lowest energy consumption, which directly engages the staff and students, who respond with enthusiasm. This culture of energy conservation is also reflected in academic work being done at McMaster. “Whether it’s a master’s thesis, or a PhD thesis, or even an undergraduate project, our staff work very closely with students and researchers to provide data, ideas, our current energy savings, our meter readings, and our current consumption for each building at different times and in different areas,” explains Dr. Attalla. “It is through this partnership that the researchers, whether undergraduate or graduate,
create a collaborative environment and create a vehicle for encouragement and collaboration.” In addition, the McMaster Facility Services Energy Management and Sustainability Division hires high performing students in various sustainability areas. Additional student engagement is achieved through an on-campus community and teaching garden, as well as annual events such as Bike to Work days and the annual Campus Sustainability Day, which promote sustainable behaviors and highlight the advantages of an active lifestyle. ACADEMIC SUSTAINABILITY Currently ranked 4th among universities in Canada according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, McMaster takes its academic reputation very seriously. It is no surprise that it provides a variety of courses that touch upon sustainability, marrying its strong scholastic standing with its ethic of addressing environmental issues. The Academic Sustainability Programs Office promotes courses which explore different facets of sustainability from a holistic, inter-disciplinary perspective. These courses are open to any student regardless of the faculty they come from. The Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability, for example, takes a range of modules from various faculties in order to create a broader and more comprehensive understanding of sustainability. This type of degree presents students with a wealth of courses options, thereby allowing them to tailor their degree to their specific interests while at the same time fostering another fundamental aspect of the McMaster brand of education: Involvement in the community. By fostering the interaction of students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds through this minor, McMaster stimulates innovative and multi-faceted solutions to sustainability problems. This approach is present in