Empowering staff to become campus sustainability leaders can be challenging. Concerns about time commitment, competing workplace priorities, and support from senior leaders can make working with staff different from engaging students. This webinar will show how the University of Calgary’s two-pronged approach to staff engagement empowers both operational and non-operational staff members to contribute to sustainability initiatives, yielding reciprocal benefits.

Guided by our Institutional Sustainability Strategy, the University of Calgary’s Office of Sustainability engages two groups of staff members: 1) operational staff who have a direct impact on campus sustainability initiatives (i.e. food service, parking and transportation, waste and recycling management), and 2) non-operational staff members who are passionate about sustainability and want to make their workplaces more inclusive, environmentally conscious, and socially responsible. 

By consulting with our operational partners, we gather data, strengthen infrastructure, and build programs to advance our institutional sustainability goals. These relationships create the conditions that support our non-operational staff volunteers in taking daily action for sustainability. As our reach grows, we continue to link with and learn from our campus, co-creating a campus culture where all staff are more empowered to contribute to sustainability efforts as part of their daily job responsibilities.

In this webinar, we will discuss the programs and strategies we use to engage these two staff groups, using examples from our Sustainable Events and Offices certification programs as case studies. We will share important learnings from the past several years and outline directions for future growth.

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Presenters

Alexander Howard, Staff Sustainability Engagement Coordinator, University of Calgary Alexander Howard is a Staff Engagement Coordinator in the Office of Sustainability at the University of Calgary. In this role, he develops programming and resources to help UCalgary employees make their workplaces more inclusive, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Toronto.

Tori Grant, Advisor, Operational Sustainability in the Office of Sustainability, University of Calgary Tori Grant is the Advisor, Operational Sustainability in the Office of Sustainability at the University of Calgary. In her role, Tori offers consultative support to operational partners, such as Supply Chain or Food Services, to help them integrate sustainability into their every day operations. As well, she is responsible for reporting on UCalgary’s sustainability progress, including the STARS report. Tori has a Bachelor of Science, Environmental Science from the University of Calgary and spend a semester in her undergraduate degree studying at the University of Leeds in Leeds, England.