The annual Greenspace Management Plant Sale at Red River College Polytechnic.

Red River College has again been recognized as one of Canada’s sustainability leaders, having been named one of Canada’s 50 Greenest Employers for the second year in a row.

“Corporate social responsibility is an important concept at Red River College,” said Stephanie Forsyth, President of RRC. “As an institution, we’ve committed ourselves to minimizing the environmental impact of our operations, incorporating sustainability into our research and academic programming, and engaging staff and students in more eco-conscious behaviour.”

Forsyth also pointed out that sustainability is identified as one of the College’s four key themes in its new strategic plan.

RRC is one of only two Manitoba organizations to be named to this year’s Greenest Employer list, and one of only six post-secondary institutions across Canada. Some of the College’s recent environmental initiatives include:

• 100% of cleaning products are EcoLogo-certified
• More than 300 pounds of organics are composted daily at the on-site compost facility at the Notre Dame Campus.
• The Heavy Equipment Transportation Centre was among the first education facilities in Canada to be LEED certified. The new Paterson GlobalFoods Institute is also being built to LEED standards of efficiency.
• Grounds equipment runs on biodiesel made on-site from used cooking oil.
• Water fountains are being retrofitted as bottle fill stations to encourage the use of more refillable water containers and reduce consumption of plastic bottles.

During the past year, the College has also engaged in a comprehensive process to measure sustainability in all aspects of its operations, and benchmark those results against other post-secondary institutions through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). RRC is the only Manitoba institution to use this program, among 282 schools from around the world.

Launched in 2007, the Canada’s Greenest Employers competition is organized by the editors of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project. This special designation recognizes the employers that lead the nation in creating a culture of environmental awareness in their organizations.