Time to dust off the old bike, lace up those walking shoes, or download all of S Town for bus binge listening and join 20,000 people across Canada taking on the Commuter Challenge. For one week in June, reduce your carbon footprint and walk, run, cycle, bus, carpool, and telecommute.

The Commuter Challenge is also a friendly competition, and it is a point of pride that Red River College has won GOLD in our workplace category for the last two years – let’s make it three! Read More →

Click to learn about our awards

A big congratulations goes out to Nora Sobel and Bradley West from the Diversity and Intercultural Services department who accepted the inaugural Sustainability Leadership Award at Red River College’s RED Forum last week. They received this award for developing an online course to raise awareness about gender and sexual diversity issues among Red River College students, staff and faculty. Read More →

Saturday, April 22^nd is Earth Day – a worldwide event to celebrate our planetary home and to show our support for a healthy, sustainable environment. At the RRC Sustainability Office, we think that this celebration is so momentous that we’re stretching our Earth Day Celebrations over an entire week! Join us! Read More →

Pledge to power down for Earth Hour and turn off one of these 250 lights. Progress will be updated daily (click on the image to pledge).

Earth Hour will occur this year on Saturday, March 25 from 8:30 – 9:30PM local time. Every year millions of people from around the world power down their lights and electronics for one hour and shine a light on climate change. This year, we plan to participate in a few ways and we hope you will join us. Read More →

The RRC Sustainability Office is sponsoring a table at Reel Green 2017 on March 16 and we want to bring you! Enter to win pair of tickets to this popular event by:

1. Subscribing to the Red Goes Green Sustainability Blog
2. Liking Sustainability @ RRC on Facebook*
3. Following RRCGoesGreen on Twitter*
4. Following RRCGoesGreen on Instagram*

You will receive one entry for each of the above actions completed before midnight on Monday, March 13, 2017 (so you can enter up to 4 times). Prize draw will occur and winners will be notified on Tuesday, March 14, 2017. Read More →

The RRC Ice Rebels had a great time getting outside for the Jack Frost Challenge February 12-18. The challenge was to get outside and skate, cross-country ski, run, snowshoe, cycle and walk a total of 130km. We’re proud to announce that RRC’s very first Jack Frost Challenge team – the RRC Ice Rebels – crushed that goal early in the week and went on to travel a combined total of 247 KMs over the week!! Out of the 114 teams registered across Manitoba, we finished in 19^th place, which we think is pretty amazing for our first try!

Here are our reflections on the week:

Dave at Global Fat Bike Day in 2016

Dave:
I enjoyed being a part of the Jack Frost Challenge!  It was a fun way to meet likeminded people.  Also, through social media, it helped motivate friends and family to get out and get active.

Chris:
The weather really presented a challenge for skiing [that] week.  With temperatures well above normal we lost significant amounts of snow during the week.  Needless to say this had an extremely detrimental effect on the trail conditions within the Winnipeg region.  Waxing for classic skiing when the weather is warm and the trails are icy and deteriorating is very difficult.  Each day brought slightly different conditions and different challenges.  On Saturday we switched over to skate skiing to make the best use of the remaining snow.  Hats off to the groomer at Windsor Park Nordic Centre for keeping the trails in good condition despite the soaring temperatures.

In previous years at the end of February I have gone down to Hayward, Wisconsin to compete in the American Birkebeiner 50 km ski race.  The “Birkie” is the largest ski race in North America with an attendance of roughly 10,000 skiers.  This year I am not attending…which is fortunate for me, but not for the organizers, since they are being forced to very likely cancel this year’s race at the last minute due to these unseasonably warm temperatures.  In fact, they received 25 mm of rain yesterday, which essentially destroyed the remainder of the 50 km of trail they have been trying so hard to protect these past few weeks.  Very sad.  Climate change and global warming are having a significant negative effect on the sport of cross country skiing and other winter sports throughout the world.  Go Green…so we can keep our winter wonderlands. Read More →

The groundhogs have predicted (at least) 6 more weeks of winter, but we’re Manitobans so instead of retreating to our warm beds, we will embrace winter while it lasts!

Bougeons en Hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge is a weeklong challenge every February where people across Manitoba sign up to skate, cross-country ski, run, snowshoe, cycle and walk a total of 130km, either as a team or (for the hardcore) as an individual.

This year, we have signed up a team – the RRC Ice Rebels – and we’re ready to take on winter from February 12-18. Below, meet our teammates and find out how we plan to meet this challenge head on! Follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for updates throughout the week. Read More →

Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs. One of the three pillars of sustainability, social sustainability, reminds us to ensure that through this process everyone’s needs are met. During the holiday season, it’s a good time to reflect on how we are working to meet this end, and consider what else we can do to help. Read More →

The dust has settled from RRC Waste Reduction Week which was held October 24-28 and once again, we had a very successful event thanks to all of you! Below is a summary of the week.

Special Waste Depots/E-Waste Drive

We were very excited to partner with MMSM and Winnipeg Harvest this year as part of their Bag it Forward program. Over the week, we collected 286 plastic bags which will be used to deliver Winnipeg Harvest’s emergency food kits. Due to a great deal of interest, we are working on creating a permanent collection for the Bag it Forward program at RRC.

In the meantime, drop off gently-used plastic bags at our office (C519, NDC) from now until December 1. We will drop off all the collected bags to Winnipeg Harvest on December 2. If you have plastic bags but can’t make it to our office, contact Whitney to arrange something.

We also collected 180 used writing instruments (pens, markers, highlighters, and mechanical pencils) which will be dropped off at Staples for recycling as part of their partnership with Terracycle. Many of you expressed an interest in making this a permanent program. We heard you loud and clear and are working on it. Stay tuned!

Finally, about 2,262 kg of e-waste was collected for recycling, including 200 kg of used batteries. Many of your asked what happens to these items. Read More →