The Office of Sustainability has now launched its own monthly sustainability newsletter! 

If you are interested in signing up, the newsletters will be sent once or twice a month and will include information such as:

• Upcoming Events (on and off campus)

• Volunteer opportunities

• Committee openings

• Occasional job opportunities

• Updates on sustainability initiatives

To sign up please fill out this simple google form. If you know of other individuals or groups that would be interested in receiving the newsletters, please share the google link with them as well.

This is a great way for individuals to learn about sustainability events being hosted on campus and generally in the Thunder Bay and Orillia communities! If you have any questions about the newsletter or in general, feel free to reach out to rporting@lakeheadu.ca. 

Not sure where to dispose of your batteries or where to donate your gently used books? 

The Office of Sustainability has now launched a Waste Reduction Guide!

The Waste Reduction Guide provides useful information to Lakehead University students, faculty, staff, and the general community about where you can donate or dispose of certain items across the Thunder Bay campus.

If you have any questions about the waste reduction guide, or if you'd like to propose any additional information or edits, please reach out to rporting@lakeheadu.ca. 

The Office of Sustainability is proud to launch Lakehead University's first Trash to Treasure Table!

Available on the Thunder Bay Campus, this table of incredible finds can be found in the CASES Building Lobby, next to the Graduate Student Lounge (FB-2010). We invite all students, staff, and faculty to use this table to donate or take items, free of charge!

Looking to donate?

This table accepts new and gently used office and craft supplies, games, and a few other miscellaneous items. Please do not donate electronic items. See the full list of accepted donations here.  If you want to know where to donate books, clothes, and kitchen items on the Thunder Bay campus, check out our Waste Reduction Guide. 

If you have any questions about the Trash to Treasure table, please reach out to the Sustainability Coordinator, Rachel Portinga, at rporting@lakeheadu.ca. Happy swapping!

Careers and Sustainability are teaming up for a "Free Store, Trash to Treasure" event this September!

 Do you have items in your office or department that are taking up space but are still in perfectly good condition? Before you throw them away, let’s turn your "trash" into a student's treasure!

We are excited to announce the Free Store, Trash to Treasure event coming to campus in September (final dates to be announced soon). This sustainability initiative is designed to collect unused or surplus items from campus units and redistribute them to our students and community—fostering connection while keeping perfectly usable items out of our local landfills.

We are calling on all campus departments, faculties, and units to clear out their storage closets and donate.

What We Are Collecting

We are looking for any extra new or gently used supplies, equipment, or items that students or staff could make use of to divert them from landfills. Examples include:

• Office & School Supplies: Binders, pens, notebooks, organizers, and general desk items.

• Department Surplus: Any functional items, kitchen, small appliances or equipment your unit no longer requires.

• Event/Office Snacks: Any snacks or refreshments that are coming up on their expiry dates during the summer months.

• Outdated or excess promotional materials: mugs, pens, hoodies, lanyard, notebooks and other such materials

How to Donate

Please fill out our donation form to help us visualize your estimated donation volume and schedule your drop-off or pick-up!

• Drop-offs in the Career Zone Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1-4
• Pick ups as needed.

To help our team accurately weigh donations on setup day using our luggage scales, please ensure all donated items are packed in bags prior to drop-off.

How to “Shop” 

Stay turned for upcoming marketing to share with students, faculty and staff as the event approaches.

Questions? 

Email Rachel Portinga (rporting@lakeheadu.ca) and/or Yves Allard (yallard@lakeheadu.ca).  

Thank you for supporting this sustainability and student outreach effort!

The Office of Sustainability is encouraging you to participate in TBay on the Move's Active Commute Challenge. 

For the month of June, rethink your commute and swap your vehicle with any form of active transportation - walking, biking, running, rollerblading, public transit, and so on! This challenge is about getting active and reducing our environmental impact, but it also has a friendly competition to it.

We are in this together. As a workplace, our total kms commuted are combined to compete against workplaces of similar sizes in Thunder Bay. At the time of writing this, we were in second place next to the TBRHSC. Register now and log your commutes, and help us take first place again and win bike racks for campus! Log in and check out the leaderboard to see where Lakehead is currently placed.

Not motivated by competition? 

Have you heard, the ACC will be 5 weekly prize draws and 10 draws at end of challenge. That’s 30 draw prizes up for grabs. Every week you log an active commute, you are entered into the weekly draws! So join our workplace team and log your active commutes for a chance to win.

Happy commuting! And remember, log your commutes!

This initiative is supported by Lakehead’s Wellness Strategy and the Sustainability Plan.

In the Fall of 2023, Lakehead launched the Cano Co. reusable container program in its dining facilities on the Thunder Bay campus. The program supports the University’s Sustainability Plan, which commits to increasing our diversion of waste and increasing our use of reusable dining ware.

Guided by Food and Conference Services, Aramark, and the Office of Sustainability, the program aims to reduce Lakehead’s use of single-use packaging.

Lakehead wanted a streamlined program for on-campus food service providers on a user-friendly platform for students, faculty, and staff. The Cano Co. program has many benefits for organizations and users. The no-fee platform makes the program accessible for students who can also earn free food and drink rewards by using the program and returning their containers promptly.

The app-based program tracks how many takeout containers a user has diverted from waste and recycling streams and the corresponding reductions in carbon emissions, enabling institutions to track waste and emissions savings over time.

As of August 5, 2024, the program has had 414 users, avoiding 163.1 kgs of greenhouse gasses and 34.9 kgs of waste.

Keep an eye out this September for the new school year launch of the program in the Main Dining Hall, which will include various incentives. Program success relies on your participation, so please sign up and help reduce our single-use packaging! And remember, make sure to scan the relevant QR codes when borrowing a container!

The Cano Co. reusable container program can be accessed at Lakehead University on its Thunder Bay campus at the Main Dining Hall, with plans to expand the program at a later time.

To learn more about the program, visit canocompany.com/en/home or download the free Cano Co. app on the Apple store or the Google Play store.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the TBay on the Move Active Commute Challenge at Lakehead University! 

Did you know The City of Thunder Bay declared a climate emergency in 2020? And over 40% of Thunder Bay’s annual greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation? Together, during the month of June we traveled 2645 km and saved 556 kg of greenhouse gasses as a workplace! Thank you for helping to reduce our local carbon impact. We hope you enjoyed getting active with your commutes not just for your health, but for the environment.

We are proud to wrap up a successful 2024. While we did not win first place for an extra large workplace (that went to the TBRHSC ? ) we certainly made a great team effort. 

Check out our workplace statistics below, and a special shoutout to our top category prizewinners. See you next year!

On May 29, 2024, 11 volunteers (staff, faculty, students) planted approximately 300 white spruce, white birch, and poplar trees on the Thunder Bay campus. This initiative was supported by EcoSuperior, the Office of Sustainability, the Thunder Bay Remedial Action Plan, and the Lake Superior Living Labs Network.

The trees were donated by EcoSuperior and the Lakehead University Greenhouse.

We took advantage of the forest space and planted seedlings to reduce fragmentation, and increase species diversity and the stages of succession growth. These trees will infiltrate blowdown areas and old forest to ensure a diverse forest into the future. Seedlings planted in the Climate Action Park will also take over existing lawn, helping to increase the riparian buffer and reduce mowing needs. This initiative is part of ongoing efforts to reduce stormwater runoff and restore habitat along the river.

As an initiative supported by Lakehead’s Wellness Strategy and the Sustainability Plan, the Office of Sustainability invites you to participate in the Tbay On the Move Active Commute Challenge this June. Not only will you have the chance to win fantastic prizes, but you'll also contribute to a healthier environment and community

The Active Commute Challenge is a friendly, city-wide competition that encourages daily commuters to choose sustainable modes of transportation for the benefit of their health and the environment. 

For the month of June, hundreds of employees across Thunder Bay will swap their vehicle and cycle, walk, run, bus, carpool, rollerblade, telecommute, or even paddle their way to work! Any form of active transportation counts.

Registration is open--when registering please select or enter Lakehead University as your workplace.

Any employee who logs at least one commute where they did not drive alone will be entered to win a prize. Prizes will also be awarded in various categories.

In 2019 we participated in the Commuter Challenge and we had 8% of workplace employees participate and we won in our employee category. Tbay on the Move Active Commute Challenge is a new but similar program. Let’s increase our employee participation to 10%! Register today and make us the institution with the highest participation again.

• See Challenges - Thunder Bay District Health Unit (tbayonthemove.ca) for more challenge details.

• And lakeheadu.ca/about/sustainability/activecommutechallenge for more information.

Still have questions?  Visit our information booth, grab a beverage, and register in person June 4th, 12:00-1:00 pm outside the Patterson Library (CASES atrium if raining).