By Kellah Lavoie

FNUC goes green

Jun 19, 2011 | 8:36 AM

The First Nations University of Canada, northern campus is taking a green approach to running the school.

A Footprints Committee has been working for the past two years to keep things environmentally friendly, said Patti Cannon-Levesque, program co-ordinator for the northern health sciences access program.

It started when a group decided to look at how to make things better environmentally on campus, said Debbie Schutte, health nurse.

Staff and administration have been behind the group since the very beginning, they even had staff support when they asked them to turn in their individual garbage cans.

There is evidence all around they school of how environmentally friendly they really are. They have recycling for glass, plastic, ink cartridges, tin cans and batteries.

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There is information around the school as well and a fresh fruit bowl, where students can purchase fruit instead of snacks with wasteful packaging.

The Footprints Committee even has a slot during student orientation, said Cannon-Levesque.

Schutte said the best tool they have it the video “The Story of Stuff,” where it shows everything that goes into the landfill.

The group has a bi-yearly swap day, where people bring in things they no longer need or want. They just put them on a table and the items are free to take, said Cannon-Levesque.

“Students don’t have a lot of money and we are amazed how much stuff gets taken home and repurposed,” she said.

They are still looking to what they can do in the future.

“I think one of the things that we really want to target is purchasing through the university and we’re working hard on doing that… we are looking to purchase greener sources of paper, greener cleaning products, things like that,” said Cannon-Levesque.

She said they also recent found a place to recycle florescent tube lights and will be sending four years’ worth of them to the facility.

The group has no plans on stopping here. “We are just getting started,” she said.

klavoie@panow.com