The SustainabilityAction committee was first formed in 2019 by Vicki Friesen and Paul Grogan, and includes Diane Orihel and Kyla Tienhara, as well as many graduate and undergraduate students from Biology, Environmental Sciences, Geography, Policy Studies etc. who are interested in improving sustainability practices at Queen's and beyond.
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community" (Aldo Leopold, 1949). This important and widely cited dictum is generally interpreted as referring to other organisms in our environment. We believe that humans would live more sustainably if instead of tending to consider ourselves as separate from nature, we fully acknowledged that we're merely a part of Leopold's "biotic community". In other words, sustainability is at least as much about social justice as it is about environmental issues.
Here are some of our past and ongoing activities:
Project Drawdown talk by Chad Frischmann (Senior Director, Research and Technology for Project Drawdown) March 23, 2020. (Initiated and hosted by grad student Hayden Wainwright) Full talk video.
Improving the ecological footprint of on-campus food catering services, including promoting local food supply, healthy choices, and reducing packaging and food waste
Advocating for multiple secure bicycle sheds around campus
Queen’s recyclable lab waste report. Hayward, K., Baker, S., and Grogan, P. 2020. Lab Waste Disposal at Queen’s: The potential for significantly reducing materials that are unnecessarily going to landfill and hazardous waste by diverting them to the recycling stream. (PDF)
Raising awareness among scientists of the environmental impacts of doing their research, and potential avoidance/reduction/mitigation options.
- Grogan, P. 2021. Raising awareness of science’s environmental footprint. Guest editorial. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 19(3): 143. (PDF main article) (PDF Supplementary file)
- Grogan, P., Buckeridge, K.M. and Priemé, A. 2021. Declare how you are limiting your environmental impact. Nature (Correspondence) 596: 35. (PDF)
- Grogan, P., and Wood, D.A. 2023. Author declaration: Did you take any specific actions to minimize the environmental impacts of your science study? ArcticNet 2022 and Queen's Northern Research symposium posters (PDF)
What can Biology tell us about our Future 5.6? Public talk by Paul Grogan for the Queen's University Sustainable Living Series (hosted by Marlow Benson, April 13, 2023). Full talk video.
Upcoming events:
Contact Gavin Hutchinson Kingston 350 (info@email.actionnetwork.org) for further details.
Useful resources:
GreenGeeks webhosting provider
Green Your Lab - Network of Sustainable Science and Green Lab Enthusiasts
Freezer Challenge - How to be more efficient with lab cold storage
My Green Lab - Promoting lab research practices that achieve the highest possible social and environmental sustainability standards
I2SL - International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (specific lab waste program at website)
Lab sustainability best practices (UC Santa Barbara, U.S.)
Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) (UC London, U.K.)
Society of Conservation Biology (Kingston)
Mobilizing Kingston with Action-Ready Answers to Create the Climate Future we ALL want:
Special talk to Kingston audience by Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, the world's leading resource for climate solutions. Wednesday May 3rd, 2023. Weblink of recording.
Last update: 22 Sept 2023