Sustainable Development Practices At Conestoga College

MGMT8420 A Sustainability Action Plan for Prominent Institution

Role of Conestoga College in Community Development

Sustainability is the process of focusing on the needs of the present that should not affect the future needs of the future generations. Conestoga College is a prominent institution in polytechnic education and the institution is one of the fastest developing institutions in Ontario. The institution was established in the year 1967 and now supports more than 16,500 students, who belong to full time courses. The college also plays a very important role in community development. Around 65 percent of the college graduates stay in the same area after finishing their education. Through those staying in the same area, the graduates are able to contribute to the local economy by $2.3 billion. The strength of the college is their success rate. Around 87 percent of the graduates from this college attain a placement within the next six months after their graduation. The opportunity that the organization has that it is the only college of polytechnic education in the entire Ontario. The organization has to utilize more sustainable development practices in the college that will help the organization in the development of social, economic and environmental factors. The sustainable development will help the organization in improving their quality and this will help the organization in bigger development. According to the recent reports, the Conestoga College will develop a better plan that will help in the management of the resources in a better manner for the long run. The management of resources, the improvement in the quality and the increase in the revenues all are the practices that are the driving force for sustainable development in any organization. The college has a massive responsibility towards the sustainable development of the environment and this is important for the welfare of the current and the future generation. The college contributes to the community a lot, but it also has more responsibilities towards sustainable environmental development. The organization have to utilize the biggest opportunity of being the only polytechnic education college in the entire region, this is a very big boon for the organization. Being the only college is an advantage, but with great power comes bigger responsibilities thus, the Conestoga College has to carefully deal with all the threats and for this, it is important for the organization to formulate a sustainable action plan.

The Conestoga College has to carefully handle the three main aspects of sustainable development which are water, waste, and energy. An appropriate management is required for this, to understand the standard of sustainable development and the real contribution of the organization (Ahiablame, Engel & Chaubey, 2013).

Sustainable Development at Conestoga College

It is the duty of the College legislatively to perform a waste reduction plan and a waste audit every year. The main focus of this activity is reusing, reducing and recycling resource consumption. This activity at the Conestoga College is conducted by taking information from the different campuses too, and then the information gathered is examined. The waste audit that is necessary for the college to conduct also requires a waste reduction work plan. The main objective of this plan is to determine methods through which decrease of waste consumption can be attained in an organization and also formulate more methods to increase the level of recycling, reusing and reducing of waste diversion (Altaher & Runnerstrom, 2018). The college is regularly contributing towards waste diversions, and this is conducted through the participation of the college in the additional programs which aims at works towards the prevention of certain elements from being further sent to the landfills. The diversion rate of the college in 2016 was around 73 percent. This percent displays the high level of diversion of waste that was controlled from being sent to the landfills. The waste work plan has three main focuses that are improving the infrastructure of the waste, the upliftment in the recycling methods of waste and promotion of waste education at various places (Eaton, 2015).

The Conestoga College also has responsibilities towards managing the water. This is important for sustainable development as water is a very crucial part of the environment. The Conestoga College expansion model has a low flow water devices that are for reducing the amount of water that is wasted in the various activities related to the college. It is important for the college to implement a system that helps in reducing the flow of the water and for improving the water diversion quality (Ferdous & Mallick, 2018). In the Cambridge campus of the Conestoga College, there has been installed a very innovative and efficient system that facilitates the college in improving the standard of water diversion and water discharge. This system is equipped with very efficient components that are the infiltration gallery, the bio-swales, oil and grit separators, detention pool and installation of a cooling trench has also been conducted. The cooling trench has been added with an objective that the water discharge process has no effect on the receiving system. This systematic process of water discharge helps in the elaboration in the quality of the ground water along with the preservation of the natural floodplain. This installation has been conducted under the five year plan of the monitoring program. This will also help with the documentation of the future projects related to water that will be conducted by the other campuses (Garvey, BrckaLorenz, Latopolski & Hurtado, 2018).

Waste Reduction Plan and Audit

The saving of energy and the correct utilization of energy in different activities are very important for sustainable development. The Conestoga College is involved in a wide range of activities of preserving energy and the effective utilization of it. The college has upgraded their roofing that has been conducted with the help of calcite material (Gayles, 2012). Calcite material is very helpful in reflecting large amounts of solar energy into the atmosphere again. The other step towards energy preservation has been conducted by converting all the Variable Air Volume into Digital Data Control. This helps in controlling a huge waste that happens in the daily lives of people (Gilbride-Brown, 2009). The transformation of the Digital Data Control and the installation of the thermostats which are also motion sensors, helps in reducing the cooling and heating of the room when it is not occupied. The conservation of energy is also being conducted through the installation of LED lights that are motion sensors and also have the daylight harvesting sensors, all these qualities help in the conservation of the energy. The college is also installing solar panels on the roof of the college buildings (Goswami, 2014).

In the current times, the main focus of the students is not just for graduating from a college with a degree, but they want to practically implicate all the knowledge which they gain through their sustainability courses. There are a number of colleges that offer the services of conducting a research, managing a business, leading the student organizations and all this while learning and studying about sustainability (Guido, 2010). Some of the colleges that provide with these facilities that help in sustainable development are-

This university has groups that are large in size and all are focused on sustainable development. These groups comprise of students, the university has many groups, and some of them are Emory Environmental Alliance, Slow Food Emory, and many others. The sustainable groups which this organization has are enormous and are based on conservation of important resources, the global health issues, and the importance and the requirement of social innovations. This university has groups that have been developed for the different preservation method of an important resource that is important for sustainable development. There is also a sustainability forum at the college that helps in the collaboration of different students and the groups that further help in the promoting the different sustainability work conducted by the college (King, 2011).

Water Management

The focus of sustainable development also has to be on the contribution to the community. At the California State University, organic farming is conducted that involves the faculty member of the college, the students, also the local farmers and the community member too. The production of organic vegetables is conducted with the help of each of these members, and the vegetables are grown for the diners in the campus and this work is conducted under the Associated Students Food Service. The production of organic vegetables is conducted in an area of 10 acres (Kortegast & Boisfontaine, 2015). Also, regular researches are conducted on the organic farm to investigate for better growing methods of organic food and also for evaluating new vegetables that will help at the increasing the competition in the local market of the organic vegetables (Marshall, 2009).

The Dickinson College is ahead of all the colleges in maintaining sustainable development. The college not just have a sustainable enterprise, but they also help with the funding of the different ideas that can be associated with the consultation required for the project, also grants can be received for the innovation works, and also for the documentation of the business proposals that are important for the students (Mayhew & Engberg, 2011). Through the funding of the ideas, the students are able to help a number of other people. The activities that have been conducted are like the bicycle cart that offers coffee that is of high quality, the exhibition of the various artwork in from of the community of the Dickinson, and also facilitating the needy people with some of the basic necessities and requirements. The funds provided to the students provides strength to the students’ ideas that are then transformed into reality (Petchauer, 2010).

The sustainable group that is created by the Appalachian State University, is based on the outdoor programs. The students are educated about the sustainable development, while the students build strong bonds that are created during performing various outdoor activities that include camping, climbing, rafting and also working at a local farm by volunteering. By conducting all these activities in the Blue Ridge Mountains and at the Appalachian Trail the students are informed about some of the most important sustainability practices that are important for the environment.  This is also a very unique practice that is practiced by the college to educate the students about the importance of sustainability and the innovative practices that can help in the preservation process (Soria & Johnson, 2017). 

Energy Conservation

The increase in the utilization of sustainable practices by different colleges, has inspired a number of other colleges to implement new and better methods for controlling waste, preserving water and energy. Also, the different practices at different colleges facilitate with a number of new ideas that can be implemented in the Conestoga College.

College	Sustainability of	Practice
Emory University	Waste	The Emory University have a group that is popular for its environmental methods of preservation. The Emory Environmental Alliance promotes the philosophy of zero waste. According to this philosophy, the production of products should be conducted by utilizing less materials or those products should be manufactured whose materials can be easily recycled or reused. Through, the approach of the Emory University, the businesses in Atlanta are becoming a zero waste zone (Brunner & Rechberger, 2015).
California State University	Water	The water conservation methods, practice with high standards in this area as there is a scarcity of water. A new water system has been installed for the conservation of water. This has been conducted by formulating a plan that will help in the reduction of water use by 15%. A software has been used to know the utilization of water in the campus and then the drip irrigation will help in the water conservation.
Dickinson College	Energy	A well-planned out plan has been implemented for the conservation of energy. The energy conservation plan has the main focus of transferring from the fossil energy to renewable energy. In this attempt, the college has also LUCID dashboards on the entire campus. This has been installed in the campus to monitor the energy consumption in the area and to further reduce it. The other important thing that is being practiced for the conservation of energy is the production of biodiesel that is being produced from the used vegetable oil (Huber-Humer & Lechner, 2011).

 All the above proposed practices should be implemented in the Conestoga College. All these methods are feasible and this is due to-

The Emory University has implemented a practice of zero waste. The zero waste approach is very feasible in the form of product utilization for manufacturing, as only those products will be manufactured that utilizes less materials. The other product that will be produced should consist of materials that can be reused or recycled. Thus, this approach is very feasible. The cost of production will be reduced, the utilization of natural resources will be more, thus for the long term the zero waste approach is very effective and should be utilized in the Conestoga College (Mehta, 2017).

The utilization of the drip irrigation should also be utilized in the Conestoga College, as it helps in the reduction of the water use. A drip irrigation method is better than the sprinkler system. Also, in the sprinkler system, a large amount of water is wasted. The drip irrigation is feasible because it reduces the water use and it also helps in the proper watering of the plants, that too by the roots. The drip irrigation method helps in the water dispersion as this method contains emission devices that has a number of control modes that help in the preserving of water (Vivian, 2011).

The Conestoga College should implement the energy saving approach of the Dickinson College that is the production of the biodiesel from the cooking oil. This is a renewable form of energy that is domestic and has high standards of sustainability. With the changing times, and the more emerging need for conserving energy biodiesel will be the best alternative for energy supply and energy conservation.

All these practices that have to be incorporated into the Conestoga College are domestic, easily available and do not require a large investment, thus the return on investment on all these practices will be easily attained by the Conestoga College. According to the Conceptual LCA, all the proposed methods are best for the Conestoga College and all the practices have been designed for the environment and do not require huge investments (Yates, 2013).

Sustainable Development at Other Colleges

Conclusion

After the complete encounter with the various information related to sustainable development, this can be formulated that this new approach by the colleges for including sustainability practices for preserving the waste, water, and energy, helps in providing the students with a bigger knowledge. Also, the utilization of the practices in the Conestoga College will help the organization in building a better tomorrow for the future generations. The use of renewable energy has been stated by many famous researchers, but it’s now time to implement. According to the final findings, the zero waste, the drip irrigation and the usage of biodiesel are the best practices that also do not require large investments. The colleges’ new approach of sustainability has raised the prominence to sustainable development in the opinion of people. But, there is an urgent need for conducting more studies on waste utilization as this will help in performing more often the process of reducing, recycling and reusing of the waste.

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