Useful Tips

Please refer to the 4-R hierarchy (Rethink-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) before purchasing appliances. Determine if you can share one with someone or perhaps find a recently used one.
If you do need to buy energy consuming appliances, you should:

1. Choose Energy Star certified products (if such options exist)
2. Compare your model options by looking at the energy consumption (kWh/year/square foot of storage space for freezers and refrigerators) over 10 years, in addition to comparing the acquisition cost.

For any University-related travels, please refer to our Travel Services website.

When you book your air-travel through Vision link, you will be informed of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with each of your flight options.

The University receives monthly GHG reports from Vision-travel, which allows us to correctly quantify our emissions from air-travel, and will facilitate offsetting in the future.

McGill University’s custodial staff and contracted cleaning services only use Ecologo certified products.

If you need to buy cleaning products and/or soaps, please make sure these products are Ecologo or Greenguard certified, and verify that they do not contain the following elements:

• Microbeads
• Triclosan, Triclocarban, Hexachlorophene, Fluorosalan, Methylbenzethonium chloride or other similar antibacterial agents

McGill University is a Fair Trade campus. Please consider the following options to guide your decisions:

• Fair trade coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa
• Local and organic drinks, if possible
• Organic milk products, if possible
• Minimize packaging, and request compostable (first) or recyclable (second) containers, cups etc.
• No straws, and no bottled water (get office jugs)
• Stir sticks should be made of wood or straight pasta

McGill University has a Guide  for Sustainable Events, you can find it here.

Sustainability criteria for this kind of service should include:

• Choosing local, seasonal products, and organic if possible
• Vegetarian and/or vegan options
• Fair trade ingredients (coffee/chocolate/cocoa/sugar)
• No straws and no bottled water (use jugs)
• Minimized packaging
• Avoid disposable items, or buy compostable items
• Variety of dishes to accommodate cultural/religious considerations

McGill University aims to apply LEED v4 criteria to its furniture purchases. This means that the materials used in the furniture we purchase respect specific health, air quality, and durability criteria.  Any furniture purchases must meet the University’s design standards.

McGill University has developed Minimum Standard Requirements, including sustainability criteria, for certain categories of IT products. These criteria are applied to all centrally purchased IT equipment. You can find these Minimum Standard Requirements on the McGill IT Knowledge Base.

Procurement Services has met with its main suppliers of lab products to communicate our community’s interest in more sustainable options. Supplier catalogues will often highlight their most sustainable options. Before purchasing products in this category, remember to apply McGill’s 4-R hierarchy (Rethink-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle), and be mindful of single-use plastics. You can always count on our support if you can’t find the sustainable options you are looking for.
 

Before purchasing products in this category, remember to apply McGill’s 4-R hierarchy (Rethink-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle), and be mindful of single-use plastics.  Supplier(s) offering these kinds of product can be found on McGill Market Place (MMP). As part of their contract with McGill, these suppliers must highlight the more sustainable options in their catalogue.

You can also buy some office supplies from the McGill Bookstore, where the team is continuously improving and diversifying its offer of sustainable products.

The paper used in U-Print machines is purchased through an inter-institutional contract, which mandates the use of 100% post-consumer recycled content. This is the paper made available through MMP.

If you intend to buy other paper products, please make sure they have a high post-consumer recycled content, are recyclable, and come from sustainably managed forests.

McGill strongly recommends to have printed materials (flyers, leaflets, bulk letters, and so on) printed via McGill’s Printing Services. This team will help you identify sustainable paper options, in compliance with the University’s Paper Use policy. They also help the University keep track of the quantities of printed materials (for reporting under regulatory mandate by the provincial government). 

Also, make sure you show, on your printed material, what percentage of post-consumer recycled paper was used. Communicating this information on our documents is also mandated by the University’s Paper use policy.

Please refer to McGill’s 4-R Hierarchy (Rethink-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle), and be mindful of single-use plastics before purchasing promotional items and corporate gifts.

Here are a few additional hints:

• Can you “dematerialize” the gift? If you are intending to give presents to people from the Montreal area, why not offer tickets to events held at the Faculty of Music, or at our Molson Stadium?
• If you intend to purchase branded items (with the McGill logo on them), please work with the McGill Bookstore, because this team has developed a unique expertise in finding sustainable and superior quality products, made locally or abroad, and from more ethical suppliers, and even social economy (integration) enterprises.
• If you intend to offer edible gifts, please remember that McGill is a Fair Trade campus, and any coffee, tea or chocolate should be sourced from Fair Trade participating suppliers.
• Other edible options should be local specialties (wine/honey/jams/liquors/maple syrup, and so on).
• Another option of gifts for locals can include locally grown flowers, in season.  

McGill has adopted Minimum Standard Requirements for Vehicles, in order to reduce the environmental impact of our vehicle fleet.  To find out more, please go to the Vehicle Asset Management Procedure.