Marc Couture wins 2024 Clean16 Award

lanthierj — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:45:28 +0000

Community

lanthierj Tue, 10/17/2023 - 08:45

Staff

St. George

Clean16

Clean50

landscape

Marc Couture (supplied image)

Marc Couture, director, sustainability and energy management, at the UUֱ��’s Sustainability Office, is one of Canada’s Clean16 Award recipients and a Clean50 honouree.

For more than a decade, the Clean50 Awards have recognized 50 Canadian sustainability leaders who facilitate understanding, collaboration and innovation in the fight to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. The leader in each category receives the Clean16 award.  Last year, UUֱ��'s Ron Saporta was recognized with the award.

Couture was recognized for his leadership in developing the climate positive campus strategy for the St. George campus and implementing a tri-campus sustainability performance standard.

“Through Marc’s leadership and technical expertise, the university is undertaking a radical transformation of its nearly 200-year-old campus,” says Luke Barber, acting chief operating officer, property services and sustainability at UUֱ��’s Facilities & Services. “This means setting a goal of moving the campus beyond net-zero to climate positive by eliminating more carbon than it produces.”

The industry-leading tri-campus sustainability performance standard aims to hold UUֱ��’s $5-billion capital program and $40 million per year in infrastructure projects to the strictest energy and carbon standards in the country, Barber says, adding this standard has already been applied to over 80 capital projects totaling more than $3 billion in value. This has resulted in energy and carbon designs that have already helped UUֱ�� avoid an incremental 8,500 tonnes of carbon annually.

Ron Saporta receives Clean50, Clean16 awards

lanthierj — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 15:21:18 +0000

Ron Saporta receives Clean50, Clean16 awards

Community

lanthierj Thu, 10/13/2022 - 11:21

landscape

Ron Saporta, chief operating officer at the UUֱ��’s Facilities & Services, has been named a 2023 Canada's Clean16 and Clean50 honouree by Delta Management Group.

The Clean50 awards recognize sustainability leaders in Canada across 16 industry categories – with the leader in each category receiving the Clean16.

“As an environmental engineer and an alumnus of UUֱ��, I am grateful for the rare opportunity to work on a lifelong passion – bettering our environment with technology and innovation – alongside excellent and dedicated colleagues,” Saporta said. “We have rolled up our sleeves and are excited to make progress on our Climate Positive Campus plan, which I hope can serve as a model for other organizations to reimagine and rebuild their infrastructure in our efforts against climate change.”

Delta Management Group said Saporta was selected for leading the St. George campus with a sustainability strategy that seeks to make it a climate-positive and greenhouse gases-negative campus by 2050.

“I’m thrilled that Ron is being recognized for his sustainability leadership. In only four years as chief operating officer, Ron has generated real momentum in rethinking how our downtown campus can operate without a carbon footprint,” said Scott Mabury, UUֱ��’s vice-president, operations and real estate partnerships. “Together with academic leadership and his talented team, he launched the university’s plan for the St. George campus to become climate positive by 2050. I’m grateful to have Ron at the helm as we completely transform our infrastructure and energy systems.”

Clean16

Marc Couture wins 2024 Clean16 Award

Read more about the Clean50 Awards

Read more about the climate positive campus strategy

Ron Saporta receives Clean50, Clean16 awards

Read more about the awards