By Katherine Mcwhaw
\nCOORDINATOR OF DAWSON\u2019S COORDINATOR OF QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PLANNING<\/p>\n
When a college or university sets an ambitious goal for becoming more sustainable, the path to accomplishing this goal can seem quite daunting. But, UPEMOR in the state of Morelos in Mexico serves as an inspiration to any institution and to me personally as Coordinator of the Quality Assurance and Planning Office, whose department is tasked with gathering evidence and data for Dawson to achieve gold star rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
\nToday during my visit to UPEMOR, Valeria Davila, who is a teacher, researcher and head of CECAM explained in some detail how she has moved her institution towards being recognized for its sustainability efforts. When she arrived at UPEMOR about 10 years ago she was taken aback by the overwhelming amount of garbage that she saw everywhere on the campus. She proposed to the then Director to start a program to reduce the amount of garbage. This was a very exacting operation which started with figuring out how much garbage was actually being generated and then finding solutions to reduce it. Slowly but surely the amount of garbage started to be reduced, and the university started looking at other areas that could be made more sustainable. These other areas included water usage, noise pollution, energy use, soil contamination and biodiversity.
\nWhat keeps UPEMOR on track towards achieving its sustainability objectives is through its their on going efforts to achieve certification by the PROFEPA, federal environmental governmental regulation. This is a very strict certification program that includes an outside audit by a certified environmental auditor to ensure that the university is meeting 100% of the Mexican norms for sustainability. Moreover, the university has to renew the PROFEPA certification every 2 years.
\nIn addition to the national governmental certification program, the university is also taking part in ISO \u2013 14001 and ISO 9000 certification. The university has an Office of Institutional Effectiveness that helps to track and provide evidence for the ISO certifications and it works very closely with CECAM.
\nValeria explained that there was some resistance from students and staff with respect to the various sustainability projects implemented but with the support of the various directors and student and staff orientation and professional development programs, the majority of the community has embraced the university\u2019s move towards becoming even more sustainable. So as I end my first full day in Mexico I am truly motivated to help Dawson attain its sustainability goal and I am looking forward to learning as much as I can during the upcoming three-day Campus Sustainability forum.<\/p>\n
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