Environmental Sustainability Achievement Awards
TRU is proud to be a global leader in environmental sustainability for post-secondary institutions, as highlighted in fall 2018 when the university earned a platinum rating in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) program.
Achieving that honour took a lot of work from faculty and staff. There have also been some outstanding contributions from the student body that help make TRU the leader it is today. For their efforts, two students have received TRU’s Environmental Sustainability Achievement Award.
The award substantiates sustainability as one of TRU’s strategic priorities. It not only supports those who are active in sustainability, but also encourages others to become active as well. Nominees are individuals who innovate and are original, have a positive influence to a large group of people and have made significant contributions to environmental sustainability.
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2019 student winners
Christian Andrews
Katie Shouldice
The 2019 recipients of the Environmental Sustainability Achievement Award were Christian Andrews and Katie Shouldice. Both were presented their awards during the Beyond Climate film tour on March 8 by David Suzuki.
Andrews is a 27-year-old South Kamloops Secondary graduate who is constantly looking for ways to make TRU more environmentally sustainable. Heavily involved with the TRU Students’ Union Eco Club, he helped organize a cleanup of downtown Kamloops on April 6, where he corralled more than 40 volunteers.
He also designed a new product called Coastcards, where he recycled used coasters from bars and restaurants and turned them into greeting cards for several different occasions.
A third-year economics student, Andrews is always looking at things with both environmental and economical aspects in mind. He likes to know where his dollar goes and tries to buy the least environmentally impactful products when possible.
Shouldice has worked closely with Andrews in the past, as she is the president of the TRUSU Eco Club.
A chemistry student, Shouldice found ways to make the chemistry labs on campus less damaging for the environment.
In her video, Greening-Up, Shouldice developed an alternative way of suction filtration that could save nearly 300,000 litres of water that gets poured down the drain. She has also determined safer ways of removing harsh chemicals from organic chemistry labs.
When she graduates in 2020, the 21-year-old would like to work with mines, regulating and testing them to see how they can be more environmentally sustainable.