5 things to know about sustainable development at UdeM

Since 2013, the UdeM campus has been a certified bottled water-free site. Student cafés, food services and vending machines are all part of this eco-responsible shift! The result: 80,000 less plastic bottles are tossed away on campus each year.

Now, the student community refills reusable bottles they’ve pledged to use (some even bearing the UdeM logo) at over 300 water fountains. It's a great community project to reduce waste at the source and it’s making a splash in the UdeM community. 

Université de Montréal, located in the heritage district of Mount Royal, sits on 65 hectares of natural beauty. And it’s home to abundant biodiversity:  northern cardinals, hawks, salamanders, white trilliums, bluebells, maples, Mount Royal plums and more. But Jojo the fox is the star of the woods!

Since no one had actually seen him, our foxy little neighbour was just an urban legend... until a mild winter morning in 2017, when we spotted his red coat and variegated tail on camera. Although the image is pixilated, we could definitely see that it wasn’t a rabbit or a squirrel. It was Jojo the fox! 

3. Fair trade campus from start to finish

The Fair Trade Campus logo recognizes campuses where every food outlet tries to offer Fairtrade-certified products, such as favourites like coffee, tea and chocolate. This designation, received in March 2017, confirms UdeM's commitment to fair trade and highlights the hard work of FAÉCUM and our institutional food services.

Since 2020, UdeM has also supported l’Économie sociale : j’achète! (The Social Economy: I’ll buy that!) by moving towards responsible, sustainable, fair trade and community-based local purchasing. 

At UdeM, over 70% of our departments offer courses in sustainable development. Focused on today's issues, these courses make UdeM a leader in teaching the subject. Whether we're talking about an environmental, economic or social pillar (or all three), teaching the concept to our students is firmly grounded in our pride of place.  

5. Get involved!

The Écoleader program promotes the university community's commitment to sustainable development. An eco-leader is someone who shows leadership in sustainable development issues within their immediate environment and who’s an active member of a network that shares these concerns. This program strives to create a proactive community concerned about sustainable development, mobilizes the UdeM community around its issues, and supports and enriches the university experience by getting people involved.