Rochelle Owen, Dal's director of sustainability, is gaining lots of attention this fall for her work.
On November 9, Owen received the , in recognition of her ongoing commitment to the environment and leadership in diverting waste from landfill. She is the first ever recipient of the Hall of Fame award, which was presented at a ceremony in Halifax featuring David Suzuki as its keynote speaker.
And only a few weeks prior, Owen was awarded the , which recognizes an individual鈥檚 leadership, contribution and impact in energy efficiency.
"It must be my year, I guess," laughs Owen. "It's nice, and I'm honoured. Slightly embarrassed... one person doesn't do it alone. It really is a team effort."
Leading change
Owen became Dal's first director of the Office of Sustainability in 2008. Since her arrival, she has led the office in developing strategic plans around climate change, natural environment, food, transportation and waste. The university has earned a gold rating in STARS (the higher education ratings system for sustainability) and has met many of its targets in its Sustainability Operations Plan.
Dalhousie鈥檚 Office of Sustainability is unique in Atlantic Canada; most other universities rely on sustainability coordinators who report to other departments, but lack a dedicated office. Dal鈥檚 office works to incorporate sustainability concepts and criteria across policy and planning, building and retrofit projects, and operations. It also aims to engage the broader Dal community in practising sustainable behavior.
Owen has a long history of environmentally-focused work prior to her time at Dalhousie. She鈥檚 worked at organizations such as Environment Canada, the Clean Foundation and the Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corp. Her passion for the environment has been clear ever since she was young, growing up with her family in Labrador and camping two months out of every year. And it was during her time as an undergraduate Science student at Dal that a course called 鈥淗ealth and the Environment鈥� solidified her interest in working in environmental issues as a career.
Making connections
Although it鈥檚 hard for Owen to pick a favourite part of her job at Dal, she says she loves working with other staff and volunteers. For example, for this year鈥檚 Earth Day back in April, the Office of Sustainability collaborated with Communications and Marketing department and the Agricultural Campus's staff and Friends of the Garden to organize a giveaway of Black-Eyed Susan seeds, spreading, as she puts it, "a little hope and biodiversity for the bees."
"It's just a nice little story of us working together," Owen says. "Those are the fun things that I like doing. And thankfully there鈥檚 lots of fun things."
She also points to more complex projects, such as the newly approved biomass co-generation project on the Truro Agricultural Campus, for which construction is underway. The Ag Campus also has a goal of eventually becoming carbon neutral.
"I like the bigger, transformative energy work that we're doing, and that's really trying to think ahead 鈥� not only wait for things to happen, but try to make things happen by planning and seeing the future."