SUSTAINABILITY
Energy Efficiency
Developing policy, meeting consumption targets, measuring emissions, collaborating with community partners—as the world’s energy consumption continues to rise, we are committed to continually improving and managing our institution’s energy consumption.
Learn more about the many initiatives and partnerships shaping our response to energy and climate change.
Energy management systems
We hold ourselves to the globally recognized standards set out by ISO 50001’s energy management system.
The ISO 50001 sets a globally recognized standard to improve environmental impacts through best standards, practices and principles for managing energy systems.
ISO 50001 ensures that MacEwan University improves energy efficiency and resource conservation while minimizing operation costs, battling climate change and thinking about continuous improvements for the campus’s future.
This energy management system’s requirements support MacEwan to:
- Develop more efficient energy policies
- Meet energy consumption policy targets and objectives
- Gather data to improve energy use decisions
- Measure results
- Continually improve energy management
- Monitor a greenhouse gas inventory
MacEwan is actively safeguarding our future by:
- Established an energy management committee
- Conducting a large-scale lighting retrofit
- Upgrading campus equipment and boilers to be more energy-efficient
- Piloting a major solar array project to cover the roofs of Buildings 6 and 7, with completion expected in fall 2025
- Designing and implementing a microgrid application on campus featuring an innovative backup battery system and high-speed EV chargers powered by solar PV through funding from Alberta Ecotrust
A Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory is an emission inventory that measures natural and human-made emissions. MacEwan University measures its emissions to ensure that our campus is taking steps to reduce our production of greenhouse gases.
Community partnerships
By collaborating with the City of Edmonton and other organizations, we increase our ability to collectively reduce our energy consumption and meet climate goals.
MacEwan University was a founding member of the City of Edmonton’s Corporate Climate Leaders program. Program members are corporations from across the Edmonton region that are committed to reducing, monitoring and reporting energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
MacEwan University has participated in the City of Edmonton’s Building Energy Benchmarking program since 2018. In our first year, we won Best Overall Energy Performance for MacEwan Residence and an honourable mention for the Robbins Health Learning Centre. The Building Energy Benchmarking program aims to improve building energy efficiency and helps support building owners and operators to reduce energy consumption while reducing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.
Building design, construction and operation
Pollution related to a building’s design, construction and operation accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector in Canada. To develop a sustainable future for our campus, MacEwan University has established environmental sustainability as a foundation in its building construction, design and operations. MacEwan follows Alberta Infrastructure’s Technical Design Requirements, ensuring all facilities meet or exceed the province’s minimum green building standards.
Learn more about the Government of Alberta's Green Building Standards.
Edmonton’s cold climate requires a lot of energy to warm the interiors of our buildings; this is why the institution’s building projects are developed to go beyond base-level environmental standards. Three of MacEwan’s buildings have LEED silver certification. As the Edmonton downtown community expands, MacEwan aims to set an example as sustainability leaders in urban development.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program is an internationally used benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED projects help to:
- Reverse contribution to global climate change
- Enhance individual human health and well-being
- Protect and restore water resources
- Protect, enhance and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services
- Promote sustainable and regenerative material resources cycles
- Build a greener economy
- Enhance social equity, environmental justice and community quality of life
The points-based system focuses on seven key areas of human and environmental health:
- Location and transportation
- Sustainable sites
- Water efficiency
- Energy and atmosphere
- Materials and resources
- Indoor environmental quality
- Innovation and regional priority
MacEwan understands the need for a healthy, high-performing indoor environment. MacEwan strives to have buildings that maximize natural light, views, comfort, healthy materials, indoor air quality and accessibility, and healthy air exchanges that assist in preventing illnesses, reducing stress and improving productivity and performance.
As a downtown campus, we have access to a variety of public, accessible transportation options that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They include:
- Regularly scheduled public transit to the Edmonton downtown core, including to and from Sherwood Park and St. Albert, with unlimited access through the SAMU U-Pass program
- LRT access from the MacEwan Station (located on 105 Street and 105 Avenue)
- Bike racks and bike-related services on campus (including indoor and outdoor racks and secure bike lock-up areas)
- E-scooters
Located in the heart of Edmonton’s urban community, MacEwan University seeks to sustainably develop the campus grounds in ways that enhance all aspects of our institution’s energy consumption needs. Plant life on campus helps reduce the heat-island effect, stores carbon and creates permeable surfaces. Some of the features on our campus grounds include:
- Integrated Pest Management program
- Irrigation
- Planting native species on campus
- Indoor and outdoor community gardens
Water processes require a lot of energy and infrastructure. The university reduces water consumption in several ways:
- Low-flow toilets and water-less urinals
- Water bottle refill stations
- Aeration of faucets
- Native plants on campus that require less to no water
