Verdis-toit
Université du Québec à Montréal

Committed to Making the Campus, as well as Downtown Montréal, Greener

Every day, thousands of cars invade the streets of Montréal. Aware of the need to take steps to alleviate the negative effects of this type of urban pollution, students at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) have been taking repeated action aimed at making their campus greener. On the program: the installation of green roofs, composting, the recycling of hazardous waste and a good number of other initiatives. The objective is clear: to turn the campus into a paradigm of environmental respect. “UQÀM is located in the heart of the city centre and occupies a large area of the Ville-Marie neighbourhood. This location gives the campus the opportunity to take a stand to significantly help improve the quality of the environment and of life in the city centre,” asserts Anne Parent, member of the Verdis-Toit group.

Verdis-Toit is a sub-committee of UQÀM’s Groupe de recherche d’intérêt public (GRIP-UQÀM), which works in close collaboration with the environmental committee of the Association des étudiants du secteur des sciences (AESS). Over the past two years, the members of the two committees have joined forces to set up numerous ecological initiatives. And their actions have not gone unnoticed. “With its large membership of students in the sciences, the committees quickly set themselves apart at our institution as instigators of change in environmental protection,” points out the dean of the Faculty of Sciences at UQÀM, Yves Mauffette.

With their Verdis-Toit project, the students work toward making the roofs on campus, which represent the equivalent of almost 11 football pitches, greener. To convince the UQÀM administration of the practicality and benefits of green roofs in an urban environment, they carried out an extensive feasibility study. “To my knowledge, this is the first time a study on green roofs of such scope has been conducted in Québec,” Mr. Mauffette says.

The report of the exhaustive study, entitled Toitures végétales. Implantation de toits verts en milieu institutionnel. Étude de cas : UQAM, was published last April. It offers a plan for establishments that wish to implement green roofs on existing buildings.

However, the students didn’t wait for the results of their study before putting theory into practice. For two years now, a model green roof called the Claire-Morissette garden has been flourishing on top of the Design pavilion. Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, melons, strawberries, herbs and flowers all have pride of place and are tended by volunteer gardeners from among the university administration, staff and students. The children who attend the day-care centres on campus have also turned into budding gardeners.

A second similar garden should soon be in full bloom on the fifth floor terrace of the Président-Kennedy pavilion. “These projects are a breath of fresh air, a wind of change in terms of the environment at UQÀM,” Ms. Parent believes. “The tangible impact of these green roof initiatives is exceptional. They are an inspiring model of environmental protection and sustainable development, and prove that it is possible to make things grow in the city, on a concrete roof, with benefits which can be felt throughout the community,” adds Cynthia Philippe, a sustainable development consultant at UQÀM.

Verdis-toit
Université du Québec à Montréal