Sustainability
From green campus initiatives to applied research and institutional strategies, SAIT's sustainability framework prioritizes social, financial, and environmental dimensions of sustainability.
Recycling, compost and trash
Let’s work together to divert 80% of SAIT's waste from the landfill annually.
Recycling the right way and composting correctly takes practice and patience — and some knowledge. Get to know what goes where.
Not sure? When in doubt, use the trash/landfill bin. Putting the wrong thing in the wrong bin leads to contamination and to the whole load going in the garbage.
♻️ Use the mixed recycling bin for paper, clean cardboard, plastics marked #1 to 7, glass and metal cans.
Sort it out
- you don't need to take the labels off your mixed recycling, just rinse your cans, tubs and jars
- dry paper coffee cups and plastic lids can go in mixed recycling at SAIT
- clean tin foil can be wadded into a ball and put in mixed recycling
What definitely doesn't go in mixed recycling?
- chip bags and snack packaging
- batteries
- black garbage bags
🧃 Use the beverage containers bin for refundable cans and bottles, milk cartons and tetra packs.
🥪 Use the compost bin for fruit, vegetables, meat, coffee grounds, eggshells, food-soiled paper/cardboard containers (paper coffee cups, pizza boxes, etc.), compostable packaging, and used napkins, tissues and paper towels.
What definitely doesn’t go in compost?
- paper towels soaked with cleaning solution
- rocks and stones
- liquids
🗑️ Use the trash/landfill bin for plastic cutlery, snack packaging and black garbage bags.
Batteries and e-cycling
Batteries and small electronics (phones, hairdryers, etc.) can be recycled in the bins on the main floor of Aldred Centre. Battery bins for individual offices can be requested through Helpline.
For big things like computers or printers, contact the ITS Service Desk.
Furniture
Facilities Management makes every effort to repair broken furniture for reuse, recycle component parts when furniture is beyond repair and to donate unwanted furniture. Contact Helpline for furniture repair or removal.
Did you know?
- Money from every can and drink bottle recycled goes toward an annual student award valued at $1,000.
- By removing personal waste bins from employee workstations we’re diverting more than 300,000 plastic bags from the landfill annually.
- The School of Transportation implemented a tire recycling program to help mitigate the number of materials used in training being brought to the landfill.
- The School of Construction provides an in-house recycling program for extra waste materials such as sawdust. The school also recycles clean wood.
- The School of Manufacturing and Automation recycles materials such as scrap metal to help reduce waste. The revenue received from the recycled materials goes back into program budgets to aid in the purchase of more materials. From 2018 to 2020, approximately 504,750 lbs of scrap metal was recycled.
- The School of Hospitality and Tourism and Saitsa’s Odyssey café are proudly LEAF certified. LEAF certification offers accreditation to restaurants demonstrating efforts in environmental and sustainable foodservice practices.
- The School of Hospitality and Tourism, Saitsa and SAIT’s food services provider recycle used cooking grease from their foodservice outlets.
- Saitsa outlets donate food to SAIT students.
- After in-person classes were suspended in response to COVID-19, SAIT culinary instructors donated 10,000 pounds of unused food to the Leftovers Foundation.
Bee City Campus
Nearly 60,000 honey bees have been calling SAIT home since 2014. Spending their time between the three rooftop beehives found on top of the John Ware building, instructors from SAIT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism along with students from the SAIT Beekeeping Club and SAIT staff members have been instrumental in maintaining their hives and habitat.
SAIT’s commitment to the health and protection of pollinators and their habitats has been recognized by Bee City Canada has named SAIT as an official Bee City Campus.
Fun fact: Each beehive can produce up to 75 lbs of honey each year. This honey is then used by students in SAIT’s culinary programs.
Indigenous plant species biome
Created in honour of SAIT’s Centennial anniversary in 2016, the 11,000 square foot garden is a beautifully diverse meadow of drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly plants — all native to Alberta’s foothills biome.
ALUS Canada helped select and also contributed some of the plant species important for the ecosystem, including Alberta wild roses and sweetgrass.
The garden is culturally significant for First Nations communities and also benefits the beehives kept by SAIT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism and SAIT’s Beekeeping Club.
Our schools are proud to participate in working towards a greener campus by creating in-house initiatives and programs that help to educate students on sustainability and ecology.
School of Manufacturing and Automation
The School of Manufacturing and Automation recycles materials such as scrap metal to help reduce waste. The revenue received from the recycled materials goes back into program budgets to aid in the purchase of more materials. In 2018 approximately 270,800 lbs of scrap metal were recycled.
School of Construction
The School of Construction provides an in-house recycling program for extra waste materials such as sawdust.
Our programsMacPhail School of Energy
MacPhail School of Energy assists in green education by offering full-time programs that will aid students in responding to global environmental issues including,
- Water quality monitoring and inspection
- Pollution and contamination identification
- Protection and conservation of the natural environment
School of Transportation
With many different programs focused on the automotive industry, extra materials such as tires are the leftover result of training and education. The School of Transportation has implemented a tire recycling program to help mitigate the number of materials brought to the landfill.
Green Building Technologies Lab and Demonstration Centre
As Calgary's first commercial Net Zero building the Green Building Technologies (GBT) Lab and Demonstration Centre integrates construction, green technologies and renewable energy. The building includes a solar lab, rainwater harvesting technology, passive heating and charging ports for electric cars. The GBT Lab aids in the advancement of applied research and development.
Aldred Centre
Named after John and Cheryl Aldred, the Aldred Centre is one of the three buildings that make up SAIT's Trades and Technology Complex. The unique wavy roof provides different sustainable benefits to help reduce our carbon footprint. The waves help to provide heat to the building by reflecting the energy and using air handlers to redistribute the heat helping to reduce the amount of energy used. Externally, the building provides gutters for rainwater to be collected and redistributed into the stormwater system during dry weather.
John Ware
Although still in the planning and renovation stages the John Ware Building provides SAIT's culinary students with the proper labs and venues to achieve excellence within the industry. With sustainability insight, the dream is to create a sustainable rooftop garden to help educate students in the benefits of organic growing, and sustainability issues. The John Ware Building is not only occupied by students, staff and visitors but also by three bees colonies housing over 60,000 bees.
The future is green
The Sustainable Operations team at SAIT is committed to developing and creating new initiatives that will contribute to SAIT's sustainability goals. Currently, the team is working on the collecting and bench working of research, forecasting for the future and creating both short-term and long-term goals.
Future projects- A goal has been set to reach an 80% waste diversion rate annually.
- Exploring new power systems such as a new cogeneration unit and generation technologies such as solar and battery power to help reduce wasted power on campus.