Together with some European and American Higher Education Institutions, the University of Sonora is one of the few universities and colleges worldwide that hold an Environmental Management System Certification. Thanks to its sustainability efforts, the University of Sonora has won a respectable reputation in the greater community and it is seen in the region as an icon of sustainability promoter. In July 2008, the University of Sonora got the ISO14001:2004 certification being first public higher education institution to do it not only in Mexico but also in Latin America. This paper shows an example of a good sustainability practice on campus by implementing a Sustainability Management System (SGS) based on the ISO 14001 international standard. This paper focuses on a descriptive case study that was constructed through more than six years of direct participation in the design, operation and maintenance of the University of Sonora’s Sustainability Management System (SGS).
The University of Sonora is the biggest, most important and most prestigious university in both the city and the state of Sonora, at the northwestern region of Mexico. It is a public university with some 35,000 students in five campuses in the state. Its main campus is located in Hermosillo. The University of Sonora started in 1992 to foster sustainability within and outside campus as way for helping Mexican society make the transition to sustainable life styles. At the time, the members of the Sustainable Development Group visioned a university that would be “A higher education institution, as a whole or as a part, that addresses, involves and promotes, on a regional or a global level, the minimization of environmental, economics, societal, and health negative effects in the use of their resources in order to fulfill its main functions of teaching, research, outreach & partnership, and stewardship among others as a way to helping society make the transition to sustainable life styles.” At the beginning, the sustainability strategy consisted of individual and isolated projects, but years later, it evolved to a systematic and integrative Sustainability Management System (SMS). This SMS is based on the ISO 14001 international standard that provides an effective framework to integrate the principles of sustainability.
The purpose of the SMS is the protection of natural resources and the prevention, reduction and/or elimination of environmental and occupational risks generated by the members of the university community when using resources in order to fulfill its substantive functions of teaching, research, outreach & partnership, and its stewardship activities that support the substantive functions.
The impetus behind the SGS came from the Sustainable Development Group leader by Dr. Luis Velazquez who identified the key persons within the university community forming two committees; the executive and steering, for running the system. All sectors of the university, authorities, professors, students, and staff members, have representation in the SGS. As a premise, the SMS has been strongly indexed with the substantive functions of the institution, mainly education and research, because the sustainability formation of students is the top priority in the system besides improving institutional management and operations. The Engineering College is the fenceline, where the improvements would take place, of the system; therefore, the scope includes all the activities and processes to perform the substantive functions in the Engineering College. The Engineering College hosts 20 buildings including classrooms, research labs, restrooms and offices. Those buildings are daily occupied by approximately 3,500 students, their professors, and staff members. Conceptually, it is not pretending that the fenceline to be a fixed place to concentrate sustainability efforts. To the contrary, this is very flexible and sustainability efforts have positive impacts on the whole campus. The Executive Committee is responsible for approving the main procedures on the manual, overseeing the good performance of the SMS and also approving the reports made by the steering committee. The purpose of the Steering Committee is to perform the tasks for operating and maintaining the SMS. The working teams are usually formed by undergraduate students in the Engineering College. There are several teams by any sustainability program. The number of the students assigned to a particular program will depend on the number of students enrolled in the mandatory course 'Sustainability for Engineering Sciences'. Usually, there are 350 to 550 students enrolled per semester. As a sustainability leader higher education institution, the University of Sonora strives to practice what is preached in its classrooms. This commitment is reflected in the institutional sustainability policy. In September, 2004, the rector issued the sustainability policy that shows the commitment of the institution to foster sustainability and pollution prevention in its teaching, research, and partnerships with the community, and in the management of the institution. This policy is annually reviewed by all members of the SMS to ensure appropriateness, effectiveness and correctness. Today, the SGS has proliferated vastly and by the end of 2009 it created the office of sustainability with the purpose to include two more colleges to the fenceline and to advance in transforming the University of Sonora in a more sustainable university.
On July 1st, 2008, the University of Sonora got the ISO 14001 certification for its sustainability management system; a year later, a successfull follow up audit was carried out. As far as our knowledge is concerned, the University of Sonora, specifically its Engineering College, is the first public higher education institution in Latin-America holding this certification. Sustainability indicators from June of 2008 to December of 2009 show that about 17000 plastics bottles have been collected, reused and/or recycled, mainly PET bottles, 6740 kilos of paper, avoided the waste of more than 400 cubic meters of water, avoided the emissions of 147 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, and composted more than 2000 kilograms of organic waste among other indicators. It was also incremented the security in the chemical labs and created the civil protection brigades on campus. The ultimate success has been the role of the SGS in the formation of students; formally, more than 400 engineering students maintain the system by re-examining and re-inventing the guidelines. This is part of the continuous improvement towards helping Mexicans make the transition to sustainable life styles.
The paper shows the experience of a public higher education institution that has been a sustainability leader in Mexico for more than 18 years. Influenced by colleagues in European and North American universities, Mexican professors have achieved the merits to certificate the SGS. Yet, validating its effectiveness has been difficult because more knowledge is necessary to prove that this standard is effective for achieving sustainability in higher education institutions. Being the first public higher education institution in Latin-American holding the ISO 14001 certification increase the University of Sonora’s commitment to keep performing and sharing its sustainability practices.
guninetwork.org | Ph: +34 93 401 70 08 | Fx: +34 93 401 08 55 | C. Jordi Girona, 31. Edifici TG(S1). E-08755 Barcelona
