After a signing ceremony at the Gord Edgar Downie Pier, Queen’s has officially become a Blue University.
The event, which took place on Sept. 17, officially inducts Queen’s into the global Blue Communities Project focused on water stewardship, sustainability, and access to clean water. At the waterfront ceremony that saw roughly 40 attendees, Principal Patrick Deane and project founder Maude Barlow signed the certification, formalizing Queen’s membership.
This makes Queen’s the 23rd Blue University globally and ninth in Canada. At the end of the ceremony, Global Development Studies Professor David McDonald invited everyone who attended to jump in the pier to celebrate Queen’s’ membership as a Blue University.
“This project has been wildly successful,” Barlow said in her speech welcoming Queen’s to the pledge.
In her remarks, Barlow explained the movement began in 2009 and initially focused on protecting publicly owned water systems before expanding internationally to include municipalities, universities, schools, faith-based organizations, and trade unions.
The designation commits Queen’s to three core principles: advancing the human right to water and sanitation, promoting public ownership of water management, and banning the use of plastic water bottles where reusable bottles and safe tap water is available, McDonald said in an interview with The Journal.
In his introductory speech, Deane said joining the project advances the University’s Bicentennial Vision and builds on sustainability projects.
“Becoming a Blue University supports Queen’s dedication to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which have landed us, I’m pleased to say, in the global top 10 of the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact rankings for six consecutive years, something of which we’re very proud,” Deane said.
The Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings measures universities’ contributions toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with Queen’s placing fourth this year.
While the City of Kingston has been part of The Blue Communities Project since 2011, Deane said Queen’s joining the network creates additional opportunities for collaboration between the University and the City.
When asked why Queen’s had not joined the initiative sooner, Deane told The Journal the University needed someone to bring the idea forward.
“I think it probably just required a champion,” Deane said. “Someone who knew about it and worked in that area and brought cash into it. David McDonald is that person.”
For McDonald, becoming a Blue University is about expanding work already underway at Queen’s rather than establishing new policies.
He said the University does not yet have one specific plan for how its commitments will develop but expects Queen’s to build on existing work in areas including climate change, wastewater infrastructure, Indigenous water governance, and urban planning.
“There’s no singular path we’re going to take,” McDonald said. “It’s really just continuing with what people are doing.”
According to McDonald, the quality of the Great Lakes has improved over the past three decades, but Queen’s should think more broadly about who has access to water and who controls it.
“Water is the ultimate public issue,” McDonald said. “As a public university, we must commit ourselves to preserving and advancing water’s public status.”
McDonald said Queen’s has a responsibility as a Blue University to work with Indigenous communities on unequal access to clean water and sanitation.
In his speech, he also expanded on why he wanted to become a Blue University.
“My interest in making Queens [a part] of Blue University is not just to celebrate what we do, but to hold ourselves accountable to the privilege of this location,” McDonald said. “Every Queen’s student should graduate knowing something about this lake.”
AMS Commissioner of Environmental Sustainability Alexander Wong-Ma similarly emphasized the relationship between students and Lake Ontario.
“We all arrive with different relationships to water, and we develop a shared one here,” Wang said at the ceremony.
In an interview with The Journal, Wang said students and the AMS also play a role in keeping Queen’s accountable.
“The value that I bring here is to show that students care,” Wang said. “We will definitely push [Queen’s] to make sure that they uphold their commitments.”
Tags
Bicentennial Vision, Blue Communities Project, Blue University, Gord Edgar Downie Pier
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