Sustainability Director Rochelle Owen celebrated

Rochelle Owen, Dal's director of sustainability, is gaining lots of attention this fall for her work.

On November 9, Owen received the 2016 Mobius Hall of Fame award from Divert NS, in recognition of her ongoing commitment to the environment and leadership in diverting waste from landfill. She is the first ever recipient of the Hall of Fame award, which was presented at a ceremony in Halifax featuring David Suzuki as its keynote speaker.

And only a few weeks prior, Owen was awarded the Bright Business Award for Leadership from Efficiency Nova Scotia, which recognizes an individual’s leadership, contribution and impact in energy efficiency.

"It must be my year, I guess," laughs Owen. "It's nice, and I'm honoured. Slightly embarrassed... one person doesn't do it alone. It really is a team effort."

Leading change

Owen became Dal's first director of the Office of Sustainability in 2008. Since her arrival, she has led the office in developing strategic plans around climate change, natural environment, food, transportation and waste. The university has earned a gold rating in STARS (the higher education ratings system for sustainability) and has met many of its targets in its Sustainability Operations Plan.

Dalhousie’s Office of Sustainability is unique in Atlantic Canada; most other universities rely on sustainability coordinators who report to other departments, but lack a dedicated office. Dal’s office works to incorporate sustainability concepts and criteria across policy and planning, building and retrofit projects, and operations. It also aims to engage the broader Dal community in practising sustainable behavior.

Owen has a long history of environmentally-focused work prior to her time at Dalhousie. She’s worked at organizations such as Environment Canada, the Clean Foundation and the Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corp. Her passion for the environment has been clear ever since she was young, growing up with her family in Labrador and camping two months out of every year. And it was during her time as an undergraduate Science student at Dal that a course called “Health and the Environment” solidified her interest in working in environmental issues as a career.

Making connections

Although it’s hard for Owen to pick a favourite part of her job at Dal, she says she loves working with other staff and volunteers. For example, for this year’s Earth Day back in April, the Office of Sustainability collaborated with Communications and Marketing department and the Agricultural Campus's staff and Friends of the Garden to organize a giveaway of Black-Eyed Susan seeds, spreading, as she puts it, "a little hope and biodiversity for the bees."

"It's just a nice little story of us working together," Owen says. "Those are the fun things that I like doing. And thankfully there’s lots of fun things."

She also points to more complex projects, such as the newly approved biomass co-generation project on the Truro Agricultural Campus, for which construction is underway. The Ag Campus also has a goal of eventually becoming carbon neutral.

"I like the bigger, transformative energy work that we're doing, and that's really trying to think ahead — not only wait for things to happen, but try to make things happen by planning and seeing the future."