united way versatech

United Way in action on our campus
Monday, October 31, 2011

 When faculty, staff or students at The University of Winnipeg crumple a piece of paper and throw it into a campus blue box, they may not know it but they are going on a United Way journey.

Four days a week, four adults employed by Versatech Industries and funded by our United Way contributions are hard at work on our campus. They empty our office and common area blue boxes into bins, then wheel away the bins on dollies or carts to the University's central recycling depot. UWinnipeg has been partnering with Versatech, a not-for-profit charitable organization supported by United Way, since 1988. Today, they are our front line in the battle against waste.

The Versatech mission is simple and produces real results: to help adults with intellectual disabilities gain contributive and valued roles in society and to provide work-related training and jobs for individuals with intellectual disabilities who reside in the City of Winnipeg. Versatech also operates a recycling and document destruction facility in Winnipeg.

UWinnipeg's recycling program is part of a comprehensive approach to sustainability on campus. In 2006, the Board of Regents formally adopted a Campus Sustainability Policy which broadly commits the University to working toward the overall environmental, social and economic sustainability of all University programs, activities, and operations. Most recent initiatives include partnering with the Forks Renewal Corporation to send all campus food scraps, containers and cutlery to the Forks to be turned into compost for landscaping; installing a hybrid heating system that switches between natural gas and could reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from core buildings by as much as 25%; and outfitting all campus bathrooms with low-flow toilets and sinks, saving more than one million gallons of water per year.