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Note: Pomerantz has since been named聽Supervisor: Sustainability, Contracts and Special Projects in the department of聽Building and Grounds. Learn more about ongoing waste reduction initiatives by clicking here.听

Improvements to waste systems can have almost immediate economic, social and environmental benefits, but they often require multidisciplinary, collaborative and organized approaches. 聽Thus, the position of Zero-waste Coordinator was born out of the Sustainability Projects Fund in order to smooth McGill鈥檚 transition to a zero-waste campus.

This May, Kendra Pomerantz joined the Office of Sustainability as McGill鈥檚 first Zero-waste Coordinator, a job which involves collaborating with multiple stakeholders to set in motion the initiatives outlined in聽the McGill Waste Reduction and Diversion Plan.听Operating under both the Office of Sustainability and the Buildings and Grounds unit, Pomerantz will aim to synergize the logistical and strategic components of waste reduction at McGill. Each step she has taken in her academic and professional life, from researching food systems as a McGill undergraduate to aiding in the compost site design for , has led her to this role.听

Pomerantz received her Bachelor of Arts from McGill in Economics and the Earth鈥檚 Environment and, like many undergraduates, she was involved in numerous groups across campus. Most notably, she was the manager for the McGill Food Systems Project, which organized Applied Student Research聽(ASR) projects, in collaboration with McGill faculty and administrators, with the goal of improving the social, ecological, and economic sustainability of the McGill food system. 聽Through her management of the McGill Food Systems Project, Kendra also engaged in her own research on the disposal of organic waste at McGill, an integral part of any food system.

In ENVR 301, Environmental Research Design, Pomerantz鈥檚 group identified the desire of McGill cafeterias to improve their composting system. 聽Her group was asked to study the organic waste flows throughout the cafeterias, to investigate the various options to divert their waste, such as reinstating Big Hanna, hiring Compost Montr茅al or transporting the organic waste off the downtown campus to MacDonald campus, and to provide their recommendation. 聽Their final recommendation was for Big Hanna to remain in operation and be serviced by Compost Montr茅al.

For her honours thesis, Pomerantz used Compost Montr茅al as a case study in her analysis of environmental and business decision-making, asking, 鈥淗ow do you balance economic and financial considerations with environmental impact and other criteria that are not necessarily financial?鈥� 聽Her research changed, however as Compost Montr茅al entered a time of crisis: the compost site to which the company regularly provided organic material was being converted to a parking lot for the equipment of the construction on the Turcot interchange. They needed a Plan B, and Pomerantz delivered, developing a multicriteria decision analysis tool to evaluate their options.

鈥淚t was neat because by the time I left, I really had quite a network. I started to be asked, 鈥榃e need a student representative for such-and-such committee, could you come and do consultations?鈥� I really liked that a lot because I think it helped me understand a bit more about how things happen in the university context, how decisions are made, who you need to speak to for what, and how an institution of this size [sic] runs,鈥� said Pomerantz.

It is no surprise then that she got hired to work for Compost Montr茅al, doing 鈥渁 lot of everything鈥� during a time of site transition. The company works with the city at many levels, mobilizing citizens and managing stakeholders鈥� needs and wants, so creating a new compost site was no simple task. Compost Montr茅al sent Pomerantz to New York to take a course on compost site design. Upon completion of the course, she returned to Montreal to work with the many stakeholders involved, suggesting and helping develop a more spatially efficient compost site design, the finished product of which is located near the Turcott Interchange on Boulevard Notre Dame.

Despite such successes in creating change and solving complex, systemic issues, Pomerantz wished she could do more. 聽There were so many people who had great ideas at McGill and in the broader Montreal context.听

鈥淚t frustrated me that I didn鈥檛 have more concrete skills to apply those ideas and be able to say 鈥榃e want to do this. What do we have to do to make this happen?鈥� 聽That was a skill I really wanted to develop,鈥� explained Pomerantz.

She decided to go back to school at Universit茅 Laval to earn her M.B.A. specializing in Environmental and Social Corporate Responsibility. While she earned her masters, she also worked in the administration, supporting an interfaculty committee in identifying and organizing a of sustainability courses and programs across the university. 聽Her soon-to-be-published capstone research project for her masters was on the ideological approaches and theoretical applications used in tracking criteria, building an inventory, and managing systems for educating in sustainability.

Each step in Pomerantz鈥檚 journey lent her indispensable expertise in systems thinking and strategizing. While this operational role聽is new territory, her ambition to successfully fulfill the duties of Zero-waste Coordinator is evident. 聽She plans to improve data on McGill鈥檚 waste system; to identify the most viable actions that will have high impact with minimal barriers to execution; to learn from other universities鈥� efforts, successes and challenges in achieving zero-waste; and to draw from the many perspectives of and to mobilize the passionate, multicultural community at McGill.

If you have a waste-related initiative at McGill or would like to be involved in improving the system, send Kendra an email at kendra.pomerantz [at] mcgill.ca