Students call for sustainability tracking in technologies sector: report

LONDON, ON, April 13 /CNW/ - A report released by Canadian undergraduate student leaders calls on the information and communication technologies sector to develop tools for tracking sustainability factors in consumer products.

Entitled "The New Normal: Sustainable Practices your Future Employees will Demand," the report was compiled by the Network for Business Sustainability and captures dozens of recommendations made by student participants of IMPACT! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership.

"Consumers need access to better information about the sustainability of products," said Elisabeth Poirier-Garneau, Master of Environment graduate from the Université de Sherbrooke. "Improved label scanning technology could provide customers with instant, in-store or online information about a product's life-cycle and supply chain impacts. Ideally, the information could then be filtered and ranked according to consumer preferences."

The students proposed the following sustainable practices for organizations in the Information and Communications Technologies sector:

    
    -  Provide standardized product information.
    -  Develop better product scanning technology.
    -  Provide paperless educational resources.
    

"I firmly support the ideas generated at the conference and am optimistic that increased transparency will act as a key driver to a more sustainable future," said Frances Edmonds, Director Environmental Programs, Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.

The full report is available on the Network website: www.nbs.net/new_normal and the IMPACT! website: www.impactyouthsustainability.ca/en.

IMPACT! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership was a partnership of The Co-operators, the Network for Business Sustainability of the Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan's Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, Wilfred Laurier University, The Natural Step Canada, The David Suzuki Foundation and AIESEC.

For further information: Leonard Sharman, The Co-operators, 1-877-795-7272, ext. 2707; Tom Ewart, Network for Business Sustainability, [phone] ext. 80094