The Rise of H2Ottawa 

 

 

 

 

Celeste Digiovanni 

 

 

 

Thesis submitted to  

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies  

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of  

Master of Arts in Sociology  

 

 

 

 

 

Department of Sociology  

Faculty of Social Sciences 

University of Ottawa 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
© Celeste Digiovanni, Ottawa, Canada, 2018 

 
 

 



Table of Contents  

 

List of Figures……………………………………………………………………iv 

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………..v 

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………vi 

Preface……………………………………………………………………………vii-viii 

Introduction………………………………………………………………………1-9 

Chapter 1: A Review of the Literature…………………………………………    10-19 

1. Water…………………………………………………………………………   11-13 
i. Bottled Water…………………………………………………………………. 13-15 
ii. Privatization of Water………………………………………………………… 16-17  
iii. Environmental impact of single-use plastic water bottles …………………… 17-18 
iv. Water in Canada ……………………………………………………………… 18-19 
2. Sustainability ………………………………………………………………….. 20-23 

i. Sustainable Development………………………………………………………21-23 
3. Universities in Canada…………………………………………………………..24-31 

i. The Corporate University……………………………………………………… 27-31 
Conclusion of Literature Review………………………………………………….. 31-32 

Chapter 2: Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks……………………………… 32-55 

1. Introduction to Conceptual Frameworks…………………………………………32 

i. Ethical Consumption …..……………………………………………………….. 32-36 
ii. Reputation ………………………………………………………………………. 36-40 
2. Introduction to Theoretical Frameworks…………………………………………. 40-41 

i. Ecological Modernization…………………………………………………………41-48 
ii. Green Marxism ……………………………………………………………………58-55 
Chapter 3: Methods……………………………………………………………………56-64 

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………56 
2. Qualitative Research ………………………………………………………………. 56-57 
i. Living Action Research……………………………………………………………  67-61 
ii. Interviews…………………………………………………………………………. 61-64 
Chapter 4: Discussions and Findings…………………………………………………. 65-96 

1. Introduction to Living Action Research Findings…………………………………. 65 
i. Living Action Research Findings…………………………………………………. 65-74 
2. Introduction to Interview Findings…………………………………………………. 74 

i. Economic Return………………………………………………….………………… 74-76 

ii. Environmental Impact…………………………………………………………….. 76-79 
iii. Corporate University ………………………………………………………………79-81 
iv. Reputation ………………………………………………………………………… 81-83 
v. Ethical Consumption and Social Good…………………………………………….. 83-86 
vi. Employee and Student Dedication ………………………………………………… 86-89 
vii. Ecological Modernization Theory………………………………………………….  90-93 
viii. Green Marxism ……………………………………………………………………. 93-96 
Chapter 5: Conclusions ……………………………………………………………….. 96-98 

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………. 99-105 

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………… 106-123 

ix. Appendix 1…………………………………………………………………………. 106 
x. Appendix 2…………………………………………………………………………. 107-109 
xi. Appendix 3…………………………………………………………………………. 110 
xii. Appendix 4…………………………………………………………………………. 111 
xiii. Appendix 5…………………………………………………………………………. 112 
xiv. Appendix 6 …………………………………………………………………………. 113-114 
xv.  Appendix 7…………………………………………………………………………. 115 
xvi.  Appendix 8…………………………………………………………………………. 116 
xvii. Appendix 9………………………………………………………………………….. 117-119 
xviii. Appendix 10 ………………………………………………………………………… 120 

ii 



xix. Appendix 11…………………………………………………………………………. 121-122 
xx.  Appendix 12…………………………………………………………………………. 123 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iii 

 

 



 

List of Figures 

 

Figure 1: Table of Codes……………………………………………………………………61 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

iv 

 

 

 



In 2010, the University of Ottawa (hereafter, UO) banned the sale of single-use water bottles. 

UO decided that the sale of this product ran contrary to their commitments to environmental, 

social, and economic sustainability. This ban has been adopted by several institutions, locally 

and globally. However, there is still demand for portable water that operates within the 

boundaries of sustainability. I developed H2Ottawa at UO, through my internship with the Office 

of Campus Sustainability (hereafter, OCS). The goal of H2Ottawa is to bring portable water to 

the UO community without compromising the institution's allegiance to sustainability. To do this, 

we are selling multi-use, metal water bottles in vending machines and select cafés on campus, 

for the same price one would expect to pay for single-use bottles ($3.00)
1
. I have used a Living 

Action Research approach, as defined by Mc Niff and Whitehead (2011) to document and 

analyze the planning, conceptualization, and implementation of this project. For the purpose of 

this research, I consider that the UO adopts the mentality outlined through Ecological 

Modernization Theory (hereafter, EM). In short, EM argues that sustainability can be achieved 

within a capitalist society. I will use a green-Marxist lens to position the critical analysis of this 

project. Here, it is argued that we cannot ‘buy our way out of trouble’, meaning that a revolution 

is necessary to achieve a sustainable society. I will argue that as an institution, the UO makes its 

goals towards sustainability compatible with a corporate understanding of environmental 

responsibility. This thesis aims to answer: how does the UO implement sustainability initiatives 

in a way that complies with the value-set of the university, while also satisfying community 

expectations? I have found that the UO implemented H2Ottawa to provide students with access 

to potable water, and to augment their reputation. Considering that this project is the first of its 

kind, its adoption reinforces UO’s commitments to sustainability and innovation. Research 

findings will be of use for future students, as I present challenges involved in the 

conceptualization and implementation of sustainability-motivated initiatives within the Canadian 

university context. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 

 

                                                 
1
 All monetary figures will be evaluated in Canadian Dollars 



Acknowledgements 

 

 I would like to send out a massive ‘thank you’ to each and every individual who has 

helped my project along the way: every employee I have had the pleasure of working with, every 

student who purchased a bottle or showed interest in H2Ottawa, every interviewer and journalist, 

and all Ottawa businesses who continue to show interest and support the initiative. A big, big 

thank you to Nathan Young, my academic (and more generally, life) mentor; I am not confident 

that I would have found my love for the environment without your infectious passion, guidance, 

and support. To my dad, Joseph Digiovanni, thanks for always believing that I would accomplish 

whatever I set out to. Also, to my husband, Michael Nesrallah, thank you for dealing with all of 

my ups and downs; your emotional support has contributed to the strong woman I have learned 

to become. I never guessed that sociology would lead me onto the path of social 

entrepreneurship, but here we are… and here we go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vi 

 

 



Preface 

 I began my journey as a Sociology Master’s student at the UO in 2015. On my first day 

of classes in this new school, I stopped at a café to grab a bottle of water before my lecture. I 

came to learn that the UO had banned their sale in 2010. I could not understand how the second 

home to over 40 000 students (not including staff), banned the sale of this most basic health item. 

For my Qualitative Methods class, our end of term project was to design and administer an 

interview. I was inspired to find out why this institution did not sell bottled water, and put an end 

to this perceived madness. 

 I did my research and found that, in fact, my limited access to portable water was a small 

inconvenience compared to the global, and even local, issues surrounding water rights. I 

interviewed my current internship supervisor, Jonathan Rausseo, about these issues and was 

convinced to agree with the reasons as to why the UO banned the sale of bottled water. Being a 

1990s baby, I realized for what felt like the first time, that I did not remember life without bottled 

water. On the one hand, the ban made good sense, but on the other I knew that my community- 

same as me- would argue that students are always on the move, so easy access to portable water 

is important!  

 This is where the project started. Jonathan invited me to think of a way to provide 

students with portable water on campus without infringing upon the UO’s commitments to 

sustainability. I concluded that the UO should sell inexpensive aluminum bottles for students to 

fill up  

and go, and was determined to see this to fruition. People want portable water, but they do not  

necessarily want to support exploitative companies who produce it. In this context, using a  

vii 



 

reusable and accessible container to replace single-use bottles seemed to make sense.  

 That being said, ‘H2Ottawa’ began as an idea in mid-2015 and became a reality on World 

Water Day 2018
2
. I am proud to note that I created the H2Ottawa initiative; I alone, knocked on 

the doors of faculty members, tirelessly worked to find suppliers, ceaselessly petitioned for the 

project’s acceptance, celebrated (and cried). However, if it were not for the incessant support of 

my internship supervisor, Jonathan Rausseo
3
, and the University of Ottawa staff more generally, 

this project may not have come to fruition. The two of us were a well-suited team as I am a third 

year master’s student at UO, focusing on Corporate Sustainable Development within the field of 

Environmental Sociology, and Jonathan is a UO Environmental Studies graduate, who is now 

employed by the university to act as a liaison between student sustainability projects and 

university officials. The collaboration of science and social science students is not always 

possible, but in this case it was, and resulted in the well-rounded conceptualization and 

implementation of the H2Ottawa project.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

viii

                                                 
2
 World Water Day is March 22 

3
 His official title is Campus Sustainability Manager 



 

 

1 

Introduction 

 

 The H2Ottawa project was made possible through the UO’s ban on the sales of single-use 

bottled water. First, this ban created a gap between potable and portable water, which the 

H2Ottawa bottle aims to fill. Additionally, the ban gave UO an incentive to construct more water 

fountains on campus. According to the University of Ottawa Water Fountain Report (2016),   

“A pivotal part of going bottled water free was the revitalization of the drinking fountains 

on campus. As the stewards of the water infrastructure network on campus, Facilities, 

undertook the task of surveying all the fountains on campus, repairing those in bad 

condition, and installing new fountains where appropriate. There are currently 165 

drinking fountains on campus that are available to the community” 

 

Since the mass production and availability of bottled water, public water supplies, such as water 

fountains, have diminished in presence and quality. According to the Girard et al. (2009, 2) the 

University of Ottawa was not alone in this respect: “A major concern voiced by students on 

(Canadian University) campuses… is the lack of water fountains in buildings and the 

pervasiveness of bottled water”. The University of Ottawa was the first institution in Ontario to 

ban bottled water in 2010, and attempted to supplement this ban through the construction of 

water fountains. 

 Public buildings in Ontario are required to provide their guests with access to potable 

water. Through the Safe Drinking Water Act (2002), buildings are required to test their potable 

water to fulfil the standards outlined by the Government of Ontario. Here, buildings may provide 

drinking water through their taps, and/or by selling quality bottled water. When UO banned the 

sale of bottled water, they subsequently agreed to provide greater access to potable water through 

fountains. The university believed that expecting students to cup water from bathroom taps was 

an unsatisfactory solution, thus invested over $250 000 to provide their community with modern 



 

 

2 

water fountains in good working order
4
 (Report on Sustainable Development at the University of 

Ottawa, 2015). 

 UO’s Ban the Bottle campaign was spearheaded by Jenna Dunsby
5
 who worked with 

other students and OCS to inform her community of the ethical and social implications 

surrounding the bottled water industry. Through her tireless campaigning, she convinced enough 

students, professors, and university staff that this was a positive change towards sustainability. 

Officially, UO decided to ban bottled water for the following reasons: 

“1) Removing bottled water and increasing access to water fountains represents 

significant savings for students. Bottled water can be cost prohibitive, whereas water 

fountains are free; 2) In a small way, the number of plastic bottles on campus would be 

reduced. Although the possibility of bringing your own bottle of water on campus still 

exists, encouraging campus community members to drink from fountains would reduce 

the total number of disposable bottles; 3) Encouraging the use of bottled water subtly 

undermines the use of public utilities. The City of Ottawa has some of the cleanest water 

in the world, and it is counterproductive to sell a product on campus which is already 

readily available for free” (University of Ottawa Water Fountain Report, 2016) 

 

Here, UO recognizes that banning the sale of bottled water has the potential to save students 

money. In my own discussions with OCS, university staff believe that programs such as these 

teach students to trust the public utilities our institution offers, while also freeing up spending 

money.  

 From the university’s standpoint, offering bottled water for purchase on campus had 

many unnecessary costs. Most importantly, the price of bottled water is high, as it includes 

delivery fees and high profit margins, while UO had to pay for disposing the waste it produced; 

these fees were believed excessive for a product that UO already provides (Interview Transcripts, 

2015). From a macro-perspective, UO argues that “CO2 emissions associated with the fuel used 

                                                 
4
 UO’s water fountains are maintained based on the following criteria: The presence of a gooseneck spout that can be used to 

easily fill reusable bottles; Taste; Meeting accessibility requirements presented by Standards for Barrier-free Design Ontario; 

Water pressure; Water temperature; Fountain cleanliness (University of Ottawa Water Fountain Report, 2016) 
5
 Jenna worked with student groups, the Student Federation University of Ottawa (SFUO), Food Services, and OCS to make the 

banning of bottled water possible. 



 

 

3 

to transport (the bottles) to the campus…electricity consumed to refrigerate the vending 

machines selling bottled water… (and the) energy required to recycle the disposable bottles” is 

costly financially, but also environmentally (University of Ottawa Water Fountain Report, 2016). 

Although the ban first cost the UO money, as ~$250 000 was required to improve the drinking 

water system on campus, other sustainability initiatives, such as the one discussed here, stemmed 

from it. The Report on Sustainable Development at UO (2015) came to reveal that improving 

water fountains actually saves the institution about $5.6 million/year. These investments and 

their follow up reports show UO’s commitment to sustainability, and further incentivize UO to 

foster more initiatives. 

 H2Ottawa came out of residual demand for water on campus. When bottled water was 

first banned, some students objected, arguing that university officials were taking away their 

purchasing power and healthy beverage options (Interview Transcript, 2015; Le, 2012). UO’s 

student newspaper, The Fulcrum, released an article a year after the ban regarding the 

community’s response. The article outlined overall, that students understood the ban was “a step 

toward a more sustainable campus, a smaller ecological footprint, more access to public water 

fountains, and less money spent on something that is virtually free” (Le, 2012). Despite this, the 

University of Ottawa’s Conservative Club argued against the ban, stating that “students do not 

carry reusable water bottles, or [they] have classes in those parts of campus where water 

fountains are not easily accessible” (Le, 2012). Student-written articles reflecting upon the 

aftermath of the ban make it evident that they accept the tenets of sustainability it embodied, but 

would appreciate access to portable water on campus. H2Ottawa received attention by university 



 

 

4 

officials as it satisfies both these demands and for the same price as a generic, single-use bottle 

of water
6
. 

 The banning of bottled water took about seven years to implement. A big complication 

were contractual commitments with companies such as Coca Cola, that demanded the university 

sell its bottled water product (Dasani). For decades now, student groups have mobilized to warn 

their university administrators about signing into contracts with companies such as Coca Cola. 

They argue that Coca Cola has been found to conduct themselves unethically, specifically in 

countries such as India and Colombia, where there have been allegations of mistreating 

employees (Brownlee, 2015). For various reasons, students do not want the universities that they 

represent to be involved with corporations such as these. Despite the eventual success of the ban 

of bottled water, the divide in the UO community is worth mentioning.  

 In Canada, universities receive the bulk of their funding by respective provincial 

governments. Recently, the government of Ontario has frozen their funding of post-secondary 

institutions. As a whole, university revenues are declining while operating costs are on the rise. 

Currently, the Ontario provincial government is in no state to “fund the shortfall…(as they are 

facing) a sizeable deficit” (Roadmap at Destination 2020, 2014, 4). The Ontario provincial 

government has urged universities to partake in ‘differentiation’, where they are encouraged to 

further excel at their individual strengths, rather than working on new ones (Roadmap at 

Destination 2020, 2014, 4). Universities report on how they are accomplishing the latter, and 

from these, the Ontario provincial government will allocate funds as outlined through their new 

models. One of the ways that UO plans to ‘differentiate’, is through “play(ing) a leading role in 

                                                 
6
 The cost of this aluminum bottle will be $3.00 which is comparable to the cost of single-use bottled water in downtown Ottawa 



 

 

5 

finding innovative solutions to environmental problems and training the green leaders of 

tomorrow” (Roadmap at Destination 2020, 2014, 9). H2Ottawa will play a part in this process. 

 H2Ottawa plays a part in differentiating the UO from other Canadian universities in the 

realm of sustainability, as we are the first university in the country to implement this kind of 

project. Administrators at UO have been active in fulfilling this through including the project in 

marketing initiatives, pitching it to various media outlets, and defining it as a part of what UO is 

trying to accomplish as a whole. UO sees this project as positive to their reputation, thus 

featuring it on the main page of their website, and using it to attract private donors through the 

Defy the Conventional program. Projects such as this one proves that sustainability is valued at 

the UO and makes room for future initiatives. Due to the novelty and aim of this project, it is 

expected that the larger Ottawa community will be interested in the institution that facilitated its 

implementation. 

 The UO is one of the most sustainable universities in Canada by national standards
7
 

(STARs, 2017). This has been achieved in part by UO’s Sustainable Development Committee, 

whose “mandate is to provide advice and put forward ideas of the University’s Administrative 

Committee on best practices pertaining to campus sustainability… (this group) is composed of 

representatives from the staff, faculty, student body, and community” (University of Ottawa, 

2015, 3). The idea of sustainability, which will be discussed in more detail below, has been 

important to UO well before the implementation of this committee in 2007. The university’s first 

sustainability initiative dates back to 1974, when the decision was made to hire an engineer for 

the purpose of managing the campus’s energy consumption (University of Ottawa, 2015, 3). 

                                                 
7
 Canadian universities to not have a cohesive ranking system. When it comes to sustainability, the STARs ranking system is 

considered to be the standard. 



 

 

6 

Through my work with UO, I argue that the university has managed to uphold this tradition, 

working to implement sustainability strategies where it is found to be reasonable. 

 This thesis analyses the conceptualization and implementation of the H2Ottawa 

sustainability initiative. For the purpose of this research, I will be using a living action research 

approach outlined in Mc Niff and Whitehead (2011). As the creator of the H2Ottawa project, I 

have been active throughout its duration; reporting on my experiences provide a holistic view of 

the initiative. For the purpose of this research, I argue that the UO operates in a manner 

consistent with the ecological modernization approach to environmental problem-solving 

(Blühdorn, 1997; Carolan, 2004; Cato, 2011; Langhelle, 2000; Mol and Spaargaren, 2000; 

Spaargaren and Mol, 2010). My research will show that the UO conceptualizes sustainability in 

ways that are consistent with other Canadian universities, corporations, and governments. 

Following from this, my critical analysis of the institution's actions will use a lens of green-

Marxism (Carolan, 2004; Cato, 2011; Harris, 2013; Johnston 2006; Mol and Spaargaren, 2000; 

Smith, 2015; Young, 2014). Here, it is argued that institutions claim to accept sustainability 

without changing modes of production, which support consumption habits. Employing more 

sustainable methods of production or procurement are not sufficient for sustainability, as they do 

not account for over consumption; it is argued that this directly contradicts the overall goal of 

sustainability.     

 The second chapter of this thesis will be the literature review. To begin, I will provide an 

overview of the arguments surrounding water privatization in Canada, which inspired the  

H2Ottawa program. Next, I will outline the literature surrounding sustainability and sustainable 

development, as it is through these lenses that the project was created. Here, I will focus on the 



 

 

7 

definition of sustainable development presented in The Brundtland Report,
8
 as it is this version 

that is adopted by UO. Finally, I will present the literature regarding Canadian universities as a 

whole.  

 The third chapter of this thesis will present the conceptual and theoretical frameworks 

that guide this research. The concepts I have worked with include the ethical consumer and 

reputation. The success of H2Ottawa depends upon the wants and needs of the consumer; it will 

be argued that in universities, consumers are generally ethical. The importance of reputation to a 

university’s success follows this discussion. I will then argue that similar to other Canadian 

Universities, the UO operates within the confines of ecological modernization theory. It will be 

argued that the structure of H2Ottawa is consistent with the idea that “there is no essential tension 

between the way our economy and society function, and a healthy environment, therefore there is 

no need for fundamental social or economic change” (Cato, 2011, 119). I will complete this 

section with a critique of my project and its implementation using the green-Marxism theory. 

While H2Ottawa aims to address the environment through reducing the purchase of one time use 

bottled beverages on campus, its essence is consumption. 

 The fourth chapter of this thesis will outline my approach to living action research 

adopted from Mc Niff and Whitehead (2011). I will argue that this was the best approach to data 

collection considering my role in the implementation of H2Ottawa. From this I will present my 

use of structured interviewing as supplementary data. Considering the nature of these methods, 

inductive coding schemes were used to interpret the data. I will conclude this section by 

discussing the limitations and benefits regarding such use of qualitative analyses. 

                                                 
8
 This piece is also known as Our Common Future. The Prime Minister of Norway at the time, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and his 

commission, authored the report in 1987. More information on this report can be found in the section entitled: Sustainable 

Development. 



 

 

8 

 The fifth chapter will present the findings and discussion. Here, I will outline the 

perceived successes and failures of this project as outlined by myself, the UO community, as 

well as selected interviewees. In addition to securing a partnership with OCS, I single-handedly 

attained advertising and financial endorsements from the: Student Federation of the University of 

Ottawa, OCS, Food Services, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Common Law, Faculty of 

Civil Law, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Arts, and the Telfer School 

of Management. In addition to this, H2Ottawa was advertised by: UO Central Communications, 

UO’s Faculty of Science, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), various magazines across 

the country, student newspapers at Carleton University as well as UO, a handful of student 

groups on campus, and the New Democratic Party of Canada. These discussions spanned over 

my three-year degree and will be used to show how UO embodies and enacts their commitments 

to sustainability. 

 The final chapter will conclude and discuss next steps. In writing this thesis, I have been 

approached by various other public and private institutions who wish to adopt the H2Ottawa 

project.
9
 I foresee a bright future for this initiative, hoping that more institutions will ban single-

use water bottles now that I have showed how we can offer an accessible alternative.  

 Although this particular project has not yet been carried out by other institutions, the 

thinking behind it is not revolutionary. I will argue that as an institution, the UO attempts to 

make its core goals compatible with a corporate understanding of environmental responsibility. 

This form of institutional branding frames UO as innovative, and targets consumers with a 

commitment to societal progression and ethics. This thesis aims to answer the following 

question: how does the UO comply with its commitments to sustainability, while also satisfying 

                                                 
9
 At the time of writing this thesis, I am working on a deal with the Alumni Association of UO, Bluesfest, the Museum of 

Science and Innovation, and a few local Ottawa businesses. 



 

 

9 

the expectations of its community, through the implementation of H2Ottawa? It is expected that 

research findings will not only be of use to the implementation of the H2Ottawa bottles, but may 

also act as a guide for sustainability-motivated projects in the future. 

  



 

 

10 

 

Chapter Two: Literature Review 

Introduction 
 

 In writing this thesis, it has become evident that the values upheld by UO were very 

much reflected in the literature regarding sustainability (Axelrod, 2014; Barlow, 2013; Brownlee, 

2014, 2015; Elkington, 1998; Feldman, 2012; Gleick, 2010; M’Gonigle, 2006; Pocklington and 

Tupper, 2002; Szasz, 2007; Young, 2014). It may be argued that this is indicative of the 

university's commitment to representing the community and society in which it operates. I will 

start this review by discussing broader issues surrounding water, as this inspired the context for 

my project. The literature on this topic is vast, and while all related, I will limit myself to ideas 

that are of direct relevance. I will then present the ideas of sustainability that are embodied by 

UO, as these were formative in the creation of the H2Ottawa project. This section will review the 

literature in which this definition of sustainability is reflected. From this, Canadian universities 

will be discussed, specifically focusing on how they embody sustainability in ways similar to 

their corporate partners and the Canadian government. It will then be argued that the consumer 

becomes a focal point when adopting sustainability initiatives. To conclude, I will review the 

importance of reputation to universities. Here, I will argue that universities create their 

reputations in ways that attract future consumers, or students, that would fit in with their vision. 

Through the marketing of H2Ottawa, it is evident that UO wants to be perceived as an avid 

supporter of sustainability and innovative ideas. This enforces the ideas that UO cares about 

being a sustainable, Canadian university.  

 

 

 



 

 

11 

Water 

 Water has become a topic of intense interest, as were are beginning to see parts of the 

world experiencing shortages of clean freshwater. In their book entitled Ethical Water, Sanford 

et al. (2011, ix) assert that “97% of water on the planet is salty, leaving only 3% of it fresh 

enough to sustain terrestrial life. Of that 3%…(much is) bound in ice or is inaccessible to use 

because it lies so deep beneath the world’s surface…(only) 1% of the Earth’s total water sustains 

us today”. In Canada, there is a common misconception that by virtue of our geography, we sit 

on the majority of this 1%. In contrast to this, “… Canada’s share of the world’s renewable water 

supply is relatively modest… the two countries with the largest renewable water supplies are 

Brazil with 12.4% of the world’s renewable supply, and Russia with 10%” (Bakker, 2007, 24). 

Scholars argue that in Canada too, water scarcity may become a problem. It is important to 

protect this resource as water is essential to human life, and there is no substitute for it. Our 

water supply is finite; globally, our governments must realize this and act in accordance. 

 While many public institutions and corporations in Canada have heeded the scarcity 

warning and joined the fight to protect our water, the Canadian government has not. Through the 

literature, this is referred to as taking the stance for water as a ‘human right’. In her book entitled 

Blue Future (2013, 23-4), activist Maude Barlow discusses this position as choosing between,  

“…water being a need or a right. This is not simply a semantic decision, one cannot 

trade or sell a human right or deny it to someone on the basis of inability to pay… for 

profit water delivery systems encourage the concept of water as a need that can be filled 

by private as well as public operators. The right to water, however, denotes that water is 

a basic right, regardless of the ability to pay, and boosts the arguments that it should be 

delivered as a public service” 

 



 

 

12 

In Canada, water is not considered an official human right
10

. This is because our government 

does not provide potable water, nor water sanitation services
11

, to all Canadians (Barlow, 2013). 

According to Barlow, the main reason that Canada has not committed to establishing water as a 

human right, is that water systems and infrastructure in rural Canada are not up to civilly 

prescribed sanitation standards, particularly in Indigenous reserves. 

 There have been serious issues concerning the provision of potable water in rural Canada, 

which in extreme cases has resulted in fatalities. An example of this was our government’s 

failure to effectively operate water systems in Walkerton, which resulted in the outbreak of 

disease from 2000-2001 (Hrudey, 2011)
12

. Although the government took action to provide 

better access to potable water, rural Canadians continue to suffer from intermittent water 

advisories. According to Hrudey’s (2011, NP) report, Safe Drinking Water Policy for Canada- 

Turning Hindsight into Foresight, 

“… the management of drinking water and assurance of safety is not as universally 

effective as it can and should be, largely because of a management structure that is ill-

suited to the task…the regulation of drinking water in Canada is generally guided and 

managed in a fragmented, almost ad hoc, manner that leaves us vulnerable to future 

water-quality failures, most likely in smaller systems” 

  

The levels of Canadian government are not organized in a way that is effective for managing the 

country’s water systems. According to Canada’s Water Act 1985, the federal, provincial, and 

municipal levels of governance are responsible for regulating different aspects of the overall 

system. It is argued that a lack of clarity in their expectations and responsibilities causes 

confusion, making it easy to neglect communities, often those in rural or economically 

                                                 
10

 For more on this, visit: http://unac.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/A-Human-Right-to-Water.pdf 
11

 Water sanitation services include: the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of human excreta, and associated hygiene. 
12

 To be clear, these water crises are not independent events. Providing potable water to all Canadians has always been an issue. 

According to Pentland (2013, 23) “… clusters of acute illness on the scale of Walkerton and North Battleford have mercifully 

been rare, but a review by Health Canada shortly after those incidents determined that the country had experienced no fewer than 

288 outbreaks of illness traceable to contaminated water over the period from 1974-2001- nearly one a month”. For more on this 

topic, see Bakker (2017) and Pentland et al. (2013) 

http://unac.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/A-Human-Right-to-Water.pdf


 

 

13 

disadvantaged areas (Pentland, 2013). If our levels of government are expected to become more 

cohesive and effective in governing water, the right to water must be accepted and supported by 

the majority of Canadians. 

 Bottled water is not a solution, but rather a symptom of the problem regarding public 

water resources. It is alarming that urban Canadians have become convinced that paying about 

1000x more for single-use containers of water, rather than use potable and readily available tap 

water, is an act of rationality (Gleick, 2010; Szasz, 2007). The need for alternate water sources 

came from a distrust of public water, resulting in the turn to privatized water and following this, 

a lack of publicly available potable water. Gleick (2010, 3) argues that this can be seen through 

the displacement of water fountains:   

“water fountains used to be everywhere, but they have slowly disappeared as public 

water is increasingly pushed out in favour of private control and profit. Water fountains 

have become an anachronism, or even a liability, a symbol of the days when…water 

wasn't available from every convenience store and corner concession stand. In our 

health-conscious society, we are afraid that public fountains, and our tap water in 

general, are sources of contamination and contagion” 

 

 This is problematic as it follows the idea that private water is replacing public water, which runs 

contrary to making water a human right. Banning bottled water is necessary to support public 

water, as it actively rejects privatizing water. 

i. Bottled Water 

 Bottled water became accessible to all economic classes in the 1980s, and the industry 

has since enjoyed successful sales (Gleick, 2010). As discussed, the failure of publicly sourced 

potable water was one such reason for the business of bottled water in the first place. Following 

instances such as Walkerton were private advertising campaigns, there to remind Canadians that 

their tap water may not be safe. In her book entitled, Contested Water: The Struggle Against 

Water Privatization in the United States and in Canada, Robinson (2013, 27) asserts,  



 

 

14 

“since the 1980s, public water systems have been under attack by proponents of market-

based models of governance, who argue that ‘governments are less productive, efficient, 

and effective than markets’…private sector involvement in water systems has been 

hailed as a means of correcting those failures” 

 

Bottled water companies preyed on nationwide anxieties relating to public water systems, by 

promoting their product at its expense. These companies used marketing tactics to present their 

product as that which saved the people from public water sources.  

 Municipal governments in Canada have made several efforts to reverse the damage done 

to the collective government reputation, regarding the provision of clean, public water. A recent 

example comes from Ottawa, where the city recommends that we replace “small plastic bottles 

of water” with “tap water, drinking glasses, and reusable water bottles” (City of Ottawa, 2018). 

The City of Ottawa’s website informs their public of how water is filtered, where it comes from, 

and why our municipally sourced water is safe for consumption. Despite this, particularly urban 

Canadians seem to consistently opt for bottled water. According to Steven Hrudey’s report, Safe 

Drinking Water Policy for Canada- Turning Hindsight into Foresight,“… throughout much of 

developed, urbanized Canada, public drinking water generally poses a negligible health risk to 

consumers” (2011, 1). Compared to other affluent countries around the world, Canadians are 

among the least likely to drink bottled water; those who do, tend to live in cities (Whan et al., 

2017). This is problematic as the demographic supporting private companies already has 

reasonable access to potable water. 

 So, why have consumers chosen to replace the tap with bottled water? RBC’s Canadian 

Water Attitudes Study (Whan et al., 2017) found that the most avid consumers of bottled water 

make this choice: for reasons of convenience and portability (22%); because water as healthier 

than soda or juice (21%); and for a fear of the tap (19%) (Gleick, 2010; Queiroz et al., 2012). 

When considering the urbanite lifestyle, the convenience argument seems reasonable. The CEO 



 

 

15 

of Nestlé Water’s North American branch defends her product, stating “we are a 24/7 on-the-go 

society who wants convenience in our beverage choices” (Gleick, 2010, 87). In regards to the 

taste argument, studies have shown that when performing taste-tests, consumers believed that 

they preferred bottled water, but unknowingly chose tap water most times (Gleick, 2010, 81). 

Here, it may be argued that consumers have been led to believe that publicly sourced water is of 

a lesser quality than what we can pay for. We live in a society where we “see danger 

everywhere… we suspect that the water that flows from the tap is contaminated with chemicals 

that can make us ill… contaminants can be colourless, tasteless, odourless, invisible to the 

senses, and that fact increases the feeling of vulnerability” (Young, 2014, 1). It is of interest that 

most people drink bottled water for convenience and portability, as this is the easiest part to fix. 

In providing city-dwellers with easily accessible multi-use bottles, we may encourage them to 

drink public water, and find that there is nothing to fear. According to Szasz, some Canadians are 

“trying to barricade themselves, individually, from toxic threat, trying to shield themselves from 

it. Act jointly with others? Try to change things? Make history? No, no. I’ll deal with it 

individually. I’ll just shop my way out of trouble.” (2010, 4). This argument applies to how 

Canadians who opt for bottled water feel about publicly sourced water. These consumers believe 

that what is provided to them through their taps is suspect, while what they earn or pay for, is 

healthy. Purchasing reusable water receptacles is a behaviour of people who do not fear the tap; 

in regulating our public water sources and informing our communities of this, we can make 

drinking public water a trend. 

 

 

 



 

 

16 

ii. Privatization of Water 

 The privatization of water is a major problem identified by academics in this field. Put 

simply, when corporations bottle water, the resource itself becomes their property which they 

have the right to sell for profit. In his book entitled Water, Feldman (2012, 97-100) argues that  

“privatization may transform water into a commodity that provides material gain of 

profit-making enterprises, but fails to regard freshwater access a human need or right… 

Privatization discourages water conservation and encourages higher consumption so as 

to maximize profit… The dramatic growth in privatization has prompted questions 

regarding political accountability, economic fairness, and the willingness of vendors to 

vigilantly prioritize public health and other community concerns above handsome 

returns on investment” 

 

Here, private water companies are competing with public water distribution. This is problematic, 

as the logic of privatization may degrade investment and maintenance of public infrastructures, 

creating potential problems in the future. Here, market services are presumed to first supplement 

and then gradually replace public services. 

 Activists portray the privatization of water as negative because it fosters political 

mistrust, and monetizes a resource that should be readily accessible, regardless of economic 

status. In her book Blue Future, Maude Barlow asserts, 

  “…many countries are introducing water markets and water trading, whereby water 

licenses- often owned by private companies or industrial agribusiness- are allowed to be 

hoarded, bought, sold, and traded, sometimes on the international open market, to those 

that can afford to buy it. In all of these cases, water becomes the private property of 

those with the means to buy it and increasingly denied to those without” (2013, 11) 

 

Barlow problematizes the privatization of water. Here, she argues that putting a price tag on this 

essential resource relegates public responsibility of restoring water systems. In order to distribute 

potable water worldwide, governments must maintain jurisdiction and formally accept this 

resource as a human right. 



 

 

17 

 The literature argues that support for privatized water has made providing potable water 

an option for governments, rather than a priority. This may result in a lack of effort to maintain 

public water infrastructure. From a macro-lens, this shows mistrust towards public services more 

generally. In his book entitled Shopping Our Way To Safety, Szasz argues that “most people 

drink bottled water…(because) they suspect the quality (of publicly serviced water)…Rather 

than do something politically or collectively to improve the public water supply, they try, 

individually, to assure themselves a supply of water that is safer to drink” (2007, 128). 

According to Szasz, this mentality is problematic as it exhibits a lack of confidence in authorities 

who are supposed to be protecting us. When consumers buy their way out of trouble, money is 

diverted from public to private services; this deters prioritizing the maintenance of public water 

systems cross-nationally. This shift disproportionately impacts those without the means to 

purchase bottled water, who are those living in communities that already have shoddy access to 

potable water
13

. 

iii. Environmental Impact of Single-Use Plastic Water Bottles 

 The environmental impact caused by single-use water bottles is a huge concern 

throughout the literature. Water bottles are usually produced from polyethylene terephthalate 

(hereafter, PET) because it is durable, lightweight and see-through (Miller et al., 2014). 

However, PET has negative environmental implications. First, the manufacturing of PET bottles 

consumes about 17.5 kilograms of freshwater, for each kilogram of PET produced (Feldman, 

2012, 111). In addition to this, the PET bottle has proven to be environmentally damaging 

because it is unlikely to be recycled. According to Queiroz in her study entitled News about Tap 

and Bottled Water: Can This Influence People’s Choices?, “… 30 million bottles are discarded 

                                                 
13

 These areas are much closer than we think! Residents of Wakefield, QC have experienced water bans in the past year. This is 

only 35 km away from the city with the best water in Canada, downtown Ottawa.  



 

 

18 

in landfills every day in Canada and only 13% are recycled” (2012, 328). This is significant as 

PET is not biodegradable; when it eventually leaches into the soil it expends harmful chemicals.  

 When plastics are recycled, they are actually ‘downcycled’. This means that they are 

used to make a lower-quality form of plastic. Most plastics cannot be recycled more than once, 

sending the remainder to landfill. Moreover, the plastics that are of a quality that can be recycled 

are not processed in Canada, but shipped to other countries. Gleick (2010, 99) builds on this, 

stating “most of our recycled bottles end up in giant bundles stuffed onto contained ships headed 

for Asia. The Chinese find it cheaper to buy our plastic garbage, ship it across the entire Pacific 

Ocean, and use it to make stuff to ship back here, than to make virgin PET from petroleum”.  

Here, the recycling of plastics is unsustainable as the process of producing the plastics and 

recycling them expend more energy than simply using other materials. In all, the lifecycle of 

single-use water bottles emit greenhouse gases, which are known to be harmful to us, and to our 

physical environment. 

iv. Water in Canada  

 In order to better distribute potable water in Canada, policies must be reformed and 

enforced. In their book entitled Down the Drain: How we are Failing to Protect our Water 

Resources, Pentland et al. (2013, 10) argue that although policies to protect water do exist, they 

are not prioritized above economic advantage: 

…economic thinking has been deeply influenced by market fundamentalism…Canada’s 

leaders have become increasingly passive in the face of threats to the ecological assets 

that constitute our natural security…Sometime between the early 1980s and today, the 

supply-demand balance between human consumption of Earth’s resources and the 

planet’s biophysical productive capacity (nature) tipped from a condition of nature 

surplus to one of nature scarcity  

 

Here, it is argued that we have prioritized economic benefit over our physical environment 

through exploiting our natural resources. According to Barlow (2013, 19), if the Canadian 



 

 

19 

government continues to treat water as an exploitable resource, “no place on earth will be free 

from the consequences of the water crisis…even if we start to slow the damage we have created 

by challenging the growth imperative and (enacting) water conservation practices and source-

water protection”. It is essential that we govern water in a way that is sustainable, to ensure the 

preservation of our natural environment and future generations. If we continue to define wealth 

through the exploitation of our natural resources, there will be consequences of scarcity. 

 Canadian citizens have grown up in a capitalist society; trained to buy, consume, and 

throw away. This culture of consumption has been fostered by corporations and political leaders 

who seem to make decisions as if natural resources were infinite, as if unlimited growth were 

possible (Barlow, 2013; Szasz, 2007). Is there a way to permit economic growth, while 

maintaining our culture and physical environment?  

  



 

 

20 

Sustainability 

 Ideas around sustainability were formalized through the Brundtland Report of 1987. Also 

known as Our Common Future, its main accomplishment “…was to combine systematically, a 

number of issues that have often been treated in isolation, or at least as competitors: 

development, global environmental issues, population, peace and security, and social justice” 

(Dryzek, 2005, 148). During the time of its publication, environmental issues were gaining 

prominence worldwide (Young, 2014). Despite the concern these generated, governments were 

reluctant to impose environmental regulations as they feared this would hinder economic growth 

(Dryzek, 2005). Young (2014, 5) argues,  

“The concept of sustainability contains an implicit endorsement of growth- that 

economic expansion is acceptable as long as it does not worsen environmental 

conditions over the long term…By breaking the economy vs. environment logjam, the 

notion of sustainability freed politicians and corporations to embrace moderate forms of 

environmentalism, while also freeing environmental activists to embrace more 

environmentally responsible policies and companies”  

 

The Brundtland Report had a significant impact in this context, as it legitimized the idea that 

environmental integrity and economic growth may coexist; we could save the planet without 

having to drastically change our economic patterns. Here, sustainability is defined as a 

compromise between protecting the natural environment, our culture, and economic growth. 

 To this point, there is no consensus on the exact meaning of sustainability, academic or 

otherwise. As outlined in The Brundtland Report, “no single blueprint of sustainability will be 

found, as economic and social systems and ecological conditions differ widely among countries.” 

(1987, 39). The literature argues that this can be beneficial, as sustainability becomes a living 

discourse, that grows based on its use in various contexts (Dryzek, 2005). Put more clearly, 

sustainability becomes defined within the context of the community enacting it. Considering its 

broad applicability, sustainability became difficult to reject. Authors argue that wealthier nations 



 

 

21 

generally act more sustainably as they have the necessities of life, as well as accessible funds and 

technology to pursue innovative practices (Milfont et al., 2016). Altogether, sustainability has 

gained global respect and presence.  

i. Sustainable Development 

 The most widely used definition of sustainable development was presented in The 

Brundtland Report (1987, 16):  

“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable, to ensure that it meets the 

needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their 

own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits…imposed by the 

present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by 

the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities”  

 

Sustainable development contends that we use technology and the direction of our society to 

advance the physical environment. Here, it is not expected that society change its capitalistic 

economy, but manage it. According to Milfont et al. (2016, 112), we are to “use goods and 

services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of 

natural resources, toxic materials and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life-cycle”.
14

 

Sustainable development became acceptable to institutions, as it fostered growth and 

development while being perceived as responsible in the public eye (Young, 2014a). Considering 

this, rhetoric surrounding sustainable development has become written into policy and widely 

employed by various institutions. Universities adopt sustainable development as it embodies 

ideas of innovation and social good; doing things better than we have in the past. 

 Scholars argue that corporations have been instrumental in popularizing and legitimating 

sustainable development. The literature argues that Canadian consumers have come to expect 

corporations to act in environmentally responsible ways, and this plays a part in which company 

                                                 
14

 Although parts of Our Common Future were changed in 1997, this definition remained unchanged. 



 

 

22 

they decide to support with their purchasing power (Akehurst, 2012). Considering that 

corporations respond to the wants and needs of society, this shift has inspired many companies to 

adopt sustainable ways of producing. In his book entitled Cannibals with Forks: The Triple 

Bottom Line of the Twenty-First Century, Elkington (1998, 28) asserts that,  

“…politicians rarely have the vision, let along the courage, to steer their government… 

in this new direction. As a result, it is inevitable that a growing portion of the 

sustainability agenda will land, by default, in the lap of business and of what is 

increasingly called ‘civil society’: all the institutions and public activities which create 

the social contract within which markets evolve and business is done” 

 

In this system, corporations that do not adapt and innovate will fail. Considering the position of 

the consumer, corporations differentiate themselves based on sustainable practices. This is 

positive as the environment is a focus, but it also means that corporations are actively creating 

how we define sustainable development. 

 The ambiguity of this concept allows it to develop in unique ways. In his article entitled 

Sustainable Development in a post-Brundtland World, Sneddon (2006, 254) argues that,  

“sustainability may yet be possible if… a plurality of approaches to, and perspectives on 

sustainability [are embraced], multiple interpretations and practices associated with an 

evolving concept of ‘development’ [are accepted] and support a further opening up of 

local-to-global public spaces to debate and enact a politics of sustainability” 

 

Here, it is argued that we should bring people from different backgrounds to actively develop a 

multidimensional and informed understanding of sustainability. To create a rigid framework for 

sustainability, when we are unprepared to do so, may deter the constant evolution that we are 

seeing through innovative approaches to sustainable development. Here, the lack of a definition 

may actually inspire progress. 

 The sustainable development movement has pressured institutions to be aware of 

environmental problems, it did not outline how it was to be done. As a result of this, corporations 

became highly active in developing ideas of implementation that benefited their stakeholders 



 

 

23 

while also sustaining the natural environment (Portney, 2015)
15

. One way this was done, was 

through the advocation of the ‘triple bottom line’ approach to sustainable development (Portney, 

2015, 39). The tenets presented in this approach are called the ‘three pillars’ of sustainability, 

and consist of environment, society, and economics (Hiedanpaa, 2012, 40). First, the pillars must 

be explained:  

“1) (Environment:) care for the natural environment so that it remains intact, 2) social 

consciousness that results in actions that build and strengthen the social fibre of our 

communities, and 3) economic viability oriented toward the long term that generates 

benefits for current and future generations” (Ott, 2016, 104)  

 

For sustainable development, these tenets inspire and guide macro processes. The problem here, 

is that this definition is idealistic, as there is no prescribed way to balance these tenets. When it 

comes to sustainable development, it is defined by the entities who claim it. 

 The ‘triple bottom line’ approach was used in the conceptualization of H2Ottawa. In 

corporate settings, including universities, reporting sustainability is done on a voluntary basis. 

Businesses find social value in participating, and most of the big corporations “report at least 

once a year on what they have done to reduce the direct environmental damages caused by their 

products, services, and operations, and indirectly by damages caused by their supply chains” 

(Portney, 2015, 39). Reporting under this framework draws attention to some of the 

environmental harms being inflicted through the production-consumption backbone of our 

economy, as well as speaks to the efforts being done to lessen such harm. In all, sustainable 

development has put the spotlight on corporations, and how they are impacting our physical 

environment, for economic benefit and the maintenance of our consumptive culture.  

 

                                                 
15

 Here, stakeholders are defined as “people who can affect or are affected by a company’s devisions and actions. They are 

employees, customers, business partners, investors, regulators, and often the community in which the company operates. These 

are the people who matter to a company’s commercial success” (Singer, 2014, 64).  



 

 

24 

Universities in Canada 

 Canada has some of the most highly ranked universities in the world (Macleans, 2016).
16

 

Considering this, ~1.7 million local and international students were enrolled in Canadian  

universities in 2016 (Universities Canada, 2018). For the purpose of this research, it is important 

to note that Canadian universities have a direct influence on many peoples’ lives. The literature  

argues that the impact of universities is twofold. According to Byron (2002, 45) universities are 

sites where “pedagogical relationships, which include the initiation into a discipline of learning, 

the passing on of skills, the sharing of ways of seeing and ways to thinking [develop]…[it also] 

governs the student’s induction into participation in the life of public institution”. Universities 

are respected institutions, thus ideas produced here are accepted, or at least respected, by the 

greater society. In this way, universities not only teach and evaluate one’s understanding of 

curriculum, but also play an active role in developing Canadian citizens.  

 Universities have a greater responsibility to sustainability and innovation than do other 

institutions. These spaces are meant to be breeding grounds for ideas to be shared, and to inspire 

discussion. Winter et al. (2012, 86) argue that ideas of sustainability “coalesces around a key 

point: transforming people’s perspectives, values and actions, in favour of more sustainable ways 

of working and living”. Here, teaching sustainability in universities gives students information, 

but also a space to discuss with likeminded people and create new ideas. This process helps to 

develop the next generation of responsible and informed citizens.  

 The problem with teaching sustainability in Canadian universities, is that ideas 

surrounding it are still unclear. In Canada, representatives from various provincial governments 

have agreed on the use of curriculum to disseminate ideas of sustainability. However, there were 

                                                 
16

 Macleans magazine has a well trusted ranking system for Canadian universities; see: Dowling et al. in Singer (2014) for a 

detailed review regarding the importance of accepted media on reputation. 



 

 

25 

significant challenges when it came to entrenching these ideas into coursework (Hopkins, 2013). 

The problem here, is that sustainability is largely understood as an environmental exercise, 

making it difficult to isolate from environmental education. Sustainability has become a priority 

for higher education institutions, which gives us hope for future programs (Fonseca, 2011; 

Hopkins, 2013). While sustainability courses maintain an emphasis on environmental 

protections, many are incorporating tenets of social good and economic benefit.
17

 

 Another way that universities can exhibit their understanding and commitments to 

sustainability, is through supporting initiatives. Students are very active in this field considering 

that all can relate to sustainability, regardless of our personal characteristics or backgrounds. 

Here, universities may financially and socially support sustainability champions on their own 

campuses. In doing this, universities “(e)nhance the links between formal and informal 

curriculum, providing opportunities to align learning in both spheres, and help strengthen 

sustainability messages for all students” (Winter et al., 2012, 14). Acts such as these not only 

benefit the university, but encourage students to be solution-oriented and outspoken about their 

ideas. The outcome of this is presenting sustainability as less elusive and more inclusive of all 

students. 

 Literature argues that university students and graduates are increasingly concerned with 

their institution’s commitment to the tenets of sustainability (Freestone, 2007). The literature 

suggests that universities make good pilot sites for the implementation and testing of various 

strategies, as they are places that foster ideas that may translate into the larger society. 

M’Gongile (2006, 9-12) argues that,  

“the sustainability movement is concerned about the most pressing issues of its time. But 

it also has a new role for the University- to be not just a site for making protests, but a 

                                                 
17

 The University of British Columbia, known for having the best Sustainability Department in the country, has established many 

courses that focus on the ‘triple bottom line’ of sustainability. See: https://sustain.ubc.ca/courses-teaching/courses 

https://sustain.ubc.ca/courses-teaching/courses


 

 

26 

place for creating precedents…changing the world by creating a sustainable University 

is admittedly a strange idea…(until one takes into account that) universities are located 

locally, but networked globally…they are actively connected to the past, but also shape 

the future” 

 

According to this view, the implementation of sustainability on campus has value for teaching 

the next generation about difficult problems associated with sustainability, and for inspiring them 

to find solutions. 

 Critics argue that sustainability-based ideas disseminated from universities cloak  

economic and political interests. In their book entitled No Place to Learn, Pocklington and 

Tupper (2002, 29-30) assert, 

 “The Government of Canada became committed to the support of University 

research…this role was compatible with its broader interests in national economic 

development…Government funding provided Canadian Universities with financial 

stability. It also guaranteed that the academy’s priorities would be shaped by democratic 

politics and economic needs” 

 

Here, it becomes clear that our federal government has a vested interest in Canadian universities. 

While this provides these institutions of higher education with financial stability, it also closely 

aligns political interests. This is positive in many ways, but also runs the risk of discouraging 

change. If university research is focused on wants and needs of the federal government, students 

do not have as much freedom to discover alternative realities. Academics against the 

corporatization of universities argue that this influence may result in a cyclical formation of 

ideas. 

 While provincial governments provide the largest financial contributions to universities, 

outstanding costs are attributed to students. This is important as those who provide funding for 

universities have an influence on what is taught on its grounds (Axelrod, 2014; M’Gonigle et al., 

2006; Renke, 2000). Axelrod (2014, 55) explains government funding has not been able to keep 

up with the influx of demand for university education; he argues that,  



 

 

27 

“severe financial pressures (have been placed) on Canadian universities. Constrained by 

accelerating deficits and a diminishing tolerance for tax increases, government funding 

has not kept pace with the growing demand for University education…tuition-based 

revenues rose from 12% to 35%. In 1990-91, students paid an average annual tuition of 

$1464 compared to $6348 in 2012-13” 

 

Here, it is clear that costs for maintaining universities are being placed on students. Considering 

their financial stake, Canadian universities increasingly aim to fulfil the wants and needs of 

students to improve retention rates (University of Ottawa, 2014).  

 The question now is, why do young adults choose to go to University? In short, it is to get 

a job (Axelrod, 2014; Brownlee, 2015). Of course, this has implications regarding what the 

University teaches. M’Gonigle (2006, 17-24) argues that this is problematic, as we are taking 

away the creativity that universities once inspired. To further illuminate this point, M’Gonigle 

(2006, 35) notes that “…Canadian universities in 2004-2005 performed research and 

development work (that totalled) over 35% of the natural resources research and development”. 

Here, it is argued that universities, and university students by extension, developed a significant 

percentage of the country’s research and development. Considering this, it may be argued that 

the university encourages its students, and provides an environment for them, to carry out 

research that is in demand by the federal government. 

i. The Corporate University  

 It is argued that Canadian universities are being increasingly corporatized. The 

corporatization of the university is defined as, 

“the process and resulting outcomes of the ascendance of business interests, values, and 

models in the university system… Universities have always functioned to serve the 

practical interests of businesses and their other stakeholders; however, this utilitarian 

approach in and of itself does not constitute corporatization… An institution that is 

characterized by processes, decisional criteria, expectations, organizational culture, and 

operating practices that are taken from, and have their origins in, the modern business 

corporation. It is characterized by the entry of the university into marketplace 



 

 

28 

relationships and by the use of market strategies in university decision making” 

(Brownlee, 2015, 3) 

 

While universities continue to teach and perform research, the context in which this takes place 

has changed. In short, Canadian universities are operating more like businesses. The literature 

puts forth positive and negative results of this shift that will be discussed through this section. 

 The main problem with corporatization, is that it prioritizes business interests above all 

else. Jamie Brownlee’s book entitled, Academia, Inc: How Corporatization is Transforming 

Canadian Universities argues that,  

“Critiques of educational restructuring morphed into a wider critique of the capitalist 

system… Students and other activists are locating educational concerns within the 

context of declining public programs and services, austerity agendas, attacks on worker 

rights, structural unemployment, environmental destruction and the expansion of 

corporate power… Under corporatization, the public mission of the university- which has 

often emphasized democratic goals and services to the broader community- is being 

reduced in favour of private and commercial interests ” (2015, 2) 

 

The literature expands on this, arguing that research inspired by private sector needs may be 

framed in a way that benefits businesses rather than stating the facts. This is problematic as peer 

reviewed research would be widely respected, as these are trusted social institutions. The issue 

becomes the integrity of the university itself and the possible degradation of its unique position 

in society.  

 Universities are meant to be sites of social change, where students can freely create and 

explore new ideas. In the past 50 years, universities have been spaces for social movements such 

as civil rights in the 1960s, the environmental movement in the 1970s, and social justice 

movements more recently (Brownlee, 2015, 191). Corporatizing the university is framed in 

contrast to this goal. To give an example of this, UO stopped a Burmese activist from speaking 

on campus because what they had to say would negatively impact the Desmarais family 

business. Jamie Brownlee (2015, 125) argues that,  



 

 

29 

“In addition to policing teachers and students to protect their own brands, administrators 

also prioritize shielding corporate sponsors from criticism. It was this concern that 

motivated the university of Ottawa to prevent a prominent Burmese human rights activist 

from speaking on campus in 2007. The subject of the activist’s talk was the unethical 

Burmese business activities of Total SA, a French oil company whose board members 

included the wealthy Desmarais family, one of the university’s largest benefactors… 

university officials appeared to be aware that they were violating elementary codes of 

academic freedom in the service of their corporate sponsor; in an email to the university 

president Gilles Patry, one vice president noted that preventing the talk ‘flies in the face 

of many principles we hold dear in the University world’” 

 

Opponents of corporatization argue that prioritizing corporate interests over academic freedom, 

is one of the greatest challenges facing the university. It is argued that these institutions have the 

potential to confront global problems, but under this framework are unable to be transparent 

with, and educate, their community (Brownlee, 2015, 9). Here, the values of universities and 

corporations are framed as oppositional. 

 One of the reasons that universities have decided to corporatize, is due to significant 

financial pressures that have forced them to rely on external funding. In Ontario, universities 

receive the second lowest government funding in Canada, increasing tuition fees and providing a 

greater need for external funding (Brownlee, 2015, 40). According to Axelrod (2014, 55),  

“…two decades before the massive fiscal ‘meltdown’ of 2008, has imposed severe 

financial pressures on Canadian universities. Constrained by accelerating deficits and a 

diminishing tolerance for tax increases, government funding has not kept pace with the 

growing demand for university education…tuition based revenues rose from 12% to 

35% (between 1990-2013)” 

 

As previously mentioned, provincial governments do maintain a dominant role in funding 

Canadian universities, but have allowed more funding opportunities outside of the public realm 

since the 1990s. The problem here, is that those who fund the university often have vested 

interest, which has assisted in the corporatization of universities (Brownlee, 2015, 14). This shift 

can be subtle, such as research grants being aimed towards corporate needs, or more obvious, as 

buildings being named after big businesses.  



 

 

30 

 The kind of work that universities are engaged with has changed due to the introduction 

of these new rationalities. Universities are expected to produce highly skilled students for the 

purpose of initiating them into an ever-changing global economy, as well as producing  

innovations that will contribute to economic growth. In short, there is a pressure on universities 

to reproduce for the benefit of governments and corporations. According to Brownlee (2015, 26), 

“University presidents have been recast as ‘CEO’s’, students as ‘consumers’, graduates 

as ‘products’ and professors as ‘service providers’… Profit has become a leading goal of 

academic inquiry and a guiding principal for deciding what products and services to 

offer. Decisions about course offerings, research funding and hiring and enrolment 

practices are assessed less in terms of academic criteria, and more on whether they 

represent good business decisions” 

 

Using corporate rationalities changes the perceived educational goals of universities. For 

instance, universities will cut back programs that are not profitable or that seek to have limited 

connection with labour market realities. 

 Research conducted in Canadian universities elicits a close connection between  

corporations, universities, and the government. Pocklington and Tupper (2002, 29-30) assert, 

 “Canadian universities became closely linked with governments…A well-educated 

workforce was a productive one, and an expanding industrial economy required a solid 

research base. The Government of Canada became committed to the support of 

University research…this role was compatible with its broader interests in national 

economic development…Government funding provided Canadian universities with 

financial stability. It also guaranteed that the academy’s priorities would be shaped by 

democratic politics and economic needs” 

 

While universities have done this work for quite some time, the change here is the incorporation 

of logic and worldview of the corporate world into the university. Considering that governments 

and corporations are funding universities, it may be argued that their interests are reproduced.
18

 

                                                 
18

 It is important to note here that the Canadian government is not a leader in sustainability, thus maintaining its current ideas 

may disservice the natural environment. For more on this, refer to Bakker, Karen (eds.) (2007). Eau Canada: The Future of 

Canada’s Water. Vancouver: UBC Press. 



 

 

31 

 The corporatization of universities has positive as well as negative ramifications. While 

the interests of corporations and governments may be a focus in certain aspects, the university 

does maintain agency. Universities remain the breeding ground for current and future leaders, 

innovators, and problem solvers, who have the potential in these institutions to offer solutions to 

global challenges though their research (M’Gonigle, 2006). Through corporatization, students 

gain the opportunity to present their  ideas, and are encouraged to apply their research, to real-

world issues presented by governments and big businesses. 

 The corporatization of universities provides money, in addition to social resources. 

According to Fonseca et al. (2011, 24), 

 “Canada’s higher education sector is a growing $26 billion enterprise that employs more 

than 150 000 people and services about 1.5 million students… Since at least the early 

1990s, Canadian universities have been incorporating sustainability into their fabrics. 

There has been a significant growth in the number of environmental management 

systems, environmental declarations, sustainability offices, sustainability assessments, 

green buildings, and student-led initiatives at universities across Canada” 

 

Corporate development is ultimately guided by the corporation’s own internal decision making 

processes, but these operate within the expectations of their consumers. For Canadian 

universities, to attract the next generation of students, it is important to engage in sustainability 

and innovation. While corporatization is framed negatively throughout the literature, it is 

important to recall that most students are going to university with the end goal of solidifying 

employment. Considering this, it may be argued that corporatization actually fits well with the 

goals and desires of modern students. 

Conclusion of Literature Review 

 My research falls within the crux of the literature against privatized water, and that 

pertaining to sustainable development. At UO, the sale of bottled water was banned from campus 

to encourage students to drink publicly sourced water. UO’s students accepted the ban, but 



 

 

32 

maintained the desire for portable water. Here, UO acted as a business by implementing a 

product that was acceptable to their identity, while also fulfilling the wants and needs of the 

student-consumer (Brownlee, 2015). In the context of Canadian universities, sustainability is 

defined in ways that determine how such initiatives are pursued on campuses. 

 

Chapter 3: Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks 

 

Conceptual Frameworks 

 This research is guided by the conceptual frameworks of ethical consumption, and 

organizational reputation. The literature provides a foundation for understanding why H2Ottawa 

would appeal to students and to university officials, as it provides a convenient, sustainable, and 

cheap solution to portable water. Here, the university is interested in its reputation and trying to 

enhance it through its endorsement of this initiative. Through supporting H2Ottawa, the 

university provides its community with a ‘feel good’ piece that is also practical. H2Ottawa is an 

easy story to identify to for many UO community members who have not had access to portable 

water for the past eight years; this story may attract positive attention from their past, current, 

and future clientele. 

Ethical Consumption 

 One way we show our commitment to sustainability is through our buying power. 

Students may be referred to as ethical consumers, meaning they are “concerned with the ‘people’ 

element of consumerism… (they) care whether a corporation… worries about product 

transportation distances and other concerns… being an ethical consumer means buying products 

which are not harmful to the environment and society” (Harrison et al., 2005 and Strong, 1996 in 



 

 

33 

Freestone, 2007, 446-7).  The university conceptualizes students as ethical consumers. In 

operating as a corporation, universities reflect the values that they perceive as important to, and 

embodied by, their clientele: students. Here, it pays to embody ideas of sustainability. 

 The ethical consumption movement has mirrored the interest towards a more sustainable 

society. The literature argues that “there has been a documented shift in consumer behaviours, as 

most Canadians expect institutions to be socially responsible… this has forced companies to shift 

their standards and practices… A company’s brand is an extension of its attitudes, qualities, 

beliefs, and the relationship it has with its customers” (Trudel, 2004, 6). Increasingly, Canadians 

are questioning where their products come from, how they are made, and if they are sustainable. 

Corporations are being held responsible for their actions, and expected to consistently aim to be 

more sustainable. UO’s brand experiences a similar shift, appealing to ethical consumers. 

 A principal component of this framework, is that consumption is motivated by identity 

(Pinto et al., 2016). In Canada’s capitalist economy, there are many choices to be made when 

buying a product. Making these decisions are “motivated…by the need of social groups to 

achieve distinction and recognized status. Consumption is a place of differentiation and 

distinction between groups…products are often used as status symbols” (Queiroz, 2012, 328). 

Purchasing certain goods not only act as social markers to one’s peers who share the same 

symbolic language, but also to the self. According to Lades (2014, 120), “when an individual 

consumes a good with an identity-relevant symbolic meaning that is congruent with the 

individual’s ideal self-image, the individual can move closer to her ideal self-image and thereby 

at least temporarily satisfy her need for self-enhancement”. The H2Ottawa bottle was designed 

for ethical consumers. As can be seen through Appendix 1, the story behind the bottle is 

physically imprinted onto it as a stencilled wrap. This story incorporates ideals presented through 



 

 

34 

ethical consumption; it communicates how the bottle was conceptualized with ethical, social, and 

environmental tenets in mind. Through buying this bottle, students buy the story and become a 

part of it. Attaching this information to the bottle assumes that students care about why this 

bottle is different from generic single-use water bottles. Considering this, the H2Ottawa bottle 

becomes a symbol of social responsibility
19

. 

 Although students may have the intention of being ethical consumers, there are barriers 

that hinder these behaviours. In their article entitled Mind the Gap: Why Do People Act 

Environmentally and What are the Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behaviour?, Kollmuss and 

Agyeman (2010, 247) argue that there are three main barriers to ethical consumerism
20

: 

individuality, responsibility and practicality. The authors define individuality as “barriers lying 

within the person, having to do with attitude and temperament…environmental concern is 

outweighed by other conflicting attitudes” (Kollmuss et al., 2010, 247). Here, individuals may 

prioritize characteristics such as cost or style, over the environment. The barrier of responsibility, 

is defined as “people who do not act pro-environmentally feel that they cannot influence the 

situation or should not have to take the responsibility for it…this community may have a lack of 

trust in the institution” (Kollmuss et al., 2010, 247). In general, people do not always have the 

confidence that they can influence others to think as they do. For students, it is also true that they 

do not believe their actions can produce a relevant change; this thinking however, hinders 

progress. Finally, practicality is defined as the “social and institutional constraints that prevent 

people from acting pro-environmentally regardless of their attitudes or intentions; lack of time, 

money, information” (2010, 247). I will argue that the H2Ottawa project enables ethical 

                                                 
19

 This will be expanded in the Discussion and Findings chapter. 
20

 Although some discourses separate consumerism from pro-environmental behaviour, the authors introduced in this paper see 

ethical consumerism as consistent with pro-environmental behaviour 



 

 

35 

consumerism, as it provides the student body with an economically practical, and responsible 

alternative to bottled water, which will be further discussed in a later section. 

 Barriers to ethical consumerism may be internalized in ways that discourage students 

from acting sustainably altogether. In his study of undergraduate students at Simon Fraser 

University in British Columbia, Trudel (2004) found that students believed they had to be 

wealthy to be ethical consumers. In conjunction with the idea that, “personal identity is linked to 

consumption… (and) consumption has today become our primary means of self-definition, 

leading us to attempt to satisfy with material things what are essentially social, psychological, 

and spiritual needs”, these barriers become problematic (Soron, 2010, 172). Here, it is important 

to offer ‘sustainability’ through retail. Producing sustainability initiatives that are financially 

exclusionary, deter the younger generation from adopting related practices into their lives. 

 According to the ethical consumerism framework, consumers buy things that make them 

feel good about themselves. Szasz (2009, 7), argues that “consuming occupies much of our time, 

attention, enthusiasm- passion, even”.  This quotation asserts that we put a lot of thought into our 

consumption habits, to the point of consumerism becoming a passion. One’s buying power can 

be “traced back to self-interest… feeling good (or avoiding guilt) by doing good” (Freestone, 

2007, 447). In Canada, people care about their buying decisions as they are central to their lives 

and identities. Using sustainable products in lieu of others not only reduces ones’ environmental 

impact in that small way, but makes them feel good about the self-image that they actively 

portray for themselves, and to their peers. This ‘feel-good’ piece encourages consumers to adopt 

similar lifestyle choices, resulting in a more sustainable citizen. If we are to create a more 

sustainable world, we must facilitate these behaviours by providing affordable and accessible, 

pro-sustainability, identity markers. 



 

 

36 

 UO aims to attract ethical consumers as it is through this lens that they see their students.  

Considering this, the launch of H2Ottawa was guided by UO staff, to fulfil the requirements 

outlined above. This is beneficial for UO, as providing a service that enables ethical consumption 

attracts more business and good press. It is argued, “people that have favourable attitudes to 

carrying out pro-environmental behaviour and that perceive the situation to facilitate such 

behaviour are the most likely to carry out such behaviour… people with unfavourable attitudes 

towards such behaviour and who perceive the physical environment as inhibitory is the group 

that is least likely to carry out such behaviour” (Corraliza, 2000, 840). Attracting all monetary 

backgrounds to consume ethically will help to produce a more sustainable world. In the 

university setting these ideas are even more important, as students have less disposable income 

and are actively developing their identities. Exclusion fosters the idea that actions of individuals 

without power cannot create change, inclusion inspires students to feel as if they can be part of a 

bigger movement. 

Reputation 

 Institutions are concerned with the ways in which they are perceived by their ‘clientele’
21

, 

as this has ramifications for their success.
22

 For the purpose of this thesis, the conceptual 

framework of Organizational Reputation (hereafter, OR) presented in the article entitled 

Organizational Reputation: A Review, will be used. Here, de Lange et al. (2011, 157) argue that 

there is no conclusive definition for OR, but describe it as 

“the way key external stakeholder groups or other interested parties actually 

conceptualize the organization…reputation can be enhanced by corporate marketing and 

branding campaigns …by the firm’s affiliation with prominent partners…and by 

publicity by influential third parties and media outlets…When an organization is well 

                                                 
21

 Namely, future students 
22

 Success here may be defined as becoming an elite University, as is outlined through ranking systems. This is important to 

universities as it increases admission, and attracts prominent academics. In Canada, the media is responsible for ranking 

universities and giving them this status; Maclean’s is a good example (Cole, 2000; Dowling et al. in Singer, 2014).  



 

 

37 

known, observers have a strong sense of what is central and distinctive about its 

attributes, especially relative to other firms” 

 

 For the purpose of UO, reputation is important as it stimulates growth. For example, an 

institution’s reputation and image have a great impact on whether or not students decide to stay 

for advanced studies. This is important, as these students are responsible for producing the 

research which differentiates universities (Steiner, 2013). Growth is also fostered through 

gaining high quality students and professors from different universities, which is resultant from 

how the institution is perceived. 

 As a concept, OR is divided into three basic components: visibility, strategic character, 

and favourability (de Lange et al., 2011). First, I will define these concepts in relation to the 

conceptualization of H2Ottawa.  

 The visibility component is the idea that an organization’s reputation is simply being 

known. More specifically, visibility can be understood as a broad “awareness of the firm… 

perceivers have a more distinctive perceptual representation of the firm, irrespective of 

judgement or evaluation” (de Lange et al., 2011, 155). Through being one of few top universities 

in Canada, UO is well known. One signifier of this is the fact that UO is second home to about 

42 000 students, one of the highest university populations in the country (University of Ottawa, 

2018). According to Macleans ranking system, UO also enjoys the reputation of being one of the 

top 20 universities in Canada
23

. This component to reputation is important to the H2Ottawa 

project, as it offers validation to my project through a UO endorsement. 

 It is also worth noting that sustainability initiatives are known to effectively drive brand 

value (Singer, 2014, 4). According to Ott (2016, 683), “…the top universities have strongly 

embraced sustainability as a concept… Sustainability is is an evolving concept, and it has been 

                                                 
23

 For more on this, visit: http://www.macleans.ca/education/university-rankings/top-reputation-2018-university-of-toronto/ 



 

 

38 

defined many ways over the years. Organizations should be clear in their communication about 

what sustainability means to them and how they define it”. Universities embrace ideas of 

sustainability and define it for their own institutions, through supporting student sustainability 

projects, and actively engaging key stakeholders in such efforts (Ott, 2016, 672). Considering 

their goal of attracting students, this approach is valid. Future students likely hold similar values 

to current students, and would appreciate the university’s commitment to hearing the student 

voice. 

 The Strategic Character component of organizational reputation refers to being known for 

something. Here, authors argue that “reputation entails perceptions that the firm has particular 

attribute of interest or value to the perceiver” (de Lange, 2011, 157). In 2010, UO committed 

itself to self-defined ideas of sustainability through its Destination 2020 document (University of 

Ottawa, 2010). Since then, the university has taken steps towards this goal through investing 

their resources into initiatives such as banning the sale of bottled water,
24

 participating in 

sustainability rankings, retrofitting old buildings to reach LEED Silver requirements, and the like 

(Office of Campus Sustainability, 2018). Through investing in strategic sustainability initiatives, 

UO becomes viewed as a sustainable university. 

 Favourability, within the organizational reputation framework, is understood as a 

generalized idea of how people feel about the firm. The ‘favourability’ component is more 

specifically defined as, “perceivers assess the firm overall as more or less good and attractive…. 

measurements of reputation in the generalized favourability dimension are highly dependent 

upon which audience…decides to investigate” (de Lange, 2011, 159). Considering that UO 

views its community as ethical consumers, supporting grassroots sustainability initiatives on 

                                                 
24

 UO did not directly invest money to ban bottled water, but they did commit to losing money. The university did pay to ban 

bottled water through investing money into retrofitting existing water fountains on campus as well as installing new fountains and 

water refill stations to make the ban successful. 



 

 

39 

campus may gain their favour. UO must be particular when bringing ideas into its reputation, as 

these must be considerate of the ideals of its collective community. 

 The favourability component also incorporates the level of esteem to which people hold 

the institution in question (de Lange, 2011). Here, it becomes important that universities augment 

their reputations through their quality of research (Axelrod, 2014; Ott, 2016). Research and 

innovation in the field of sustainability is important to a university’s image, as it has the potential 

to rewrite the way things are currently done. When successful, innovations derived from ideals of 

sustainability “significantly lower the impact of human activities on the natural environment, and 

may be viewed in the future as ‘innovations that did not exist yesterday, but the world cannot 

live without today and in the future’” (Varadarajan, 2015, 35). Successes such as these create 

hope for the future by providing solutions to socially relevant problems. Considering the novelty 

of H2Ottawa, and the fact that it is the outcome of research, the bottle becomes a tangible 

example of how UO students produce sustainable innovation. 

 In Canada, having the reputation of a good research university is synonymous with being 

a ‘high status’ institution (Axelrod, 2014; Ott, 2016). Through the endorsement of this project, 

the UO was able to promote its commitment to sustainability research, putting a spotlight on 

their unique programs.
25

 Through the vehicle of the Defy the Conventional campaign, H2Ottawa 

was pitched to external donors and future students, showing an acceptance of this project into 

their image. 

 The trouble with marketing an initiative as sustainable, is that while it can help augment a 

firm’s reputation, being accused of greenwashing has an opposite effect. By definition, 

greenwashing is “intentionally misleading or deceiving consumers with false claims about a 

                                                 
25

 The UO offers the ‘Living Laboratory’ program where students study sustainable development from an academic lens, but 

also requires them to volunteer in the conception of sustainability initiatives. For more information, see the Report on Sustainable 

Development at the University of Ottawa (2015). 



 

 

40 

firm’s environmental practices and impact” (Nyilasy, 2014, 693). Considering that sustainability 

is an ideal, it is by definition unachievable. In presenting an initiative as ‘sustainable’, a firm 

must be cautious to not present themselves as having perfectly achieved balanced sustainability. 

The authors go on to argue that “‘greenwashing’ is not merely an ethical issue… consumer 

perceptions of greenwashing are real and their impact on brand attitudes and purchase intent is 

significant” (Nyilasy, 2014, 703). Here, it is the perception of the firm that may be detrimental to 

their brand. Pitching sustainability as something that an institution is striving and innovating 

towards is accepted, while claiming to have all of the answers is not. 

 So far, it has been argued that reputation is pivotal to the success of a university and that 

sustainability initiatives play a role herein. For the purpose of reputation, it is important that 

H2Ottawa is conceptualized within its own commitments to sustainability. Nyilasy (2014) asserts 

that while balanced sustainability may have positive ramifications on a University’s reputation, 

skewing it would have the opposite effect. Considering past sustainability initiatives and 

successes, the UO enjoys a good reputation in this field.
26

  

Theoretical Frameworks 

 This section will argue that UO embodies and enacts sustainability in ways that are 

consistent with the ecological modernization (hereafter, EM) worldview. EM provides a 

framework for environmental management that is consistent with the capitalist system that 

currently exists in Canada. This approach to environmental problem solving is attractive to big 

corporations and governments, because it is not radical nor revolutionary. Instead, EM 

introduces the idea that environmental maintenance and economic benefit can coexist, if we 

make minor changes to our existing policies. EM scholars would argue that however small, 

                                                 
26

 The Discussion and Findings chapter will provide a more detailed account of this. 



 

 

41 

engaging ecologically restorative behaviours in dominantly economics-driven institutions, 

normalizes this way of doing things. 

 The UO’s commitment to a brand of sustainability that is consistent with EM, is 

criticized by green-Marxism. Green-Marxists argue that EM is not consistent with sustainability 

as it encourages over- production and consumption, resulting in the exploitation of our physical 

environment. From this perspective, these initiatives are semi-green at best, and a case of 

greenwashing at worst. Consistent with EM scholars, I will argue that H2Ottawa may be 

criticized through green-Marxism, but is taking steps in the right direction. This project 

introduces innovative ideas about how we consume portable water as a society, in a way that 

produces less waste than using single-use bottles, and that encourages the use of public water 

receptacles.  

Ecological Modernization 

 For the purpose of this thesis, I will use the sociology-based ideology of EM. Here, it is 

contended that companies change their practices based on the movement of civil society, as well 

as boundaries erected through government policy. In the early years of EM development, it was 

used to explain observed changes in individual and organizational behaviours and priorities. 

Similar to the Brundtland Report, EM is grounded in the notion that environmental integrity and 

economic growth can be compatible. According to Buttel (2000, 60), 

The rise of ecological modernization can be seen as a response to a particularly crucial 

shortcoming of North American environmental sociology…most of its major theoretical 

works had converged on the notion that environmental degradation was intrinsically a 

product of the key social dynamics (be they the treadmill of production, the ‘growth 

machine’, the persistence of the dominant social paradigm or of anthropocentric values, 

and so on) of the 20th century capitalist-industrial civilization… Ecological 

modernization not only provided a way for environmental sociologists to more directly 

conceptualize environmental improvement; ecological modernization also provided a 

fresh perspective on the role of environmental movements by avoiding their 



 

 

42 

romanticization, and by appreciating the particularly fundamental roles that science, 

technology, capital and state might play in the processes of environmental improvement. 

 

EM became popular, as it challenged the presiding idea that core institutions of a capitalist 

society had to be overthrown to make way for environmental reform (Young, 2014, 19). EM was 

developed about a decade after the Brundtland Report was released. This is significant, as it was 

a time when people were increasingly fearing the environmental harms that presented themselves 

as a backlash of industrialism. At this time, EM scholars argued that advancements in technology 

could be used to revitalize the treadmill of production. Here, EM asserted that it was how goods 

were produced that had to change, not the habits of over-production and consumption that 

capitalist societies were used to. Unlike many other ideologies at the time, EM stood out as 

optimistic, lending to its success. 

 EM has changed since its first articulation by economist and environmental sociologist, 

Joseph Huber in the late 1980s. At this time, there were two dominant, but contending theories to 

environmental reform: the Risk Society Thesis presented by Ulrich Beck and Ecological 

Modernization by Joseph Huber. According to Beck, modern society is experiencing   

“profound transition(s)…where public faith in the achievements of mass industrialism is 

replaced by anxiety about its (unknown) effects on human health and the 

environment…the pursuit of modern ideals-wealth, technology, progress and unfettered 

consumption- have produced a series of ‘unintended consequences’ that are highly 

dangerous yet extremely difficult to control, and that are now ‘striking back’ at society 

and challenging some of our most important beliefs and institutions” (Young, 2014, 4) 

 

Here, Young explains Beck’s pessimistic view of modern society, arguing that through 

modernism, we are creating dangers that we cannot control, which will ultimately lead to our 

demise.  

 Unlike the Risk Society Thesis, the EM ethos asserts that capitalist production and 

consumption can be consistent with a more sustainable world. EM scholars argued that 



 

 

43 

institutions must simply tinker at the edges of existing policy to achieve ecological goals, as this 

would advance environmental management as a whole. Cohen (1997, 109) argues, 

“…interest in ecological modernization derives from its purported ability to transcend 

current impasses through the enactment of a series of adjustments in societal 

organization… successful execution of this approach depends on the organizational 

internalization of ecological responsibility” 

 

Here, Cohen argues that we can make adjustments to our current system, however small, in order 

to produce a more ecologically responsible whole. From a sociological perspective, changes in 

society and governance inspire change in the way that institutions work. Here, it is in the best 

interest of institutions to operate in ways that are consistent with how society moves, so that they 

do not hinder their reputation and client base. This argument is not rejected by businesses, 

because it promises economic maintenance, or at least neutrality. 

 Although not revolutionary, EM has provided a means of understanding the significance 

of existing reforms as very significant and deep-rooted in the institutional transformations of 

markets, institutions, and governance. Critics see it as apologetics, but EM theorists insist they 

are only investigating trends that are underway. According to Mol and Spaargen (2000, 36) 

“… a capitalist or rather market-based system of production and consumption does not 

necessarily contradict significant environmental improvements and reforms in any  

fundamental way. More production and consumption in economic terms (GNP, purchase 

power, employment) do not have to imply more environmental devastation (pollution, 

energy use, loss of biodiversity)” 

 

For Mol and Spaargen, technology is no longer the answer to modernization, but societal trends. 

The authors argue that we can modify capitalism and our governmental policies to maintain the 

environment. EM provides us with a framework by which we can hope to balance the tenets of 

sustainability. 

 The Brundtland Report was created as a response to ‘apocalyptic’ ideas reflecting the 

physical environmental, making its aim to reframe debates in ways that promised security 



 

 

44 

without changing much (Young, 2014, 4). This is consistent with ideas of EM. Considering this 

context, sustainable development was presented as the small tweaking of current production 

standards to achieve environmental stability. For corporations, ideas presented through  

“‘ecological modernization’ only occurs when it makes sense for businesses to make 

environmental performance a priority. This decision is not based on altruism, but as a 

response to pressures exerted by the market, civil society and government… (as a theory, 

EM) refuses to credit any single factor for changing corporate behaviour. Instead, it sees 

companies as reacting to a complex web of forces- including changing consumer tastes, 

government policies, and the actions of competitors” (Mol et al., 2009 in Young, 2014, 

27) 

 

EM is strongly focused on the perception of a company from the consumer’s point of view. In 

the corporate context, EM scholars argue that negative pressures, such as loss of reputation, are a 

more powerful incentive than expanded profits. Here, it is important to maintain the physical 

environment for the purpose of attracting a broad clientele. The social tenet of sustainability 

plays a large part here, as economic gain and environmental reform are contingent upon 

consumption behaviours, the government and competition. This theory understands the 

complexities of social life, and that all tenets of sustainability are intertwined.  

 EM is about a capitalist system of production, but argues that we can do it better than 

currently. Mol and Spaargaren (2000, 23) argue that EM proposes a “focus on redirecting and 

transforming ‘free market capitalism’, in such a way that…increasingly contributes to, the 

preservation of society’s sustenance base in a fundamental/structural way”. Here, it is argued that 

an upheaval of the current system would actually be detrimental. Instead of overthrowing 

capitalism, we must use it in a way that maintains the natural world so that society may continue 

to thrive. EM argues that the capitalist system is actually favourable as corporations must be 

competitive and maintain societal favour to stay in business. Here, the expectations of the 

buyers, or society, provide a series of incentives to keep corporations in check. 



 

 

45 

 As a theory, EM asserts that we must apply the ideas presented above to the way we  

academically understand how organizations pursue environmental sustainability. EM theorists 

argue that these empirical frameworks can- and have- been used concretely in environmental 

politics. In their article entitled Ecological modernization theory: taking stock, moving forward, 

Mol et al. (2014, 17) argue that, 

“ecological modernization scholars made important contributions to social theory through 

development of a systematic theory of institutional environmental reform; the 

introduction of a variety of theoretical invocations on the relation between society and the 

natural environment; the elaboration of new approaches in environmental policy and 

practice” 

 

EM theory applies to the H2Ottawa project as it provides a framework for understanding why 

these kinds of initiatives are perceived as economically and environmentally valuable. Using EM 

theory, I analyzed UO’s commitments to sustainability and apply them to a social entrepreneurial 

project that would attract support from both the university and its community. EM theory argues 

that capitalism is being gradually reformed to reflect ecological as well as economic criteria and 

priorities, through a combination of evolving knowledge, civil society pressures, and market 

forces. This aides not only in environmental conservation, but also in teaching the community 

that there are ways to problem solve for environmental management within this system. EM 

theory admits that it is not ‘dark-green’ in perspective on the effectiveness of environmental 

politics, but does present applicable options for the capitalist system in which we operate. To 

elaborate, the ‘dark-green’ perspective is the idea of revolutionary changes in order to restore the 

environment, such as overthrowing the current systems in which we operate to benefit our 

physical environment (Dryzek, 2005). ‘Dark-green’ environmentalism may be seen through the 

green-Marxist perspective, whereas EM advocates for a ‘light-green’ approach to environmental 

governance through making small changes that align with our current system. 



 

 

46 

 An important aspect of EM theory is the idea of ‘political modernization’. According to 

Mol. et al. (2014, 18-19), 

“Political modernization refers to the renovation and reinvention of state environmental 

policies and policies in order to make environmental reform better adapted to the new 

conditions of late-modern societies. The debate on political modernization within 

environmental politics can be seen as an early formulation of themes and basic ideas of 

environmental governance… the concept of political modernization connected ideas on 

innovative governance in a direct and explicit way with the management of 

environmental change… political modernization… made room for various modes of 

steering and policy making applied by different actors outside the framework of national 

environmental governance… ecological modernization scholars have been innovative in 

allowing economic categories and concepts to enter theories of environmental reform.” 

 

The  H2Ottawa initiative is emblematic of political modernization, as it seeks to ‘renovate’ the 

UO community’s perception of single-use plastic bottles. This project becomes an innovative 

policy of governance within the university, as it is an example of the way we choose to manage 

the community that we can be environmentally reformative in using our buying power. This tells 

us about how the UO manages environmental reform, which is explained by EM theory. The 

initiative is unique as it produces a tangible product through incorporating political and 

ecological modernization. 

 One of the strengths of EM theory is that it can be easily applied to case studies such as 

the one at hand. For the UO, the fact that ideas presented through EM can be used rather easily in 

the production of environmental management strategies lends to its adoption. The H2Ottawa 

project is an example of this as it is a relatively easy initiative to implement- for example, there 

are no costs involved as the project is self-funded and the university did not have to employ 

someone to follow through with it- yet, it lends to a positive reputation for the UO. EM theory 

presents a ‘feel good’ approach to environmental management because it is not revolutionary but 

society understands even incremental changes to be representative of an institution’s 

commitment to environmental sustainability.For the UO, this project is being used to inhale their 



 

 

47 

reputation and attract donations which aligns with the idea presented through EM theory that we 

can innovate to achieve environmental reform. 

 As previously noted, ideas presented through EM theory have been adopted globally into 

environmental governance and planning. Through globalization, we have the ability to see what 

different countries are doing and can adopt certain practices that fit within the context of our own 

society. According to Mol et al. (2014, 20), “… governmental administrations, political parties, 

as well as environmental movements, have used the notion of ecological modernization to refer 

to their main aims and strategies (which) is indicative of the ‘practical’ proliferation of 

ecological modernization ideas”. Through the conceptualization of the H2Ottawa initiative, ideas 

presented through EM were used as guiding forces. For example, the project embodies the 

assumption that we must operate within the capitalist structure, using buying power and 

marketing in order to sell the idea of environmental sustainability. The fact that the H2Ottawa 

bottle is a tangible product helps the UO community to understand that there are inexpensive 

options to portable water that may not have been envisioned previously. In all, EM theory has 

guided the advent of the H2Ottawa initiative through the application of ideas presented. 

 Critics of EM argue that at its essence, encouraging production is unsustainable. For the 

purpose of this research, it is important to note that universities are not large sites of production. 

Considering this, it is not what is physically produced on campus, but what the university 

teaches, procurement decisions, endorsements, and ultimately, following EM logic that may be 

criticized. Langhelle (2000, 306) argues: 

“…the core of ecological modernization is that there is ‘money in it for business’… 1) 

Pollution is a sign of waste’; hence, less pollution means more efficient production, 2) 

solving environmental problems in the future may turn out to be vastly more expensive 

than to prevent the problem in the first place, 3) An unpolluted and aesthetically pleasing 

environment may give more productive healthier and happier workers 4) There is money 



 

 

48 

to be made in selling green goods and services 5) there is money to be made in making 

and selling pollution prevention and abatement products” 

 

The motivations presented by EM are cause for critique. One of these, is that EM cannot benefit 

the physical environment without also problematizing consumption habits in capitalist systems, 

such as Canada’s (Carolan, 2004, 252). Through its commitments to capitalism and the 

maintenance income for corporations, EM implies that growth is beneficial, when this mentality 

is not always sustainable.  

 For the purpose of this thesis, EM has been used to describe how UO approaches 

environmental problem solving. As will be seen in the findings chapter, there is no will to 

completely revolutionize the way UO approaches sustainability. Instead, UO looks to modernize 

their ways of doing things to accomplish their commitments to sustainability. This is understood 

by UO’s community as being ‘good at sustainability’, presenting EM-driven ideas of 

sustainability throughout the university culture. Here, it will be argued that UO community 

enjoys a capitalist lifestyle while believing that their institution is acting environmentally, 

socially, and economically responsible ways. 

Green Marxism 

 Marxism has inspired many different theories within the field of sociology. For the 

purpose of this thesis, green-Marxism is most applicable. According to Foster et al. (2010, 7-8), 

 “…most analyses of the environmental problem today are concerned less with saving the 

planet or life or humanity than saving capitalism- the system at the root of our 

environmental problems…we live in a culture in which there is an ‘inversion of what is 

real and not real’, where ‘dying oceans and dioxin in every mother’s breast milk’ are 

considered less real than ‘industrial capitalism.’ Hence, we are constantly led to believe 

that ‘industrial capitalism’… we are constantly led to believe that ‘the end of the world is 

less to be feared than the end of industrial capitalism… when most people in this culture 

ask, ‘How can we stop global warming?’ that’s not really what they are asking. They’re 

asking, ‘How can we stop global warming without significantly changing this 

lifestyle…that is causing global warming in the first place?’ The answer is that you 

can’t.’  



 

 

49 

 

Through this excerpt, it is argued that maintaining our consumption driven way of life is 

prioritized over the physical environment. According to green-Marxists, the essence of 

capitalism is economic gain, where the bourgeoisie class will stop at nothing to meet and exceed 

financial goals. It is the treadmill of production- and over production- that has gotten us into an 

environmental quarry; green-Marxists would argue that we cannot use the same logic to get us 

out of it.   

 Scholars in the field of green-Marxism argue that adopting socialism is necessary for an 

ecological revolution. Foster et al. (2010, 441) argue that,  

“What is clear is that the longterm strategy for ecological revolution throughout the globe 

involves the building of a society of substantive equality- the struggle for socialism. Not 

only are the two inseparable, but they also provide essential content for each other. There 

can be no true ecological revolution that is not socialist; no true socialist revolution that is 

not ecological…Marx’s own vision of socialism/communism, which he defined as a 

society where ‘the associated producers govern the human metabolism with nature in a 

rational way, bringing it under their collective control…accomplishing it with the least 

expenditure of energy and in conditions most worthy and appropriate for their human 

nature’” 

 

Political views of green-Marxism oppose those of EM. As seen through the excerpt, green-

Marxists argue that we must abandon our current capitalist system and adopt socialism. They 

assert that this is because the essence of capitalism is production and consumption, which is not 

mindful of the environment, but of the economic bottom line. Similar to arguments around water 

as a human right, green-Marxists argue that environmental resources must be shared equally and 

collectively. 

 Other scholars of green-Marxism argue that Marx cannot be perceived as an 

environmentalist. In her piece entitled Green Views of Marx: Reinterpreting, Revising, Rejecting, 

Transcending Breen (2010, 2) argues that “…writers who tended to focus their critiques on 

Marx’s later works, insisted that he could not stand as an environmental defender and must be 



 

 

50 

rejected rather than revised or reinterpreted”. Here, it is argued that Marx’s theories as they were 

written cannot be translated into environmental theory, although they have inspired this kind of 

thinking. One critic of green-Marxism, Plumwood (2010, 244) argues that, 

“Those who work for an environmentally conscious non-capitalist society need to go 

beyond Marx and draw on a broader range of philosophical, ethical, and socialist 

traditions (including the ethical traditions of some of the “primitive” societies Marxists 

tend to see as so backward), for Marx’s views on nature, and associated central parts of 

this theory, belong to the past, and are far too close to those which lie at the root of many 

of our troubles” 

 

This post-modernist critique on green-Marxism argues that we have to develop environmental 

theory with our understanding of society as it is now, not how it was at his time of writing in the 

late 1800s. This critique is one of many in the literature and directly applies to my use of the 

theory. Although H2Ottawa makes another product available for purchase at UO, it is an 

alternative to other products that are much worse for the physical environment. Considering this, 

it is important to look at what has perspired in society throughout the years, rather than 

immediately reject procuring more sustainable options to develop environmentally friendly 

behaviours. 

 As argued, the fundamental difference between traditional Marxism and green-Marxism 

is that the former applies Marxian theory to current environmental debates. Despite this, the 

essence of the theories are very similar. For the remainder of this chapter, I will discuss what 

green-Marxism is, and how it applies to the research at hand. 

 Ideas presented through green-Marxism critique the idea that environmental 

sustainability can be achieved through technological innovation alone. The criticisms presented 

through this section will help us to mind characteristics of environmental preservation that are 

not addressed through incorporating an EM approach. What is not captured through EM, is the 



 

 

51 

scale on which production occurs; while sustaining current social and economic trends of 

consumption, this is not always environmentally sustainable. In short, green-Marxists argue that 

“to be considered ‘green’, sufficient improvements have to be made in either/both scale 

and intensity to reduce overall consumption of resources…sustainability can only be 

achieved if future economic growth has a diminishing overall environmental impact over 

time” (Young, 2014, 8-9) 

 

There is an essential contradiction between EM and green-Marxism, as EM argues that 

overproduction is necessary, while the latter argues for an overall reduction in the consumption 

of resources. For green-Marxists, an overthrow of capitalism is necessary as it is the consumptive 

appetite of this system that leads to environmental harm. Applied to the H2Ottawa bottles, we 

should not be producing more bottles for the UO community, as this encourages the consumption 

of more resources than providing no bottle at all.  

 Although they do not see it as a solution, green-Marxists are not against the use of 

technology for sustainable development. They argue that technology should be used, but not in a 

way that enables overproduction. In his article entitled Green Capitalism: The God That Failed, 

Smith (2015, 74) argues,  

“While no doubt there are many green technological miracles on the horizon, they 

cannot save us so long as we live in a capitalist economy. That’s because… under 

capitalism, there is no assurance that greater energy efficiency or materialist 

conservation would mean less consumption or less pollution so long as there is no extra 

market limit set to the growth of overall production”
27

  

 

For growth to be green, it must stop when it reaches an environmental threshold; when growth 

goes beyond this, it is destructive for the environment. In capitalist economies, growth is 

perpetually encouraged regardless of environmental boundaries as we have seen throughout 

                                                 
27

 Italics in original  



 

 

52 

history.
28

 To refrain from destroying our physical environment, green-Marxists encourage us to 

halt to (over)production. 

 Green-Marxists contend that we live in a disposable society where overconsumption is 

commonplace. In this context, environmental technologies become dangerous as consumers 

believe they are acting responsibly through over consuming sustainable products. It is important 

to note that eco-efficiency is not the same as sustainability; believing that we are acting 

responsibly through over consuming- even the most eco-friendly products- is not sustainable. 

Green-Marxists argue that we must change these consumptive habits, rather than assuming that 

we are positively impacting the environment through consumption 
29

. Smith (2015, 50) contends 

to this, arguing that  

“We cannot shop our way to sustainability because the problems we face cannot be 

solved by individual choices in the marketplace. They require collective democratic 

control over the economy to prioritize the needs of society and the environment… they 

require national and international economic planning to reorganize the economy and 

redeploy labour and resources to these ends… if humanity is to save itself, we have no 

choice but to overthrow capitalism and replace it with a democratically-planned socialist 

economy”  

 

It is our shopping habits and producing things we do not necessarily need, that are 

problematized. Green-Marxists argue that society at large must reform the ways they understand 

consumption, for the purpose of saving the environment. 

 The behaviours of consumers have an impact on the way that sustainability is perceived. 

Considering that consumers do not want to change their habits, and corporations do not want 

them to, standards of sustainable development have become weaker. It is argued that “…market 

demand from over consuming… has forced green certifiers to lower their standards so much to 

keep up with demand, such that today in most cases, ecological certification is virtually 

                                                 
28

 In Canada, the Industrial Revolution bestowed a lot of environmental harm. In Ottawa, an example of this is Lebreton Flats. 

For more on this, see: http://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/our-projects/lebreton-flats/history-of-lebreton-flats 
29

 Here, it is important to note that eco-efficiency and sustainability are not the same. 

http://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/our-projects/lebreton-flats/history-of-lebreton-flats


 

 

53 

meaningless” (Smith, 2015, 75). As a society, we have refused to prioritize the physical 

environment over our allegiance to the capitalist system of wealth generation and concentration. 

Resulting from this is the reduction in environmental standards to make people ‘feel good’ about 

their choices. This is problematic as it devalues environmental sustainability. Through enabling 

corporations to over produce, as a society, we reject environmental conservation. This presents 

the case of greenwashing in a way that is not as transparent as false advertising may be.  

 The deceptions presented through ranking systems are examples of ‘false consciousness’. 

For Marxists, this concept is defined as “the condition wherein a subject fails to recognize its 

true identity” (Shantz, 2012, 11). As discussed in the previous paragraph, corporations have 

pressured other firms to mitigate their regulations for the purpose of maintaining the capitalist 

regime. This may be described as an extreme act of greenwashing, as it presents itself as 

sustainable yet is inconsistent with environmental conservation. Johnston (2006, 46) asserts that 

this 

“ does not invite debate but instead assumes that a win-win situation for people and the 

planet can be achieved without sacrificing profits or requiring state intervention and 

regulation…With these three priorities appearing together in the same list, the priority of 

profits in a corporate logic is framed as self-evident and the profitability of ecological 

degradation and resource scarcity is whisked away from view” 

 

Here, the author argues that this view of sustainability is non-critical and pro-capitalist.  

Institutions use ecological modernization as a guise, to market a project as sustainable when it- at 

best- incorporates the environmental tenet of sustainability. 

 It has been argued that presenting environmental protection in these ways mitigate its true 

meaning. In his article entitled A Theory of Post-Ecologist Politics, Blühdorn (1997) argues that 

EM skews a less convoluted definition of ecologism, thus obscuring ecological action altogether. 

According to Blüdhorn (1997, 126) “even by the well-educated middle-class young, formerly the 



 

 

54 

core of the environmental mass protest, (ecological action) is more often regarded as 

troublesome, or even critical opposition to, infrastructural and economic modernization”. Here, 

society is distracted from a version of environmentalism that is actually focused on the 

environment, rather than on maintaining current society. In short, these contentions are 

problematic as they do not present all the facts, only those which suit the economy.  

 Green-Marxists argue for an overthrow of the capitalist system to save the physical 

environment. The logic behind this is that the essence of capitalist is consumption, which is 

contrary to ‘real’ environmental sustainability. In his article entitled Can Green Capitalism Build 

a Sustainable Society?, Harris (2013, 92) asserts, 

“…how can we ‘reject consumerism’ when we live in a capitalist economy where… 

most jobs depend on direct sales to consumers while most of the rest of the economy, 

including the infrastructure… is dedicated to propping up this consumerist way of 

life?… most jobs in industrialized countries critically depend, not just on consumerism, 

but on ever increasing overconsumption. We need this ever increasing consumption and 

waste production because, without growth, capitalist economies collapse and 

unemployment soars” 

 

Here, it is unrealistic to reduce consumption in a capitalist economy. In relation to the H2Ottawa 

project, providing UO community with another bottle if they were to forget theirs at home is 

problematic. The encouragement to consume these bottles, and the reinforcement that this is a 

sustainable act worthy of praise, is problematic for green-Marxists. It is not the small-scale 

production that UO enables, it is the mentality that this project may teach. 

 For green-Marxists, in a capitalist society, environmental sustainability is an option rather 

than a goal. When corporations have to choose to sustain the environment over financial gain, it 

is argued that they will opt for the latter or be driven out of business. According to Smith (2015, 

56), “profit seeking cannot be systematically ‘aligned’ with environmental goals, much less 

subordinated, because any corporate CEO who attempts to do so… will shortly find himself in 



 

 

55 

hot water with his bosses, the shareholders, or if he were to persist, his company would be driven 

out of the market”. Considering this, green-Marxists argue that the choice must be made to 

prioritize the physical environment over capitalist gain. 

 It has been argued that green-Marxists criticize over production and consumption. To flip 

the current capitalist system on its head, it is argued that we must challenge the 

“fundamental…concepts that define the market as the highest aspiration of human freedom” 

(Harris, 2013, 55). Western society has been entrenched in ideas of ‘buying themselves out of 

trouble’ for decades, which may be a byproduct of our commitment to capitalism (Szasz, 

2009).
30

 According to Harris, a revolution during this time of crisis “may push society to the left 

or right, but currently it means stagnation and deadlock” (2013, 55). In all, a fear of change will 

keep us where we are, further contributing to the economic-environmental crisis at hand.  

 Green-Marxist theory will be used to critique the way that UO embodies sustainability as 

an institution and a culture. As will be seen through the findings chapter, UO produces 

sustainability initiatives in a way that green-Marxists would argue is exploitative of the natural 

environment. UO will continue to run as a capitalist institution, selling products to their students 

that will make their experience the best and most comfortable it can be. However, it will be 

argued that UO opts for products to sell that are more environmentally friendly than competitors. 

This was a prevailing logic in the conceptualization of H2Ottawa. 

 

 

 

                                                 
30

 In his book Shopping Our Way to Safety, Szasz (2009, 4) argues that Westerners “barricade themselves,  

individually, from…threat, trying to shield themselves from it. Act jointly with others? Try to change things? Make history? No, 

no. I’ll deal with it individually. I’ll just shop my way out of trouble.” Throughout his book he argues that this attitude will 

eventually degrade public services and cause harm, but we are too scared to change our way of being. 



 

 

56 

Chapter 4: Methods 

 

 This section will discuss the methods I have used for data collection in conducting this 

research. I have used qualitative methods to answer my research question. More specifically, I 

employed a ‘living action research’ approach as defined by Mc Niff and Whitehead (2011), as 

well as in-depth interviewing as defined by Taylor et al. (2016). The ‘living action research’ 

approach was the main method of data collection, as it allowed me to use my experiences in 

conceptualizing and implementing the H2Ottawa project as research. This approach requires 

validation of my experiences, for which I have used in-depth interviews.   

 At the time of this research, I was employed as an intern at the UO’s OCS. Therefore, 

most of the data collected through the ‘living action research’ approach was in this context. 

Through my internship, I found groups on campus to endorse H2Ottawa. This project was 

marketed as an inclusive UO sustainability initiative and a branding exercise; considering this, I 

contacted Directors of Communications and Marketing from each faculty on UO campus to 

make H2Ottawa a reality. After establishing a working relationship with these faculty 

representatives, I asked each for an interview to triangulate the data collected through my 

approach to ‘living action research’. This section will discuss which methods I chose to use and 

how I used them.  

 

Qualitative Research 

 In sociology, the most widely used categories of data collection are qualitative and 

quantitative. For the purpose of my research, I have chosen to use a qualitative approach to data 

collection. Although there is no true right or wrong method to sociological research, there are 



 

 

57 

more or less effective ways of getting answers to questions presented. According to (Silverman 

2000, 12),  

We are not faced…with a stark choice between words and numbers, or even between 

precise and imprecise data; but rather with a range from more to less precise data.… 

[O]ur decisions … should depend on the nature of what we are trying to describe, on the 

likely accuracy of our descriptions, on our purposes, and on the resources available to us.  

 

A qualitative approach to data collection is appropriate to this research, as I am trying to describe 

the specific motivations, and related actions, of people within an institution. For the purpose of 

my question, interviews and participant observation are most fitting.  

 As mentioned earlier, my research aimed to answer the question: how does the UO 

implement sustainability initiatives in a way that complies with the value-set of the university, 

while also satisfying community expectations? In reviewing UO’s documents, I came to learn 

that the university has no specific method for employing sustainability initiatives; university staff 

are responsible for their conceptualization and execution, using their own interpretations of UO’s 

values to guide such decisions. A qualitative approach to data collection allowed me to use my 

experiences as an intern at UO to build rapport with staff, who became my interviewees. As a 

researcher, the qualitative method to data collection enabled me to access detailed accounts of 

what was happening in my social context.  

 

Living Action Research  

 For the purpose of this research, I have used a living action research approach to data 

collection and analysis. Here, I used the experiences I encountered through the creation of 

H2Ottawa to understand the research project in its entirety. First, it is important to understand 

action research itself. According to Mc Niff and Whitehead (2011, 7-11),  



 

 

58 

“Action research is a form of enquiry that enables practitioners in every job and walk of 

life to investigate and evaluate their work…Action research aims to be a disciplined, 

systematic process…action research is about action: taking action to improve practice; 

and research: finding things out and coming to new understandings, that is, creating new 

knowledge. In action research the knowledge is about how and why improvement has 

happened… Action research is a form of personal-professional development” 

 

The authors present action research as an approach that can be adopted by anyone, not only 

professional researchers. This was beneficial to my research, as I was encouraged to act naturally 

and use my experiences as data. If I was not engaged, the data collected would have been less 

informed. Additionally, this method of research allowed me to grow as a sustainability 

practitioner. Throughout my internship, the H2Ottawa initiative came to life, which was the 

product of action, as well as producing and materializing knowledge, that did not previously 

exist. 

 The ‘living’ part of action research refers to the fluidity presented by this type data 

collection. Mc Niff and Whitehead (2011, 12) describe ‘living action research’ as, 

“Person-centred forms of theory are about what ‘I’ am doing as a living person. ‘I’ speak 

about action research as something I do, as part of ‘my’ experience. ‘My’ theories take on 

a living form: the explanations the person offers for their life and practices are within the 

way they live and practice. So, it is usual nowadays to understand the word ‘theory’ in 

two ways: as an abstract propositional form about what is happening for other people; 

and as an embodied living form about what is happening for me. This latter view has 

given rise to the term ‘living theory’” 

 

In all, living action research (hereafter, LAR) is presented as a method of data collection 

whereby I use my daily actions in a specific social context to create knowledge. Here, I recorded 

my observations through informal notes as well as by writing the minutes for all meetings I 

attended. I recorded my observations mainly on my laptop, but also in a notebook. Through the 

analysis of the data, I coded all notes recorded as well as email threads. This is appropriate for 

the research at hand, as it allowed my interpretations to change and develop as the project did. 

Figure 1. Table of Codes: 



 

 

59 

Economic Return Ethical 
Consumerism/Soci
al Good 

Environmental 
Conservation 

Reputation Corporate 
University  

Working in Silos Employee/Student 
Dedication  

- Does the 
respondent 
mention costs? 

- How does the 
respondent 
frame costs 
regarding 
sustainability? 

- Does the 
respondent 
mention the 
financial climate 
at UO? 

- Is the 
respondent 
concerned with 
initiatives paying 
themselves off? 

- Do respondents 
connect 
economic 
savings with 
environmental 
benefit and 
social good? 

- Did economics 
hinder the 
respondent from 
participating in 
this project? 

 
 
 

 

- Are respondents 
talking about the 
good of the 
students, or 
‘clients’? 

- Are respondents 
talking about 
what is for the 
betterment of the 
university’s 
culture? 

- Are respondents 
talking about the 
people-element 
of this project? 
of sustainability? 

- Do respondents 
connect social 
good with 
economic return 
and 
environmental 
benefit? 

- How does this 
project connect 
our community? 

- Are respondents 
talking about 
environment 
conservation? 
Reform? 
Management? 

- Are respondents 
talking about this 
project as 
beneficial to the 
physical 
environment? 

- Are respondents 
connecting 
environmental 
conservation 
with social good 
and economic 
return? 

- How does this 
project connect 
to the physical 
environment? 

- Was this a prime 
motivation for the 
acceptance of 
the H2Ottawa 
initiative? 

- Are respondents 
talking about the 
university’s 
reputation and 
how 
sustainability 
initiatives align? 
Are respondents 
arguing that 
H2Ottawa fits 
within the image 
UO wants to 
portray to future 
clients? 

- Do respondents 
argue that this 
initiative is 
consistent with 
the university’s 
mission? 

- What are 
respondents 
saying about 
branding? 

- What are the 
respondents 
saying about 
media? 

- How do 
respondents 
understand the 
relationship 
between  
sustainability and 
reputation? 

- Are respondents 
talking about 
students as 
consumers or 
clients? 

- Are respondents 
referring to the 
university as a 
business? 

- Are respondents 
talking about 
university 
policies 
surrounding 
sustainability? 

- How is the 
university using 
its resources to 
become a leader 
in sustainability? 
How is the 
university using 
its policies to 
enact 
sustainability? 
What does this 
have to say 
about how the 
university’s 
understands 
sustainability as 
a whole? 

- Do employees 
feel like they can 
fund 
sustainability 
initiatives without 
backlash? What 
makes 
employees feel 
like they can 
make these 
choices? 

- Do employees 
feel supported by 
their faculties to 
endorse 
sustainability 
initiatives? 

- Do employees 
realize the efforts 
that are 
happening on 
campus 
regarding 
sustainability? 

- Is there a 
newsletter or 
some form of 
media that is 
offered to 
employees to 
keep them up to 
date on 
sustainability 
efforts at UO as 
a whole? 

- Are employees 
going above and 
beyond to 
implement 
H2Ottawa? 

- Would H2Ottawa 
have been a 
success without 
the dedication of 
employees and 
students? 

- How did 
employees show 
dedication? Did 
they stay after-
hours? Call me 
on their personal 
devices? Take 
time out of their 
lunch or busy 
schedule to meet 
with me? 

- How did my 
dedication to this 
project lead to its 
success? 

 

 

 

 LAR embraces biases inherent to the data collection rather than trying to justify them. 

This is useful as the conceptualization of H2Ottawa is the product of mine, and UO’s, values. Mc 

Niff and Whitehead (2011, 27-8) argue,  

“Ontology is the study of being, and is strongly linked with values… Our ontologies influence 

how we view ourselves in our relationships with others… Action research is value laden; action 

research is morally committed; action researchers perceive themselves as in relation with one 

another in their social contexts… Action research is done by people who are trying to live in the 

direction of the values that inspire their lives…your values come to act as your guiding 

principles. Action research often begins by articulating your values and asking whether you are 

being try to them” 

 



 

 

60 

It is an inherent tenet of LAR to use one’s personal values in the creation of data. My ontological 

commitments to the triple bottom line of sustainability drove me to see the H2Ottawa project 

through to completion. Of course, there is no way to perfectly balance all three tenets of 

sustainability, but there was definite effort. In developing H2Ottawa, I viewed myself as an 

advocate of ecological modernization; I value our physical environment, but also believe that 

human beings should be comfortable in daily activities. My ontological commitments to my 

community influenced the support of a product that is not necessarily essential, but makes daily 

life a little bit better.  

 Using LAR was interesting, as it enabled me to use memories, in addition to more 

precisely documented observations, as field notes. For my research, I used an inductive method 

of coding. When I started H2Ottawa, I did not intend for it to become the topic of my thesis. I 

gathered my experiences and started collecting field notes when the project got funding, about 8 

months after its conception. Inductive, or open, coding was used for data analysis. After my field 

notes were written, I searched for common themes; I did the same thing with data collected 

through interviews. I settled on the categories that have been presented through the literature 

review chapter. Coding will be further explained when I have gone through my use of 

interviews, at the end of this section. 

 Considering the casual nature of conducting LAR, validation through other means of data 

collection is important for well rounded research. According to Taylor (2016, 93-4),  

…the term triangulation refers to the combination of methods or sources of data in a 

single study… Although field notes based on firsthand experience in a setting provide the 

key data in participant observation, other methods and approaches can and should be used 

in conjunction with fieldwork. Triangulation is often thought of as a way of checking out 

insights gleaned from different informants or different sources of data. By drawing on 

other types and sources of data, observers also gain a deeper and clearer understanding of 

the setting and people being studied. 

 



 

 

61 

In short, triangulation assists in ensuring that research is more balanced for accuracy. In using 

LAR, I cross-referenced my understandings of social situations with colleagues for validity. To 

further ensure that my colleagues were heard, I interviewed them one-on-one, to get their 

thoughts on specific matters even more in depth. In the next section of this chapter, I will speak 

to my use of in depth interviews for data collection.  

Interviews 

 As mentioned in the past section, interviews were used to triangulate the data I collected 

through my internship with OCS. The major difference between interviews and participant 

observation through LAR, is context. According to Taylor et al. (2016, 102), 

The primary difference between participant observation and in-depth interviewing lies in 

the settings and situations in which the research takes place. Whereas participant 

observers conduct their studies in natural field situation, interviewers conduct theirs in 

situations specifically arranged for the purposes of research 

 

Interviews were conducted on a day and in a place of the interviewee’s choosing, typically in 

their offices on campus. It is significant that the data collected through participant observation 

was consistent with what was divulged in interviews. Possibly because data collection was done 

on campus grounds, there was a certain value set and demeanour that was upheld by participants 

in either setting. Interviewing was necessary to supplement data collected through LAR, to 

confirm my findings, as well as ask more pointed questions to fulfil my specific research 

question. 

 As a social scientist, I largely relied on the verbal accounts and actions of those around 

me to answer my research question. Interviewing helped me in this process, as it enabled me to 

ask more direct questions in a more intimate setting. According to Taylor et al. (2016, 102), 

… (interviews) adopt a standardized format: The researcher has the questions, and the 

research subject has the answers… in most structured interviewing each person is 

supposed to be asked identically worded questions to assure comparable findings… In 



 

 

62 

stark contract to structured interviewing, qualitative interviewing is flexible and 

dynamic. Qualitative interviewing has been referred to as non-directive, unstructured, 

non-standardized and open ended interviewing… by in-depth qualitative interviewing, 

we mean face-to-face encounters between the researcher and informants directed toward 

understanding informants’ perspectives on their lives, experiences, or situations as 

expressed in their own words 

 

I describe my approach as ‘in-depth, qualitative interviewing’. Although questions were 

premeditated to get the conversation started, most were quite open-ended to achieve a more fluid 

interview
31

. Considering that most interviewees hold similar employment positions within UO, 

they were asked very similar questions. However, some of my participants required a different 

approach based on their unique employment positions. One of the interviews conducted used 

only guiding questions, as she was more comfortable with having a recorded discussion. In all, 

my interviewing methods and questions were based upon the interviewee; not on our personal 

relationship, but based on their position and expertise within the university. 

 Alike all methods of data collection, regardless of how well an interview goes, data 

collected is not entirely accurate. It is argued that,  

“even when informants have come to accept and trust interviewers, what they say cannot 

be taken at face value as indicative of deeply held beliefs and feelings. In social 

interactions, meanings are not simply communicated, but constructed… knowledge and 

social meanings are constructed during the interview process” (Taylor et al., 2016, 114)  

 

Being employed as an intern at OCS throughout my research made data collection much easier. 

According to Taylor et al. (2016, 107), it is important to “…get to know people well enough to 

understand what they mean and creating an atmosphere in which they are likely to talk freely”. 

As previously mentioned, I spent a lot of time with just under half of my interviewees 

experiences before the official interview. This helped me as a researcher as I more fully 

understood the motivations for their responses, and put them more at ease as they knew my 

                                                 
31

 It is important to mention that I had spoken with all interviewees at least once before conducting the interviews. I had built 

more of a relationship with just under half of my respondents, having weekly or monthly meetings with them leading up to the 

interview. 



 

 

63 

specific goals for the thesis. Interviewing was very useful in validating my experiences 

throughout the conceptualization of H2Ottawa, and in helping me choose categories through 

which I have steered this thesis. 

 As mentioned earlier, coding of interviews was done inductively. Through my internship, 

I developed ideas regarding how UO implements sustainability initiatives. From these 

assumptions, I built interview questions. For example, I came to learn that one’s position in the 

university determined the power they had in accepting or denying sustainability initiatives, so the 

first question asked was: “Can you please tell me about your job here at the University?” From 

this, I asked respondents how they felt that UO embodied sustainability, and if they believed 

H2Ottawa to be consistent with these values. These questions were open-ended enough that 

respondents’ answers varied based on personal experiences. Through coding, I recognized that 

respondents had similar answers, many having learned about sustainability through their work at 

UO. Here, the use of inductive coding itself assisted me in finding intricacies between interviews 

that directly related to my topic of interest.   

 Interviewing was critical to the data collection portion of this research, as well as to the 

validity of this project more generally. When I emailed my respondents to endorse H2Ottawa 

during the summer of 2017, most did not get back to me. This was because I did not explain 

through my email that H2Ottawa was my master’s thesis; I presented it as an advertising and 

marketing opportunity for faculties. One respondent who requests to remain anonymous notes, “I 

did not realize that this project was part of your master's thesis, and I understand that you need to 

know the reasons behind our decision” (Anonymous Respondent, 2017). Here, it was not the 

project itself but my position as a student, that granted me access to respondents.  



 

 

64 

 In creating H2Ottawa, I had I no idea where to start. When I sent my first round of emails 

to faculty deans looking for endorsement in summer 2017, I was discouraged by the lack of 

response. I spoke with my internship supervisor in September 2017, and was told that I should 

not be interested in speaking with academics, but administrators who worked in Marketing and 

Communications. A few months later, I knocked on the doors of each faculty’s Marketing and 

Communications Director at UO. When I explained to them who I was and what I was doing, the 

response was very different; I was invited in and well received by every one of them. This 

proceeded to take the form of snowball sampling as from one administrator, I was led to another; 

from one endorsement, I was granted another. These people eventually became my interviewees.  

 As a graduate student, my first thought was to reach out to professors and academics for 

the purpose of progressing H2Ottawa. I learned that this was not the right avenue for my end goal 

of getting H2Ottawa bottles on the shelves at UO. I originally thought that universities were run 

by academics; through the advent of this initiative I came to find that there are two very distinct 

sides to Canadian universities, as described in the section on Corporate Universities. In working 

with the non-academic side of UO, the project took on a very different form. H2Ottawa was no 

longer just a sustainability project, but became a highly marketable, grassroots initiative started 

by a Master’s student. Diverting from academia changed the conceptualization of H2Ottawa, as it 

became defined by the UO’s version of sustainability. The process to find interviewees redefined 

H2Ottawa, allowing it to thrive in a university setting. What is unique about this project is that it 

uses both academic theory and a pragmatic approach to sustainability to form a tangible product. 

I have worked to align these very different worlds to create H2Ottawa. 

 

 



 

 

65 

Chapter 5: Discussion and Findings 

 

 The aim of this thesis is to answer the following question: how does the UO comply with 

its commitments to sustainability, while also satisfying the expectations of its community, 

through the implementation of H2Ottawa? To answer this question, I used a living action 

research  approach, where I triangulated the collected data with semi-structured interviews. In 

this chapter, I will start with a discussion of the data collected using action research. I will then 

review the interviews, discussing them in relation to the topics outlined throughout this thesis.  

Living Action Research  

 Through my internship with the Office of Campus Sustainability (hereafter, OCS), I 

learned what was required for a sustainability initiative to come to fruition at UO. First, I learned 

that the office did not have specific a budget to support sustainability initiatives. Let us recall 

that H2Ottawa was the product of conversations regarding the ban of bottled water on campus. 

Considering this, we were inspired to use steps taken by the student (Jenna) who banned the 

sales of bottled water in 2010 as a conceptual guide. To convince the university to ban bottled 

water, Jenna argued that: the UO community is already accessing water through fountains; UO 

community should not have to pay for a resource being provided to them for free, twice; and that 

UO would save money through abolishing the waste that single-use bottles produced
32

. Through 

this experience, I learned that for OCS to accept a sustainability initiative, it had to be: 

environmentally beneficial in some way, something that the campus community would endorse, 

and most importantly, promise an economic return or at least to break even. In short, the project 

                                                 
32

 UO’s latest report on waste diversion revealed that the university saved $800 000 CAD through waste diversion efforts in 

2014. The ban of bottled water is not solely responsible for this amount, but the report presents initiatives such as this one as 

being significant (University of Ottawa, 2015) 



 

 

66 

needed to contend to the triple bottom line of sustainability, consistent with UO’s official 

commitments to sustainability. 

 When I first started H2Ottawa in mid-September of 2016, I learned that all sustainability 

proposals at UO start with a business case to solidify the funds needed.
33

 This is relevant as it 

frames these initiatives as small business endeavours, and the university becomes similar to a 

corporation. In my business case, I argued that the pilot project would be economically neutral, 

provide UO community with reasonable access to portable water, and that H2Ottawa bottles were 

better for the environment than single-use plastic bottles. When talking to students, I learned that 

many would buy a bottle of Vitamin Water or soda water, dump out the contents, and use the 

bottle to hold water for the day. These behaviours produced unnecessary waste, and were an 

annoyance to students. As for economic neutrality, this project was self-funded, meaning that all 

funds lent to H2Ottawa would be reimbursed upon the sales of the bottles. This means that I 

priced the bottles so that assuming all of them sold, the project would break even. Of course, 

there was the risk that bottles may not sell at all. Here, we argued that the bottles were 

inexpensive and could be distributed to students and guests to the campus as tokens of 

appreciation. UO was convinced that economic risks were low enough that they could approve 

the project.  

 Regardless of the amount of funding required for a sustainability initiative at UO, a 

business case is required. This is relevant as it frames these initiatives as small business 

endeavours, and the university becomes similar to a corporation. When conceptualizing the 

business case for this project, Jonathan and I developed a cost-benefit analysis. Here, we argued 

that students would be able to have reasonable access to bottled water on campus, that was 

affordable for the students and the university, and that was better for the environment than 

                                                 
33

 See Appendix 2 



 

 

67 

single-use plastic bottles. When talking to students, I learned that many would buy a bottle of 

Vitamin Water or soda water, dump out the contents, and use the bottle to hold water for the day. 

These behaviours produced unnecessary waste, and were an annoyance to students. When this 

document was drawn up, my internship supervisor and he took to his boss for approval. 

 During this process, I was active in producing the business case, but not in presenting it. 

Jonathan took the proposal to his financial managers because, being a staff member, he was to be 

held responsible for the trajectory of the project. Jonathan let me know that if a student alone 

attempted to make this initiative happen, it would be very difficult. Students cannot be held 

accountable if projects go awry, whereas staff members can. OCS assessed this proposal, and 

agreed to lend me ~$3000.00 to make H2Ottawa happen.  

 In addition to the general model for sustainability initiatives presented above, cost of the 

project was important because of the fiscal environment of the university. Alex Latus, UO’s 

Communications and Special Projects Manager for Facilities, asserts: 

… given the current financial climate at the university- we are trying to tighten our belts. It is 

a lot easier to swallow an investment on something when we know that it will either generate 

a positive return, or at least not cost anything (2017, 5) 

 

Alex argues that UO is in a financial deficit, meaning that the university cannot- or more 

accurately, will not- invest in projects that do not break even. This changed how the H2Ottawa 

project was conceptualized because it had to promise economic neutrality. 

 I was appointed to find a bottle that would be inexpensive enough wholesale, to sell to 

students at $3.00. It was at this stage in the project that cost-neutrality became problematic. 

Through my experience, I learned that the market for inexpensive water bottles does not exist at 

this time. I found that most bottled water companies are competing with luxury reusable bottles, 

such as S’well which retail at ~$45.00. Consistent with societal trends of portable water, this 



 

 

68 

expensive option exists at UO, where reusable bottles are sold at the University of Ottawa 

Bookstore for upwards of ~$15.00. Through my search, I found many promotional companies 

who sell bottles that businesses then distribute to special clients, but these were outside of our 

price range. I finally found a bottle from McKernan Packaging in Nevada, USA that fulfilled our 

financial requirements. This bottle is originally intended for cosmetic products, but I changed the 

top from a pump to a cap to make it look like a water bottle.  

 Once we found the bottle, we ensured that it was safe for its intended use. To do this, I 

asked the distributor for all of the speculations on the product and cross-referenced them with the 

Government of Ontario’s Health and Safety standards for food products. I was then required to 

make sure that the bottle was manufactured in an ethical environment, following with the 

university’s policies around procurement. UO’s Policy 98 regarding Ethical Purchasing states,  

The University of Ottawa is committed to conducting its business affairs in a socially 

responsible and ethical manner consistent with its educational, research and service mission, 

as well as its own employment policies. This Policy on Ethical Purchasing defines the 

principles and responsibilities pertaining to the conduct of business affairs at the University.  

 

When the distributor provided us with this information, Jonathan Rausseo brought the initiative 

to the financial manager at OCS for approval. These policy requirements had a large impact on 

the project, as it left us at the end, with only one option. Additionally, UO has a policy that if a 

project is over $5000, multiple options must be given and it would go to bid. To bypass this, we 

spent less than that amount, which enabled us to purchase 810 bottles. Considering this limit, we 

had to go to the faculties for financial support in order to sell bottles to students at $3.00. 

 I was then required to find the product and outline all costs involved for UO to have 

H2Ottawa bottles in their vending machines. The cost breakdown was
34

 as follows: $184.47 for a 

case of 90 bottles, $258.61 for a box of 4500 caps, $336.95 for freight charges, and ~$80.00 for 

                                                 
34

 Pricing for these bottles are in constant flux, depending on sales, new inventory from the supplier, etc. 



 

 

69 

duty charges. UO agreed to purchase 810 bottles
35

 for the pilot project of H2Ottawa that launched 

March 22, 2018. Bottles and caps were purchased in the quantities outlined as it was required by 

the supplier. The remaining caps are being held at OCS for (hopefully) future use. I was told that 

cost-neutrality was important in this stage to make the project attractive to the university’s 

Finance Managers.  This approach was not questioned by any of the administrators involved at 

this stage, and was taken as given by other employees who became involved with the project at a 

later date. Here, it may be concluded that sustainability initiatives at the UO must first be deemed 

economically neutral before conversations may start about getting approval.  

 When the cost sheet was ready for H2Ottawa, Jonathan and I met with Philippe Demers 

who is the Manager of Operations and Finance for Food Services at UO. We were informed that 

to have the bottles in vending machines, it would be a $0.50 charge per bottle to rent the space 

and for the labour to put the bottles into the machine. Including this fee, the cost of each bottle 

was $3.05. Considering that the intention of this project was to sell reusable bottles for the same 

price one would expect to pay for a bottle of single-use water, Jonathan and I wanted to sell 

H2Ottawa bottles for $3.00. Due to the discrepancy in cost, we decided to ask Marketing 

Directors from all faculties for endorsements. 

 At this point, it had been about a full year. The bottles were purchased on June 20, 2017 

by OCS, on the condition that the project be not for profit and self-funded. In September 2017, I 

started looking for endorsements from faculties. I personally knocked on all of the Marketing 

Directors’ doors at UO and spoke about H2Ottawa
36

. I was endorsed by all faculties, with the 

exception of the Faculty of Science, mainly because they did not have vending machines in their 

buildings. I learned that vending machines use quite a bit of energy, especially those dispensing 

                                                 
35

 The total cost for the H2Ottawa pilot project was ~$2290.00 
36

 I did not get to speak with the Marketing Director for UO’s Faculty of Medicine because they are not on the physical campus. 

They have become interested in H2Ottawa, and will likely endorse the second round. 



 

 

70 

beverages, because they work as refrigerators. The Faculty of Science specifically had none, as 

they have many labs that use most of their energy budgets and could not afford to waste energy 

on vending machines to maintain LEED Platinum rankings. Despite this, the Faculty of Science 

supported my efforts through marketing for H2Ottawa.  

 Endorsements from Faculties were $2/bottle, which added up to a grand total of $1240; 

the endorsements were as follows: 40 for Telfer,  50 for the Faculty of Arts, 120 for the Faculty 

of Social Sciences, 50 for the Faculty of Education, 50 for the Faculty of Engineering, 100 for 

the Faculty of Civil and Common Law, and 210 for OCS. With this extra funding, we were able 

to sell bottles to students for $3.00ea; if all bottles sell, we are able to break even or be close 

enough that losses are negligible. 200 bottles were also bought by the Student Federation of the 

University of Ottawa to be sold at their variety store on campus called Pivik. Finally, Food 

Services purchased 50 bottles to give to students who had bought boxed lunch meal plans. In the 

case that all bottles do not sell, it was agreed that they be used by faculties and OCS as ‘swag’ to 

give away at various events.  

 The sales of bottles became an issue in March 2018 as vending machines were not 

dispensing the product properly causing students to lose money and become frustrated. The 

company who owns and maintains vending machines on UO campus, Ventrex, has recently 

(May 2018) bought different coils for the machines to fix this problem. In addition, not all bottles 

were put into machines in the correct buildings. There was much frustration around this, as 

faculties paid to have their own branded bottles in their respective buildings. In future, we will 

test the condition of all machines before putting bottles in them to assure they are in working 



 

 

71 

order
37

. Additionally, we will remove the information wrap
38

 that covered bottles, to assure that 

faculty branding can be seen and bottles are put in the proper buildings. 

 When faculties decided to endorse H2Ottawa the initiative’s budget became more 

balanced, as costs were managed. This is where the triple bottom line of sustainability became 

important, as we tried to balance social, economic, and environmental tenets
39

. The social tenet 

of H2Ottawa was twofold. First, bottles are sold empty which makes the statement that water is a 

human right as we are not containing and reselling water; this encourages students to use City of 

Ottawa public water, as well as UO water fountains. Second, the bottles provide UO’s 

community with portable water which was not available previously. Up to the launch of 

H2Ottawa, if UO community members had forgotten their reusable bottle their only option was 

to purchase one from the University Bookstore for upwards of $15. The economic tenet of 

sustainability was the cost management that I have outlined above, as well as providing UO 

community with an affordable option to portable water on campus. Finally, the environmental 

impact of the H2Ottawa bottle is much less than that of single-use water bottles. In my 

experience with H2Ottawa, I have found that the environmental good these bottles represent 

along with the low price and availability has lent to the project’s success.  

 In working with the faculties’ Marketing Directors, H2Ottawa became geared towards 

augmenting the university’s reputation. UO’s own marketing team also supported H2Ottawa by 

using my story for their Defy the Conventional Campaign, which is used to gain donations. This 

is consistent with the EM worldview, as UO used an innovative way of accessing portable water 

to draw donations and future students. Advertising and marketing was beneficial to the project as 

                                                 
37

 Some machines were tested with the bottles to ensure that they would dispense. Bottles were originally tested in snack 

machines, but were sold in drink machines which caused dispensary issues. I am unsure as to why Ventrex decided to put bottles 

in drink machines when it was not confirmed that they would dispense properly. 
38

 See Appendix 1 
39

 See Appendix 3 



 

 

72 

experienced media relations officers and graphic designers were employed to popularize 

H2Ottawa, and also make the bottles aesthetically pleasing
40

. In addition to this, the Faculty of 

Social Sciences where I study, funded a photoshoot for me
41

. Using various media outlets at the 

school, faculties pitched H2Ottawa to students as an innovative sustainability project started by a 

student. The messaging was meant to attract future students, as well as show our current 

community that UO cares about sustainability and supporting its students.  

 To conclude, my personal experience with H2Ottawa showed me that the university will 

fund a sustainability initiative if: all costs are returned, it is socially attractive and fitting with 

UO’s vision, and it is environmentally neutral or reformative. This logic fits within UO’s 

commitment to sustainability and to its community. UO entertained the idea of H2Ottawa 

because it was seen as an initiative that would enhance the student experience. In preparation for 

this initiative, I studied the archives of the student newspaper, The Fulcrum. Here, I learned that 

students understood and approved of the ban on bottled water, but missed having access to 

reasonably priced portable water on campus. UO satisfied its community through allowing this 

project to come to fruition. Building a sustainability initiative at UO was definitely time 

consuming, but I would not say that it was difficult. I would argue that UO is committed to 

sustainability, which is reflected in the actions of their staff. That being said, there is a definite 

need for sustainability champions on campus to implement initiatives. The interviews section 

that follows will act as support for the data outlined here.  

Interviews  

 This section will discuss the interviews I had conducted to triangulate data collected 

through living action research. I chose to interview all Marketing Directors that I worked with in 

                                                 
40

 See Appendix 4-7 
41

 See Appendix 8 



 

 

73 

the implementation and conceptualization of H2Ottawa. These staff members, I came to learn, 

dictate which student initiatives come to fruition. This is because they hold much of the finances 

for their respective faculties, which is telling of UO’s commitment to their reputation and image. 

Marketing Directors choose initiatives based on the value to student experience, how they reflect 

the university’s image, and if they work within budgets. Considering this, their viewpoints are 

important in revealing how the UO complies to sustainability, while also satisfying the 

expectations of its community.  

 For the purpose of this thesis, I conducted 12 interviews. Most interviews used the same 

interview guide
42

; this guide was manipulated for staff who had different job titles. All 

interviews were conducted at UO, at a location of the interviewee’s choosing. Interviews were 

conducted from September 2017 to January 2018 and have been transcribed for accuracy. I used 

inductive coding, where I read all interview transcripts and chose codes from the data collected. 

These codes are: economic return, ethical consumerism/social good, environmental impact, 

reputation, corporate university, working in silos, and employee/student dedication
43

. Not all 

topics were used in the literature review and theory sections, those that were excluded were less 

popular among interviewees. Categories of interest including: economic return, environmental 

impact, the corporate university, ethical consumption/social good, and employee and student 

dedication, will be used to guide this section. Following this, I will review how H2Ottawa was 

conceptualized through an ecological modernist worldview. I will conclude this section with a 

discussion of how H2Ottawa may be critiqued through a green-Marxist lens.  

 

 

                                                 
42

 See Appendix 9 
43

 I also coded for student experience, greenwashing, and health, but they have been omitted due to lack of popularity. 



 

 

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Interview Analysis  

Economic Return 

 As noted in the living action research section, economic return was fundamental to the 

fruition of this project. According to Jonathan Rausseo,  

“Programs that work best are the ones that end up having some form of financial or social 

payback…the  bottled water free campus is an example… even though the university is 

looking down the pipeline, saying ‘oh! Bottled water is one of our highest marked up, 

best selling items’ and we’re coming along saying… ‘we’d like you to get rid of that’… it 

takes a certain amount of trust from these groups to be able to say ‘ok, we’ll get this 

happening’, but if the payback is there- then it can be done” (Rausseo, 3, 2017) 

 

Jonathan argues that for a sustainability initiative to receive funding, it must provide financial or 

social payback. What is interesting here, is that the social payback generally manifests through 

an augmentation of the university’s reputation, which attracts future students. According to 

Marcelle Kimberly, UO's Manager of Strategic Initiatives, the end goal when approving projects 

is to generate more money, which is then reinvested into the student experience (Kimberly, 2, 

2018). In doing this, UO becomes a place where students want to be as they feel that their values 

are reflected; here, UO has the opportunity to buy their reputation through being strategic with 

choosing which initiatives to support. This is consistent with the EM worldview, as resources are 

spent to augment the institution’s reputation, which is important to attract civil society.  

  Sustainability has become important to the structure and growth of Canadian 

universities. One of the reasons for this, is because the Ontario provincial government is 

beginning to implement more serious fines if institutions go over certain resources quotas. 

According to Food Services Dietitian and Sustainability Director Maryann Moffit,  

“…the economics for sure definitely a part- like once we manage…to get deeper into the 

conversation (regarding the sustainability initiative at hand), then it’s all about- we have to 

do this in a way that isn’t going to require us to hire another person. Is it going to require 

somebody to take an hour out of their schedule everyday? Because they don’t have that 

hour in their schedule, right? You have to find a way to do it that doesn't add or that adds 



 

 

75 

like, so little that you can keep operating as per usual and include this new piece... what I 

say to people, I try to keep highlighting the zero waste legislation that’s coming- right?… 

So, it’s like, be ready or pay. So, we’re ready. I think there’s definitely that, I’m using that 

to leverage a lot of conversations bridging out a lot from these conversations about 

sustainability and how we’re going to get there- we need to get there, we’re going to be 

made to get there- so let’s get there first so that there’s no penalty right” (Moffit, 2017, 5-

9) 

 

First, sustainability initiatives must align with the UO’s mission, and then they must not cost the 

university any money. For Maryann, illuminating upcoming legislations are important to 

convince the university to employ more sustainability initiatives. She goes on to mention that 

even with budgetary cutbacks, the university would continue to implement sustainability 

initiatives in Food Services because “a lot of them save us money” (Moffit, 2017, 8). In centring 

her arguments around financial loss and budget cuts, she is able to convince her financial 

management team to fund initiatives that she supports. This is consistent with the EM ethos, as 

Maryann argues that UO wants to be progressive by anticipating where society is going. Ideas 

such as these help push the government into implementing sustainability policies, through 

proving that it is possible to achieve certain goals.  

 The majority of interviewees noted that UO is currently facing budgetary cuts, and 

insinuated that this was a big reason as to why economic neutrality within projects is so 

important. According to the Marketing Director of Telfer, Christian Coloumbe, 

“…in a tight budgetary environment it's going to be a lot easier to get initiatives approved if 

they have no impact on the budget, or if it’s… instead of buying ‘X’ buy ‘Y’ because... it'll 

be about the same price… if budgets are tight, investing in something that will have no return 

will be more difficult. Buying bottles of water with the logo on it at $2 each... it's not- not 

that it's not material- but it's not a huge expense…I can easily include that in my budget, and 

I won't spend $80 on something else, but I've spent it on that and it’s equivalent and it works 

well. The fact that it's sustainable and that it’s good for the environment is a bonus” (2017, 5)  

 

Here, it is argued that UO might invest in a project with no economic return, but it is unlikely 

considering their financial status. H2Ottawa was possible for Christian's faculty because of the 



 

 

76 

low price for endorsement, in addition to being for a sustainability initiative. This is consistent 

with ideas presented through EM, as it proves that we can develop sustainability initiatives that 

balance environment reform and economic neutrality.  

Environmental Impact  

 Considering H2Ottawa was pitched to university staff as a sustainability initiative, many 

interviewees addressed the topic of environmental impact. When asked if their own faculties had 

done anything for the specific goal of benefiting the environment, most responded that they did 

not.  Despite this, all respondents noted that UO was ‘getting better at sustainability’. When I 

asked how they believed this was being done, most respondents pointed to policies created by 

OCS that all faculties are required to oblige, such as having recycling bins in their buildings on 

campus. This mindset is consistent with the EM approach to environmental management as 

being ‘good at sustainability’ does not require a radical shift, but small changes at the fringes of 

policies define environmental progression.  

 Through the advent of H2Ottawa, I learned that staff and students are responsible for the 

bulk of sustainability initiatives that exist at UO.  According to Vice Dean of Governance and 

Internationalization of the Faculty of Social Sciences Nathan Young, “... (sustainability) 

becomes like an individual preference as opposed to an institutional mandate” (2017, 2). 

Jonathan Rausseo, Campus Sustainability Manager, updated the university’s Sustainability 

Policy in late 2017. When this comes into effect, all faculties will be required to design their own 

sustainability policies and direct more effort towards reaching the goal of being a more 

sustainable campus. This policy was created to force all faculties to think about sustainability. 

Students and staff being responsible for innovative sustainability initiatives is problematic as 

when champions have graduated, there is no incentive to continue to develop or maintain these 



 

 

77 

projects. With this policy in place, there is hope that UO as a whole will continue to get better at 

sustainability. 

 When asked to define sustainability, most respondents focused on the environmental 

tenet. According to Guillaume Cossette, Marketing Director for the Faculty of Arts,  

“(Sustainability) is the capacity to have our way of life in the longterm without impacting 

our environment, our community, the resources that we use for our needs- because we 

still need to consume things… sustainability is the capacity to sustain our way of life, 

develop our economy in a way that we will not run out of air, water, timber, resources, 

green spaces, dark skies at night if we want to go as far as that… it is the capacity to 

grow without impacting or having a negative impact on our resources” (2017, 2) 

 

This definition of sustainability fits in line with the definition that UO has drawn into their 

official mandates. Here, we can see that the university hires people who fit within the DNA of 

the institution. During the launch of H2Ottawa, the university is structured in a way that requires 

employees to manipulate their budgets to support sustainability initiatives or to create them on 

their own. Although there are employees mandated to keep the school up to date with 

sustainability initiatives, very few people hired for this purpose. It is important in our structure to 

have employees and students such as myself, dedicated to sustainability to push these initiatives 

to fruition. 

 We can see the importance of sustainability to UO community, as many student groups 

on campus are dedicated to creating and improving sustainability initiatives. Enactus is one such 

group, making their goal to create social enterprises that are in line with the TBL of 

sustainability. Marketing Director of the Telfer School of Business Christian Coulombe,  notes 

that  

There's a magazine called ‘Corporate Knights’ … they’re all about corporate social 

responsibility and sustainability… They do a top MBA programs that support corporate 

social responsibility initiatives and last year Telfer was in the top 40…whenever they review 

courses, they always want to make sure that they stay current with trends and what's going to 

be useful for graduates once they get their degree… I think that the ideas of CSR and 



 

 

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sustainability, it's been a long time that we've been talking about including that in the 

curriculum. I think it's based on market needs…Our students do projects like growing food in 

Iqaluit in those containers, or they have a project now that they've applied for- a competition 

to get money on recycling plastics- and so there are all sorts of projects, initiatives that they 

do, and it's all run by students… our role is… to support them (2017, 3-5) 

 

Christian argues that students want to learn more about sustainability and that Telfer will oblige 

by creating courses that meet this need. In addition to this, UO lends students financial resources 

and support to create innovative solutions to- in this example- food scarcity. In all, it can be 

argued that UO and its employees dedicate their time to improving sustainability on campus. 

 UO is a downtown campus and is designed in a way that makes it much easier to travel 

on foot or by non-motorized vehicle. By virtue of this location, UO receives high rankings in 

sustainability. According to Nathan Young,   

“…we have certain structural advantages here in that way. We’re an urban campus, we 

are located at the core of a pretty big city by Canadian standards, the campus is quite 

contained…It’s not sprawled out like a lot of them are. So, you know, that limits the 

amount of parking that there is on campus, it also improves the accessibility in terms of 

cycling and walking and transit- we’re on the main transit line. I think that that more 

than anything else has kind of been the ace in the hole when it comes to the University of 

Ottawa and how its performance gets reflected in these rankings is that we have this you 

know, kind of a structural advantage, some might see it as a disadvantage if you want to 

drive to campus… It’s almost impossible to get parking, it’s also almost impossible to 

get here or to leave just because of the way that the road system is structured, but it is 

quite accessible by bus” (2017, 3) 

 

In addition to these structural advantages, UO has made sustainability an institutional priority. 

The university has lent its resources to create a sustainability department where people are 

employed for the purpose of creating initiatives and staying up to date with various policies. 

 Jonathan Rausseo is responsible for implementing most sustainability initiatives on 

campus. He argues that, 

“we (UO) are really good at managing our resources, so like water, energy, 

transportation…we do pretty good at the community side of sustainability, working on 

social justice issues, trying to take into consideration socio-economic impacts of our 



 

 

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projects and so forth. On the curriculum-research side of things, we’re not as strong as 

other institutions are- but we’re still doing pretty well” (2017, 3)  

 

Here, it can be seen that UO directs the bulk of their efforts towards environmental 

sustainability. As he mentions, there is work being done towards social sustainability and in 

creating programs for students who want to learn more about it. At this time, UO is building a 

Social Entrepreneurship program for students which will be one of the first in the country. In 

addition to this, UO has resources such as Pet Therapy and free yoga for students when they need 

mental health support. Through what I learned in my internship as well as from interviewees, UO 

is committed to innovative sustainability initiatives and is willing to lend resources to meet the 

goal of becoming a more sustainable campus. 

 H2Ottawa promises to help UO reduce waste and inspire change in students’ habits. In 

purchasing this bottle, students have a canister to hold local water and learn to use reusable 

containers. This is fitting with the EM worldview, as the H2Ottawa bottle presents the 

community with the same luxuries as single-use bottles of water, but retrofits the latter to be 

consistent with environmental expectations. The implementation of this project and the support it 

received from staff shows the UO’s collective commitment to innovative sustainability solutions 

to modern, downtown life.  When it comes to implementing sustainability initiatives, I would 

argue that UO has the right people in the right places to meet their goal of becoming a greener, 

socially aware, and economically stable campus. Importantly, these people are producing policy 

that will enforce those who may replace them to maintain their efforts. 

The Corporate University  

 Many respondents spoke to the idea of UO as a corporate university. The Marketing 

Director for the Faculty of Law Sylvie Corbin, argued that UO has committed itself to 

sustainability because it is “…on trend. It’s attractive to donors, the general public, to know that 



 

 

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this university is going that route” (2017, 3). According to Sylvie the university wants to be 

innovative and creative for the purpose of attracting more money. Although this motivation is 

reprehensible, the products that come out of it help to build a better future.  

 During my time at UO, I have noticed buildings and spaces increasingly being named for 

large companies. Sonia Vani, Marketing Director for the Faculty of Social Sciences, noted on 

this when talking about the Living Wall on the first floor of the faculty’s main building. The 

Living Wall is significant at UO, as it is “a nice Instagramable space that people love…earned 

media on that space is just incalculable...If I were to try to look at that from a strictly money side 

of things, it wouldn't necessarily look like it was a winner” (Jonathan Rausseo, 2017, 7). 

According to Jonathan, the Living Wall makes students feel good about going to UO which 

made its construction worthwhile. Sonia was involved in discussions regarding naming the 

Living Wall, where she 

“…contacted (an Indigenous family that UO works with) …asked her to tell me about 

her grandfather, and told her, ‘do you think the Commanda family would be open to if 

we were able to lead an initiative to call this the All Nations Wall?’…whether you're an 

Indigenous person or not, a First Nations person or not, no matter what creed, no matter 

what religion, that this is a wall that welcomes people. So, for me, sustainability had this 

dimension that was also ‘all accepting’. I was told that it would probably get some 

resistance because we could probably get quite a lot of money given from an individual 

if it bore the name of an individual” (2017, 7).  

 

Here, UO lends more attention to the economic benefit of naming the Living Wall for a 

corporation rather than maintaining this space where students can feel accepted. The 

prioritization of economic benefit over social good here contends to the argument that UO is a 

corporate university. 

 In some ways, UO needs to act as a corporate university in order to function. UO is home 

to over 40 000 students making a corporate structure necessary for efficiency. Manager of 

Strategic Initiatives for Student Life, Marcelle Kimberly, spoke to the way UO services are run:  



 

 

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“…we run our own services, like a business. So, we generate revenue and we receive- 

there are only two of our services that receive money from central. It’s a considerable 

amount, but we still generate most of our funds. So, for example, in Residence, you 

know we charge for Residence Fees, to live in Res. Same with meal plans for food, that 

kind of stuff. We generate our own revenue. However, unlike businesses, we reinvest all 

of our money into the student experience…They’re all kinds of things, all part of the 

initiatives that we put forth for students. That’s what we mean by ‘reinvest’. We don't sit 

on the profit, we reinvest it in everything that we do and everything that we put together 

is with the student experience at mind” (2017, 5) 

 

According to Marcelle, structuring the services that UO offers students as businesses is important 

for their maintenance. This also UO agency to choose what they want to sell to their community 

and gives them funding to support student initiatives. In all, UO is a corporately run campus for 

the purpose of efficiently offering a large student body services to make their time on campus 

more enjoyable. 

Reputation 

 As mentioned, H2Ottawa was created through work with Marketing Directors at UO. 

Considering this, reputation of the institution became an important topic in interviews. For Waste 

Diversion Coordinator Brigitte Morin, not only does diverting waste save the institution money, 

but “waste diversion strategies augment the university's reputation” (2017, 5). In working with 

the Defy the Conventional Campaign team, H2Ottawa was used for purposes of gaining 

donations. Nathan Young notes,  

“if they're doing it with Defy the Conventional then they're using it for marketing, 

clearly. But also for fundraising and that’s quite interesting. They see this as being 

something that they can put out there to potential donors that are at the cutting edge, 

they're the movers and shakers, they're defy the ways that things are done. It’s a huge 

complement that’s for sure, because this is no small deal” (2017, 8) 

 

H2Ottawa was used by UO as a representation of what their students are accomplishing as well 

as advertising how the school funds student initiatives. The fact that UO is the first university to 

establish a program such as H2Ottawa, is important to its reputation as a leader in sustainability.  



 

 

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The marketing scheme used has been successful, as the product has been pitched and sold to 

other companies such as Desjardins. 

 The Defy the Conventional Campaign is used by UO to promote interesting projects that 

are created on campus. According to Communications and Special Projects Officer for Facilities 

Alex Latus,  

“The university- or even potentially a professor- (uses DTC to market projects that are) 

interesting… as you know, the university’s campaign, Defy the Conventional, they 

appreciate having a sort of ‘home grown’ story with either a student or a professor that 

does something groundbreaking, or generally, defies the conventional. They have gone 

against the convention and come up with something truly interesting, and they have come 

up with a new discovery, or a different way of doing things” (2017, 5)  

 

For Alex, the H2Ottawa project was a good fit for the Defy the Conventional campaign. He 

argues that the bottle provides a tangible example of ideas presented through EM, that there are 

different ways of living comfortably while also maintaining our physical environment. He argues 

that H2Ottawa is good for UO’s brand because it shows student ingenuity and how the university 

structured and funded it, so it may come to fruition. Future students will be attracted to this kind 

of a story because it shows them that UO is willing to stand behind their students, be that 

financially or otherwise. 

 The H2Ottawa initiative further embodies UO’s commitment to sustainability, and 

becomes an institutional artefact that incorporates itself into the university’s image. Through 

strategic initiatives such as this, UO becomes viewed as a sustainable university. For Christian 

Coulombe,  

Our whole branding is about connecting you to what matters, and so, the ‘what matters' is 

always dependent on the person… in terms of what matters to the school, we’ve got our areas 

of excellence which are our entrepreneurship and innovation, health systems, management, 

and business analytics, but sustainability and corporate social responsibility is part of the 

fabric of the vision as well- or the mission of the school- because we want to graduate alumni 

who are going to influence, or have a good impact, on their career, on their organizations and 



 

 

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on their communities. Being sustainable is definitely in line with having a positive impact on 

your communities, so it’s well connected to the school’s vision (2017, 4) 

 

Here, it is argued that UO incorporates sustainability into their branding strategies. In order to 

show their commitments to the larger community, the university funds and markets student 

projects such as H2Ottawa. In allocating funds to make H2Ottawa happen, the university makes 

the project representative of UO and its commitments as a whole. 

Ethical Consumption and Social Good 

 H2Ottawa has been marketed as a beacon of social good, as the community is given 

access to portable water while maintaining institutional commitments to sustainability. 

According to Nathan Young, this project is a “feel good piece…it does play directly into the 

reputation of the University, I think it’s part of the image they want to project and I think it has 

indirect effects on how the University is perceived” (2017, 6). UO supported this initiative to 

show the broader community who they are as an institution. Here, the university develops their 

brand as leaders in social innovation. This is important because it positions UO as a supporter of 

sustainability and reifies the university’s commitments to water as a human right. 

 The H2Ottawa bottle helps UO to get their brand out to the community. Banning the sale 

of bottled water was an important step towards having a more sustainable campus, but it took the 

access point to water away from the community. Nathan Young asserts that this created  

“…a real need. I think that allowing people to have access to this stuff when they are in 

class or whatever, when they're not near a water fountain is great… this makes a 

contribution at the more normative level, you know, normative changes happen slowly, 

but they happen through these incremental steps where it becomes normal to carry a 

bottle and it becomes abnormal to consume something in its more traditional form, right? 

…that’s an important transition that is underway, has been underway for a while, but is 

going to help, right? So, it also ties it into school spirit, gives it something that’s 

recognizable so that when people see it with others, they're going to be curious about it 

and hopefully go out to try to get one on their own. I think that norms around 

overconsumption have been challenged for a while, but in terms of getting that into the 

mainstream, this is how you do it. So, yeah, at the risk of sounding avuncular, I think 



 

 

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that this is a great project and I’m very proud of you for having conceptualized it and 

seen it through a very difficult process, a very complex process” (2017, 8) 

 

 H2Ottawa becomes not only a bottle, but something with UO’s logo that students can walk 

around with and be used to represent the school. Additionally, students can talk to friends and 

family about the project and note how UO does things that are socially beneficial. 

 Finally, the bottle encourages UO’s community to use locally sourced Ottawa tap water. 

In selling bottles empty, UO makes the statement that water is a human right. As noted in the 

Literature Review section, compartmentalizing water infers that those selling it own that 

resource. Considering this, H2Ottawa bottles are sold empty; we do not go into small 

communities and take their water for the purpose of reselling it at a higher price. This is 

consistent with ideas presented through green-Marxism, that the physical environment should be 

treated as a common resource for all of society to share. Additionally, this argument created a 

platform to inform students of the high quality Ottawa public drinking water. Many students who 

study at UO are from other countries where drinking water might be subpar or even harmful. 

When moving to Ottawa, these behaviours and ideas are likely to follow. Here, H2Ottawa helps 

to inform the community that our water is of better quality than most bottled water, which may 

assist in changing their behaviours about bottled water. This is a social good as it instils 

confidence in Ottawa’s governance and may encourage people not to buy bottled water finish. 

 This section has been much smaller than the previous because most respondents viewed 

H2Ottawa as an environmental project rather than one pointed to social good. In our first 

interview together, Jonathan Rausseo notes that this is similar to what happened during the ban 

of bottled water on UO campus:  

“…the biggest misconception about the (ban the bottle) campaign is that people think it’s an 

environmental initiative…and it’s not? They think that if people come in and say… “we’re 

getting rid of plastic bottles” and people freak out and say like “well, you’re still selling all of 



 

 

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these other things in plastic bottles uh, so you know, by that token, you should be selling 

bottled water”. And so, it’s the you know, where I tell people “no no, we don’t do this 

because uh, we are trying to get rid of bottles…So a lot of people think like, we’re going to 

reduce the amount of plastic bottles, and we have seen,an immense reduction in plastic 

bottles on campus, but that’s not the reason why we did the program” (2015, 8) 

 

Here, Jonathan notes that UO did not ban bottled water for reasons of environmental reform or 

maintenance. What is interesting, is that students got behind the campaign because they believed 

that it was to maintain the physical environment. Similar to the H2Ottawa campaign, I have 

found that most of my respondents chose to support it because they saw it as an environmentally 

beneficial project rather than one to increase access to bottled water for students. This fits into 

the EM framework because they see environmentalism as something that can be bought or 

‘retrofitted’. 

 The respondent working for the Telfer School of Business pointed to the social tenet of 

sustainability significantly more often than others. Christian noted that Telfer students are being 

increasingly taught of Corporate Social Responsibility as part of the ethical component of their 

courses. For Christian,  

“… sustainability is one of the areas, where it matters for the school to be involved… we 

have an endowed professor in sustainability, we have courses that make sure that it's part 

of the curriculum for students at the graduate and undergraduate level, there’s research 

done by our professors that touch on sustainability… it's always a theme in terms of 

management of things that we are trying to do… the larger theme of corporate social 

responsibility and sustainability…I don't think you can, I mean, forcing people, you 

know, ‘you must adopt sustainability initiatives’, I guess it’s one way to do things, but 

where it can have a bit more impact is where it comes from the person themselves” 

(Coloumbe, 2017, 2-5) 

 

Christian gives a good account of social sustainability here, noting that it has to ‘come from the 

person themselves’ and relating that to ideas of social responsibility. It is significant that the 

representative of UO’s business school had the most to say on this topic, as it ends to ideas of the 

corporate university and inspiring ethical consumption through marketing. 



 

 

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 In all, most respondents saw the H2Ottawa initiative as one of environmental reform and 

maintenance rather than a project for social benefit. Similar to the ban of bottled water, 

environmental maintenance was part of the inspiration behind the project, but access to potable 

water was the driving force. Through marketing the project, universal themes of political 

responsibility for the Canadian government and human rights to water, as well as environmental 

benefit, were exaggerated.  

Employee and Student Dedication  

 The final theme found through coding the interviews was employee and student 

dedication. Many respondents commended me on the success of this project, and putting time 

and effort into its execution. For my internship supervisor Jonathan Rausseo,  

“…genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration… ideas are cheap. Very cheap. I have 

come up with hundreds of ideas that can save the university millions of dollars. You know? 

We can sit here right now and just like ‘you know if you went to the Free Store you could 

probably save yourself tens of thousands of dollars’ and it’s like ‘whoa I just saved tens of 

thousands of dollars!’ It’s cheap! It’s just an idea, or a thought. But perspiration, doing the 

project, that’s the hard part- otherwise we’d all be billionaires with our ideas if they were 

actually worth anything. Going in, putting in the work, the sweat equity on things, that’s 

what’s important. So, kudos to you for actually having put in the sweat and the time to 

making this happen” (Rausseo, 2017, 18) 

 

Jonathan noted that many students will email him with great sustainability-related ideas for the 

campus, but the majority do not follow through on executing them, even when given the chance.  

Here, sustainability at UO becomes a student or employee passion project, rather than something 

that we are sanctioned to implement.  

 The respondents who worked with me the most closely through the execution of 

H2Ottawa, were those with the most experience in sustainability. By this I mean that these 

interviewees either committed themselves to learning of sustainability in the classroom, 

implementing initiatives that they believed in, or both. This is noteworthy because these UO 



 

 

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employees were not required to help me through their contracts, but did so because they wanted 

to. For the remainder of this section, I will outline the background of these respondents and how 

they helped me in the implementation and conceptualization of H2Ottawa.  

 At the Faculty of Social Sciences where I am a student, Sonia Vani was heavily involved 

in conceptualizing a marketing strategy for H2Ottawa. Sonia came to UO from working with the 

Council of Canadians, which is a non-profit environmental activist group that specifically 

advocates for water as a human right. In addition to this, Sonia worked with the Student 

Federation of the University of Ottawa. Here, she worked closely with their Sustainability 

Coordinator to help promote sustainability projects. Sonia noted that when she was in this 

position, she felt fulfilled as “sustainability (was) part of (her) work even if it is not written into 

(her) job description” (Vani, 2017, 5). Considering Sonia’s background, I approached her to help 

with H2Ottawa and she willingly obliged.  

 For Sonia, sustainability is important and something that she wants to pursue even though 

it is outside of her formal job description. In her interview, Sonia noted, 

A lot of what I try to do is, if I propose something, sometimes I try to sit on it for a while 

until I find the right time or the right way to propose it. I sort of did that a little with this 

project, I didn't tell my managers about this project for many months until you, I, and Jon, 

had met several times…I wanted to make sure that by the time I mentioned it, I was so 

convinced of this and had such a clear vision of where it was going that my influence would 

be like a bulldozer. It would be like, ‘ok, we of course we have to go through with this’. I 

find that I have to be that way with sustainability because …it’s actually very few people at 

the faculty, aside for some select few professors and select administrative personal that I 

know, personally take the environment at heart. I find that there’s still a culture of feeling 

like sustainability is something extra. Totally opposite from where I’m coming from… 

(Projects like this) is how change happens, it doesn't have to be that everybody is convinced 

all at the same time, everybody swallows the same coloured pill… I hope the project works, 

but I’m not going to measure its success by he number of bottles that are sold. I’m not 

concerned by that. I’m already measuring its success because of a student being able to talk 

about this idea and convincing a bunch of people who knew nothing about it before to put 

their time and money into it. That’s, for me, the real measure of success behind this (Vani, 

2017, 5-14)  

 



 

 

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Here, Sonia argues that most employees at UO do not care to add volunteering their time to help 

students with sustainability initiatives to their already busy schedules. As the Director of 

Marketing, Sonia has many responsibilities, but does not see helping with sustainability 

initiatives as ‘extra’. Considering this, her help with H2Ottawa is exemplary of her commitment 

to sustainability. Without Sonia, the Faculty of Social Sciences may not have been as convinced 

that they should support H2Ottawa. At UO, employees with a passion and commitment to 

sustainability are important, as it is through them that projects like mine come to fruition. 

 My thesis supervisor Nathan Young, was an advocate for the execution of H2Ottawa, and 

used his academic expertise to guide the conceptualization of the project. In building this project 

with Professor Young, I was inspired to go forward with the project despite the fact that it could 

have been risky to turn into a thesis. Nathan notes that at UO, “… (sustainability) becomes like 

an individual preference as opposed to an institutional mandate” making it important for driven 

students to embark on initiatives (Young, 2017, 2). Considering the confines of our system, 

supporting a project such as this was integral to its fruition as I would not have had the time to 

work on it and my thesis cohesively. In addition to this, using academic outlets to address 

tangible projects is important for the innovation of social theory. I hope that the work done here 

can be reused by other students to understand how to implement sustainability initiatives within 

Canadian universities, and not be discouraged to adapt it to their academic programs. Professor 

Young taught me that social theory is integral to the conception of lasting ideas, which inspired 

the conceptualization of this project. 

 At the Office of Campus Sustainability, I was intensely inspired by Jonathan Rausseo. I 

found Jonathan so convinced that implementing sustainability initiatives was for the betterment 

of the campus, it was infectious. In our many discussions, Jonathan assured me that the 



 

 

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H2Ottawa initiative just made good sense. He went back and forth between his superiors and 

myself to generate approval, ensuring that this project came to life. In Jonathan’s personal life, 

he notes: 

... I’ve worked with a bunch of different groups. I sit on a couple of boards and so forth, so 

I’ve worked with some city groups and I’ve worked with some provincial groups. Mostly 

related to… quasi governmental items… the university fits under the provincial context… I 

work on standards for rebuilding and advocacy, I work with a group of sustainability 

professionals from other universities… I’m one of the chairs… we work on trying to promote 

the professional aspects of being a sustainability practitioner (Rausseo, 2017, 2) 

 

As can be seen through this excerpt, Jonathan works on building his understanding of 

sustainability outside of what is required by his contract with UO. He had also worked with me 

after and before hours, to teach me now to make H2Ottawa a success. When I was going to 

Deans for funding, he taught me how university procurement works, and forwarded me to the 

right departments. If it were not for Jonathan’s undying support, I am convinced that this project 

would have taken much longer to implement, if not, had failed. 

 To conclude, students are vulnerable when implementing initiatives in the university 

setting, as they are dependent on the support of either other students or faculties. The problem 

with mustering support from other students is that it takes time to build traction for a cause, and 

find the right media avenues to attract attention. At UO, other than student newspapers, I found 

no way for students to mass-contact their peers. In addition to this, there was no university-wide 

sustainability policy at the time of this project. Considering this, there was not much knowledge 

or urgency around building H2Ottawa. At UO, the support of instrumental employees, for myself 

and this project, was integral to its fruition. 

 

 



 

 

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Ecological Modernization Theory  

 The data analysis has alluded to how the UO embodies ideas presented by EM in the 

conceptualization and implementation of sustainability initiatives. This section will illuminate 

how ideas of EM inspired H2Ottawa. Here, we may argue that UO’s understanding of 

sustainability and environmental management is consistent with an EM approach to 

environmental problem solving.  

 As mentioned, this story started with the ban of bottled water. When I learned of this ban, 

I found it silly that UO did not provide its community with a replacement product that filled the 

same purpose. Of course, the motivations for this project were anthropocentric before they were 

environmentalist, which is consistent with the EM framework. When conceptualizing this 

project, I found the reasons for why UO banned bottled water, and made sure that these 

expectations were maintained. This kind of thinking is consistent with EM. The idea behind 

H2Ottawa, is not radical; I did not change how we access water in a revolutionary way, but I used 

what I already knew about UO society to provide a different option for thirsty students. Here, the 

H2Ottawa bottle presents itself as a sustainable retrofit of single-use bottled water, or a 

modernized way of carrying water around. The logic here is simple: give students exactly what 

they get from bottled water, for the same price, in the same locations, but sell bottles empty and 

made from a recyclable material, to be consistent with expectations of sustainability.  

 I would argue that this project was successful because it was not radical. The H2Ottawa 

initiative was easy for UO to implement because there was social, economic, and environmental 

space for it. Similar to most other respondents, Sylvie Corbin, Director of External Relations at 

the Faculty of Law, states: “I think it’s a great initiative… I don't see any negatives coming out 

of this, period” (2017, 8). It was attractive for employees involved in the endorsement of this 



 

 

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project that it seemed like a win-win. If this project presented some reputation or economic 

challenges, it is very likely that it would not have been so widely accepted. 

 In addition to the reputation benefits presented through H2Ottawa, employees were 

attracted to the fact that the project itself was easy to implement. For Jonathan Rausseo,  

“A project like this ends up being low risk. So, if we don’t end up hitting our payback numbers, 

we’re talking in the hundreds of dollars, so that’s fine we didn't lose millions or anything. Most 

people would be happy because it’s one of those like ‘at least you tried’ sort of thing… I think 

that this project, it’s just a really good idea ” (2017, 15) 

 

Here, UO employees did not have to worry about making a poor decision in accepting this 

initiative. Instead, staff were able to use their own agency and discretion to accept or deny the 

project. The H2Ottawa initiative shows how employees are integral to the presentation of 

sustainability for the institution. This aligns with the EM worldview, as civil society is advancing 

how we understand sustainability within UO. In turn, these actors guide the embodiment of 

sustainability for the university. 

 It should be mentioned that it is not common for universities to allow students to go about 

implementing these kinds of sustainability initiatives. This is because they require a range of 

resources, from financial to assigning employees for making them successful. The fact that UO 

allowed me to go ahead with this project shows the way it commits to sustainability. This is 

reflective of the EM worldview, as it shows that spending resources on sustainability initiatives 

will be repaid in other ways, such as social payback and student experience. Here, the resources 

used allows UO to be perceived as ahead of other universities which augments their reputation. 

In all, UO attempts to foresee what their community wants and fulfil that need.  

 UO proves its commitment to sustainability through the advent of many projects, 

H2Ottawa is just one example. I would argue that all sustainability initiatives at UO are 

conceptualized through an EM ideology. For instance, the ENACTUS group that operates 



 

 

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through the Telfer School of Management, has transformed old portables into greenhouses. 

These have been shipped to northern Canada for the production of fresh vegetation year round. 

Similar to the H2Ottawa project, this solution is not revolutionary, but provides an innovative 

solution to food scarcity in these parts. Through my work at OCS, I have learned that this project 

has gained much popularity and turned into a successful business.  

 In Canada, we maintain a rationale that we can purchase what we need wherever we go. 

H2Ottawa does not suggest that we change this behaviour in its entirety, but that we offer 

modernized solutions to this issue. Here, I argue that the purchase of a multi-use bottle rather 

than a single-use one is better for the environment. Nathan Young’s position on the project is as 

follows: 

Oh, I don't have concerns. No, I think it’s a great project. As much as it sounds 

avuncular for me to say, I’m really proud of this work that you’ve done, I think it’s 

really great. I mean, there are direct benefits, clearly, and then there are indirect benefits. 

I mean, I think that the problem you identified at the get go…where if you want to 

consume water on campus and you don't happen to have a bottle, you don't have much of 

a health choice. You go out and buy  like, a juice, or a coke, which is different from what 

you would find on other campuses that hadn't taken the steps in terms of banning the 

bottled water. So, I mean, there’s a real need there. I think that allowing people to have 

access to this stuff when they are in class or whatever, when they're not near a water 

fountain, I think, is great… this makes a contribution at the more normative level, you 

know, normative changes happen slowly, but they happen through these incremental 

steps where it becomes normal to carry a bottle and it becomes abnormal to consume 

something in its more traditional form, right? …that’s an important transition that is 

underway, has been underway for a while, but is going to help, right? So, it also ties it 

into school spirit, gives it something that’s recognizable so that when people see it with 

others, they're going to be curious about it and hopefully go out to try to get one on their 

own. I think that norms around overconsumption have been challenged for a while, but 

in terms of getting that into the mainstream, this is how you do it. So, yeah, at the risk of 

sounding avuncular, I think that this is a great project and I’m very proud of you for 

having conceptualized it and seen it through a very difficult process, a very complex 

process. (2017, 8) 

 

According to Professor Young, the H2Ottawa project will inspire people to change their 

behaviours on a micro-level. This idea aligns with the EM framework as it presents small 



 

 

93 

changes on the fringes of UO’s policies, that contribute to sustainability, but in marginal ways. 

Here, there are efforts being made towards making UO a more sustainable campus, but not in 

radical ways. 

 Finally, the H2Ottawa project is representative of the EM ethos as it demonizes waste. 

EM scholars argue that pollution and wasted resources are signs of inefficiency and should be 

rejected when possible. The H2Ottawa bottle is metal, which studies show is less likely to be 

thrown in the trash (Kauffman et al., 2000;  Miller et al., 2012). The rates of recycling aluminum 

is also a lot higher than plastics (Kauffman et al., 2000). In addition to this, the H2Ottawa bottle 

is presented to UO community as a replacement to single-use bottled water
44

. This production of 

aluminum products is less harmful to the environment than PET, and there is less of a carbon 

footprint in bringing these bottles to campus because you do not have to ship as many as often.  

Green-Marxism 

 Green-Marxists would criticize the H2Ottawa project, as it inspires more over- 

consumption and production. This section will provide an overview of how the H2Ottawa 

initiative can be framed as regressive. I will start with the argument that Green-Marxists would 

frame the ban of bottled water as a step in the right direction towards a more sustainable world. 

Next, features of Green-Marxism from the theory chapter of this thesis will be aligned with the 

attributes of the H2Ottawa project to present a critique of my initiative. 

 Green-Marxists would argue that the ban on bottled water was a step in the right 

direction. This is because UO stopped purchasing this product altogether, forcing their 

community to change their behaviours and expectations towards portable water. If community 

members did not bring their own receptacle, the consequence was not having portable water, or 

                                                 
44

 See appendix 3. 



 

 

94 

having to buy a bottle for upwards of $15 at the bookstore. Here, UO has put a stop to the 

treadmill of production; not using the same logic to get out of our environmental problems as 

they did to get into them. In all, rather than inspiring over-consumption, UO abolished access to 

what they agreed was an unnecessary resource. 

 The ban of bottled water can also be understood as a step towards a more socialist 

society. In banning this product, UO took the responsibility of providing their community with 

potable water. Contrasting this, the capitalist worldview would inspire more production of 

bottled water. Here, there would be a stronger focus on the bottom line of sales from bottled 

water, rather than putting forth the university’s own resources to adjust water systems on campus 

so that all can access water free of charge. For green-Marxists, environmental resources must be 

shared equally and collectively. UO’s commitment to providing this resource to their community 

and all visitors embodies this idea of accessibility, regardless of one’s purchasing ability. The 

ban of bottled water is a powerful move towards a more inclusive society. 

 Green-Marxists argue for a rejection of the capitalist system. In its place, they argue that 

we must adopt a socialist system to radically change the thinking behind environmental 

protections. For green-Marxists, socialism would enable us to better protect the physical 

environment as it requires that we share resources rather than privatize and resell them. The 

H2Ottawa project’s relationship with this is twofold. First, the bottles are sold empty, which 

encourages students to use publicly sourced water. This is consistent with the idea of sharing 

environmentally sourced resources, as it assigns responsibility to UO to maintain water systems. 

In contrast to this, the project sells a product that uses our shared resources for personal use. For 

green-Marxists, this may be seen as is an unnecessary use of resources. With this project, we 

give people another choice to consume, which may relegate these previously formed good 



 

 

95 

behaviours. In all, green-Marxists argue that environmental resources must be shared equally and 

collectively. 

 Unlike ideas presented by EM, green-Marxists argue that small changes on the fringes of 

current policies will not protect our physical environment. As mentioned, environmental 

technologies can become dangerous as consumers believe they are acting responsibly through 

over consuming products that are marketed as sustainable. These products lose their meaning 

when used in this way, while consumers maintain the feeling that they are acting in the 

environment’s favour. This can be problematic when addressing the H2Ottawa project. Here, 

consumers may start to forget their bottles at home more often because they know that there is an 

alternative. Consumers may also purchase more than one of these bottles, producing new 

behaviours about consumptive habits that was previously not encouraged. The H2Ottawa project 

may also be criticized by green-Marxists because it produces more waste. If students no longer 

want the bottles, or favour a different bottle, they are recycled. Although aluminum is infinitely 

recyclable, meaning it is an easier and more durable material to meltdown and reproduce than 

plastic, there is still waste produced and energy used to recycle it. This perpetuates the 

behaviours behind the throw-away culture that we live in. Green-Marxists would problematize 

the inspiration for behaviours, stating that we are perpetuating the problem rather than working 

towards a solution. 

 Overall, green-Marxists would criticize the H2Ottawa project because it is not radical and 

provides a new product for consumption. Despite this, the bottle does encourage the UO 

community to share public water resources. The biggest problematic for me, is that people may 

treat these bottles as single-use which is not their purpose, and would produce a lot of waste. 

Additionally, the possible unraveling of behaviours produced through the banning of bottled may 



 

 

96 

become an issue. For next steps, I hope to track the frequency by which students recycle, or 

waste, these bottles.  

 

 

Chapter 6: Conclusion  

 

 This thesis has followed the rise of the H2Ottawa sustainability initiative at UO. 

Throughout this research, I have answered the following question: how does the UO comply 

with its commitments to sustainability, while also satisfying the expectations of its community, 

through the implementation of H2Ottawa? Here, I found that employees entrusted to approve or 

deny sustainability initiatives, had the goals and aspirations of the university at the forefront. As 

an institution, UO focused on the student experience which included maintaining the TBL of 

sustainability. To implement sustainability initiatives, the university had to: act ethically to draw 

in socially-minded students, and support innovative strategies to fulfill their needs; act in a way 

that is consistent with environmental reform; and maintain or enhance their economic status.  

 Through the Literature Review section, I have outlined the relevant basis within which 

this initiative was built. In this chapter, I reviewed arguments surrounding water and water rights 

in Canada, arguments surrounding sustainability, and Canadian universities. This provided the 

reader with an academic basis regarding what inspired H2Ottawa, and what I learned before it 

was conceptualized.  

 In the Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks chapters, I addressed the placement of 

UO and the H2Ottawa project within academic theory. Here, UO was positioned as an institution 

that uses an EM-lens on sustainability to augment their reputation. UO understands their students 



 

 

97 

as Ethical Consumers, which is instrumental in teaching them what it means to be Canadian 

citizens. Finally, I outlined the green-Marxist critique on EM which outlines the flaws of viewing 

sustainability through the EM lens. Although UO uses a corporate view of sustainability, the 

university does value sustainability and has made it a official part of their commitments to their 

community and government. 

 The final chapter of this thesis speaks of the Discussions and Findings. Here, I found that 

most UO staff see sustainability through the lens that UO has bestowed upon them through its 

official commitments to the community. The main finding here, is that UO staff and students are 

integral in the implementation of sustainability initiatives on campus. If students are not 

supported by staff, projects may be underfunded and take a long time to come to fruition. At UO, 

there are committed employees and students that create innovative sustainability initiatives, as 

has been seen through the rise of H2Ottawa. Without these passionate actors, sustainability 

projects within the UO structure would be unlikely to come to fruition.  

 I hope that this thesis encourages the UO community to develop further discussions 

surrounding sustainability; this is the way that, as academics, we will be able to build on its 

definition. I also anticipate that this project may inspire some practical and multidisciplinary 

sustainability initiatives, to build upon tangible approaches to sustainability. As a follow up to 

this thesis, I plan to write a small brochure that teaches students what they need to do to have 

their ideas heard. In implementing H2Ottawa, I learned that these initiatives are time consuming, 

and one must be strategic in their conceptualization, but the feeling of satisfaction at the end- that 

you have done something for the greater good- is worth the stress and discomfort. I sit here, 

finishing this thesis, looking back at my journey, and know that it must be shared with others 



 

 

98 

who like me, thought something like this would be impossible. Find the right contacts, find a 

proper positioning to convince people that what you do is important, and nothing can stop you.   

  



 

 

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19_uottawa_international_admissions_brochure_en.pdf. Date Accessed: May 31, 2018.  
 
Varadarajan, R. (2017). Innovating for sustainability: a framework for sustainable innovations 

and a model of sustainable innovations orientation. Journal of the Academic Marketing 

Sciences. CrossMark. 

 

WCED (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our 

Common Future. Web: http://www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf 
 
Whan, Eric et al. (2017). RBC Canadian Water Attitudes Study. RBC Blue Water Project. 

 

Winter et al., (2012). Experiencing transformation in Sustainability: a student perspective. UK, 

Research Gate. 

 

Young, Nathan. (2014a) Chapter 4 – The Great Debate: Social Constructionism vs. 

Environmental Realism. 

 

Young, Nathan (2014). Chapter 7: Making Capitalism Work? Sustainability, Neoliberalism, and 

Ecological Modernization Theory. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.uottawa.ca/undergraduate-admissions/sites/www.uottawa.ca.undergraduate-admissions/files/2018-19_uottawa_international_admissions_brochure_en.pdf
https://www.uottawa.ca/undergraduate-admissions/sites/www.uottawa.ca.undergraduate-admissions/files/2018-19_uottawa_international_admissions_brochure_en.pdf
https://www.uottawa.ca/undergraduate-admissions/sites/www.uottawa.ca.undergraduate-admissions/files/2018-19_uottawa_international_admissions_brochure_en.pdf
http://www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf


 

 

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Appendix 1: 

 

This is the paper wrap that is taped around each bottle.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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Appendix 2: 

 

This document was produced by myself and Jonathan Rausseo for the purpose of presenting 

H2Ottawa to funding managers at the UO. 

Reusable Bottles for Vending Machines 
 
CONTEXT 
The University of Ottawa has been a bottled water free campus since 2010. This has brought 
uOttawa a lot of praise as a leader in water accessibility and environmental sustainability. 
 
ISSUE 
Although the campus is bottled water free, there is still demand from the community for 
beverage containers.  
 
SOLUTION 
Offer inexpensive, high quality, reusable bottles in vending machines as a substitute for 
disposable bottles. 
 

SOCIAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL 

Demonstrates Facilities 
commitment to sustainability. 

Revenue neutral for capital costs 
(conditional) 

Reduced plastic waste generated on 
campus. 

Building positive habits for 
environmental change. 

Reduced waste removal costs. Reduced transportation of goods. 

First University in North America to 
embark on such a program. 

Potential advertising opportunity. Increase use of water fountains on 
campus. 

 
 
 
 
RATIONALE 
Placing reusable bottles in vending machines is a novel idea in North America.  
Offering reusable bottles at the same price as bottled water would remove the barrier cost to 
purchasing a reusable bottle. Similarly, by offering them in vending machines, they will be as 
accessible as any other alternative. The idea has already been accepted by Food Services who 
are willing to let us put the bottles in their vending machines. 
 
OPTIONS 
Plain bottle 

ITEM UNIT COST QUANTITY TOTAL COST 



 

 

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Reusable bottle $1.54 USD 4,500 $6,950 USD 

Caps N/A 4,500 $202.50 USD 

Delivery $834 USD N/A $834.00 USD 

TOTAL   $7986.50 USD 

 
 
 
 
BOTTLE WITH LABELS 

ITEM UNIT COST QUANTITY TOTAL COST 

Stickers $0.12 USD 4,500 $540 USD 

Transport (to labeler) $485 USD N/A $485 USD 

Transport (to uO) $625 USD N/A $625 USD 

TOTAL   $1650 USD 

 
 
 
 
COST MODEL 

 ITEM COST TOTAL COST 

COSTS Place in vending machines $2,250 CDN  

 Bottles + caps + delivery $10,685.54 CDN $12,935.54 CDN 

 Bottles + cap + delivery + stickers $11,777.30 CDN $14,027.50 CDN 

    

 ITEM REVENUE TOTAL 

REVENUE Sales in vending machines $3 per bottle $13,500 CDN 

 Sponsorship (labels) $2,500 CDN $2,500 CDN 

 
 
 



 

 

109 

 

 

AVOIDED COSTS 

 Recycling and waste hauling – reduces costs related to the manipulation and  

 hauling of recyclables, as well as reduces contamination costs related to plastic bottles. 

 Earned media - substitutes for marketing and advertising costs related to creating pro-
environmental behaviours and attitudes. 

 
ADDITIONAL DETAILS / OPTIONS 

 Donate additional funds to charity - 
Any additional savings from the program could be donated to a water related  charity. 
Several have been researched that would be a good fit for this program. 

 Unsold bottles -  
Any product that is not sold in vending machines could be used as promotional products or 
gifts from Facilities. Bottles could be given away as prizes during events, given to volunteers, 
or supplied to new employees or either Facilities or the University as a way to demonstrate 
commitment to Sustainability. 

 Branding -  
The option exists to use the bottles as a branding opportunity and bring on a    partner to 
cover some of the costs of the program. There would be additional logistics with this option 
but it would offset some costs.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

110 

Appendix 3: 

 

This is the infographic that was created for the launch of H2Ottawa on March 22, 2018. Here, we 

specifically compare the H2Ottawa bottle with a single-use bottle. The purpose of this is to show 

the UO community that this product is meant to directly replace single-use bottles of water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

111 

Appendix 4: 

This is how the bottles were going to look before we brought in the Defy the Conventional 

graphic designers, versus how they ended up looking. There is clearly more attention to aesthetic 

detail in the second image. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

112 

 

 

Appendix 5: 

 

On World Water Day, UO featured my story on the front page of their website. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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Appendix 6: 

 

This is the article that CBC wrote on the H2Ottawa campaign. 

 

Metal water bottles for sale in U of O vending machines 

Bottles cost $3 each 

CBC News · Posted: Mar 25, 2018 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: March 25 

 

Celeste Digiovanni may have found a solution for schools that have banned the sale of bottled 

water on campus. (University of Ottawa) 

After banning the sale of bottled water on campus in 2010 to cut down on waste produced by 

plastic bottles, the University of Ottawa has launched a new initiative — selling aluminum 

bottles in campus vending machines. 

 

It's something you can just grab if you forget your bottle, and you don't feel super bad about it. 

- Celeste  Digiovanni  University of Ottawa student  

Celeste Digiovanni, a graduate student at the university, is the architect of the new initiative. She 

said the plastic water bottle ban left a gap for students who wanted easy access to transportable 

water. 

 

"It's something you can just grab if you forget your bottle, and you don't feel super bad about it," 

said Digiovanni on CBC's Ottawa Morning. 

 

She said many students — herself included — were buying bottled beverages, such as pop, from 

vending machines and reusing the bottles for water. 

 

"Plastic is actually downcycled, every time you recycle a piece of plastic, only a fraction of that 

plastic is reused," Digiovanni said. 

 

Wanted portable access to water 

Digiovanni met with the campus sustainability manager and landed herself an internship with the 

sustainability office to come up with a plan to come up with a solution. 

 

"I was super torn, because on the one hand I agreed with the ethical implications and the 

environmental good — but on the other hand I still wanted a portable way to access water on 

campus." 

 

Ultimately they decided to sell aluminum bottles in vending machines. 

 

 

The metal water bottles, which can be bought at University of Ottawa campus vending machines, 

cost $3 each. (Andrew Foote/CBC) 

The bottles cost $3 each, and are sold empty — that way students are still encouraged to use 

public water and at the same time making it portable. 



 

 

114 

 

The bottles can be used over and over again. 

 

Digiovanni now hopes that other schools might look at the new program for inspiration. 

 

"I'm really hoping they might take it on." 

 

©2018 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved. 

Visitez Radio-Canada.ca 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

115 

Appendix 7: 

 

These are some photos from the segment that TVA filmed on World Water Day.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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Appendix 8: 

 

This photo is from the photoshoot I did with the Faculty of Social Sciences, which was used in 

the marketing campaign for H2Ottawa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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Appendix 9: 

 

This is the interview guide that I used for most interviewees. All interviews were inspired by this 

guide. 

 

Interview Schedule, H2Ottawa Analysis  

 

Preamble: Thank you for agreeing to speak with me regarding your role in the implementation of 

sustainability initiatives at the University of Ottawa. I am interested in the institutional 

procedures such initiatives go through to get the green light, or not. For this interview, I am most 

concerned with how sustainability initiatives are accepted or denied, deemed high or low risk, 

worth it or not etc. This interview should last between 45-90 minutes. Please don't hesitate to ask 

me any questions at any time during the interview. If you wish to remain anonymous, I am 

willing to use a pseudonym in the publishable product; myself and my supervisor are the only 

ones who will be aware of your identity. 

 

Section A: Background 

 

1. Can you please tell me about your job here at the University? 
a. Probe: What were the requirements for applying to this position? How long have 

you been in this position? What is your professional background? Educational 

background? 

2. Have you worked on projects related to sustainability before?  
a. [Have you only worked on projects related to sustainability in the university 

setting?]  

b. Probe: Where (or how) else have you practically applied this frame? 
3. Can you please tell me about your role in the implementation of the Multi-Use Bottle 

Project? 

a. [Are you involved with allocating funds to the Multi-Use Bottle Project (or 
budgeting)? With the marketing/public announcements work? With the logistics? 

etc.] 

 

Section B: Sustainability and Differentiation 
 

4. Of the two scenarios, which would you say you are more likely to accept:  
a. A highly-effective sustainability initiative that also saves the university a good 

deal of money ($1 million) 

b. A highly-effective sustainability initiative that requires an investment by the 
university of a good deal of money ($1 million) 

  Probe: Please explain, why you answered in the way that you did? 
5. What other initiatives have you supported at the University of Ottawa? Denied? What 

were the reasons for these discrepancies? 

6. The ‘Destination 2020’ document mentions sustainability as a ‘strength’ of the University 
of Ottawa. Why do you think the University is making this claim? Do you agree with it? 

Why? 



 

 

118 

a. [Have we gotten ‘better’ at sustainability during your time here? How? What were 
the steps taken?] 

7. The University of Ottawa’s ‘Strategic Mandate Agreement (2014-7)’  document states 
that academically, we do well in the field of environmental protection and would like to 

continue to grow in this area of study. Does this mandate blend into/inspire more 

movement in the practical acceptance of sustainability initiatives? Who makes these 

connections between academic goals and practical implication? 

a. Would you say more sustainability initiatives are accepted than denied? What 
needs to be at the core of the project for it to succeed?  

b. Would you say that the sustainability initiatives accepted by the University of 
Ottawa have to promise an economic return from the start? [Do all sustainability 

initiatives need to be ‘economically neutral’?] 

8. ‘Destination 2020’ puts an emphasis on student experience, stating that it is important for 
students to have regular interactions with professors, staff and other students as it 

‘enriches the learning environment inside the classroom and out’. For administration, 

would you say that the actor initiating the sustainability project matters? In other words, 

are you more likely to accept an initiative that is designed by a student? Why? 

 

Section C: Reputation  
 

9. In your opinion, do sustainability initiatives augment the university’s reputation? How? If 
you are in the marketing of these initiatives, how do we market them? How do we know 

who to impress/who cares? 

a. [Is it the government who cares? External donors? What are the avenues through 
which these initiatives are presented (and why these avenues?)?] 

10. Do you have a role in measuring or reporting sustainability at the University of Ottawa? 
If so, which ranking systems are you familiar with? Where are the areas of concern, that 

may be addressed (ex. reducing our carbon footprint, zero waste etc.)?  

a. [Why do we care about the ranking systems? Do they help us attract students? 
Save on taxes? Receive honourable mention in world renowned media venues? 

Etc.] 

11. Do you think that the University of Ottawa will continue to implement sustainability 
initiatives, even now that that there is more talk of cutbacks at the university? If so, why 

would we choose to spend in this area when money is tight? 

12. The University of Ottawa's sustainability models are outdated (last edited in the 90s). In 
your opinion, do you think this matters?  

a. Is it a ‘known' process by which sustainability initiatives are passed? [Is there a 
trust amongst the administrators that they know the process?] 

b. Is there the freedom for administrators to accept projects that they believe in? 
c. Would you say that there are any ‘institutional safeguards’ in passing these 

initiatives? [For example, through the stages of presenting these initiatives to so 

many people in various departments?] 

d. What are the strengths of our current sustainability policy? Where do you think 
we can improve? Do you have any practical examples you can think of? [Probe 

for details] 

Section D: MBP 



 

 

119 

 

13. What do you hope will result from the implementation of the MBP? Do you have any 
concerns about the project or its implementation? 

14. In your opinion, is the MBP going to improve or help the university’s reputation? 
a. How? Why? Through which avenues? 

15. In your opinion, do you think the MBP will succeed? 
a. Do you think students will like this provision? Do you think it will be well-

received by the because it has never been done before? 

16. In your opinion, do you think that the MBP is a good idea for the university?  
17. In your opinion, do you see the MBP causing any problems for the university? 
18. [For Defy the Conventional respondents only] Do you think that the MBP will receive 

interest and funding from external donors? 

a. Why? Who are the people you will target? Are they only those interested in 
sustainability, or will you frame this initiatives more broadly? If so, how? Which 

frames? Will we only look at the current Tabaret Society, or try to reach out? If 

you are reaching out, how do you plan to do that? 

19. Other than yourself, do you know anyone else that influenced decision-making around 
this initiative, and would be willing to sit for an interview? 

a. I heard that there were economic constraints at the University of Ottawa that 
hindered the implementation of the MBP, is this true? Or did the administration 

feel that it was not worth putting more money into (breaking even)? Were their 

any policies, goals or mandates that pushed or constrained the implementation of 

this project? 

20. Any final thoughts that you would like to add? 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

120 

 

Appendix 10: 

 

This is the bottle that will be presented to the CEO of Desjardins on June 5, 2018. If the 

company likes it, they will continue to purchase H2Ottawa bottles for all of their branches to give 

to clients. In addition to this, Desjardins did some rebranding which included a commitment to 

social entrepreneurs such as myself. The H2Ottawa bottle will be given out to inform new and 

old clients, as well as the community more broadly at certain events, of their new allegiance 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

121 

 

Appendix 11: 

 

These are some pictures from the H2Ottawa Instagram page. Moving forward, I want to continue 

to conceptualize this project as an inclusive Ottawa initiative that the community at large can get 

behind. 

 

 

 

 



 

 

122 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

123 

 

Appendix 12: 

 

Following the theme of the Instagram, this generic bottle now comes with a cityscape of Ottawa. 

The intention here is to engage the Ottawa community more broadly. This screen will be printed 

on all bottles for the Bluesfest event.