UdeMNouvelles Université de Montréal

Nearly 2500 students took part in the Rector's Breakfast at the Université de Montréal on September 1. The Rector delivered an address welcoming students at the event, which has become a tradition at UdeM, attracting more and more participants every year.

This year's event had a more interactive flavour. All the students present – enough to fill the stands at the stadium – were invited to come down onto the field together to form a huge UdeM logo. Moving a crowd this size might have been risky, but the operation went perfectly, taking just 16 minutes...and ending in a Zumba workshop!

In his address to the students, Rector Guy Breton said that the breakfast was meant to be “ecoresponsible.” The firm Écocoop was hired to assess and reduce the activity's environmental footprint to a bare minimum. Nearly 94% of all waste – half-eaten muffins and fruit, coffee cups, wrappers and other materials – was recovered by composting (67 kg) or recycling (281 kg). The resulting greenhouse gas reduction was equivalent to 968 km driven by a delivery truck. Uneaten fruit and muffins were distributed in student coffee shops.