My Alerts 
The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) bus and métro network provides over 1.3 million passenger rides each day. With a métro powered by hydroelectricity and buses running on biodiesel, the STM makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of customers to be on the move efficiently and be green about it. And so on Earth Day, the STM wants to thank transit users for helping Montréal breathe easier.
The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) bus and métro network provides over 1.3 million passenger rides each day. With a métro powered by hydroelectricity and buses running on biodiesel, the STM makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of customers to be on the move efficiently and be green about it. And so on Earth Day, the STM wants to thank transit users for helping Montréal breathe easier.
When the company claims that taking the bus and métro is an environmentally responsible choice, it does so knowing that sustainability concerns are central to its decisions and that its employees are committed to the issue, mirrored through hundreds of actions, big and small. Sustainability magazine Corporate Knights recently ranked the STM third most responsible mid-size corporation in Canada. Furthermore, the STM’s sustainable development processes were also rewarded in 2014 with a Gold Level Distinction in the prestigious ‘Sustainability Commitment’ recognition program by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
These are a few of STM’s environmental and social initiatives.
The STM is striving to increasingly include greening measures in its construction and renovation projects whenever possible.
Indeed, some 800 m2, or 25% of the Stinson bus garage’s roof surface, is covered by a green roof, equal to one and a half football fields, making it one of the largest green roofs in Québec, if not the biggest. The remaining roof surface is covered by white, reflecting material. Parking lots also feature greenery, with over 500 trees, shrubs, a variety of plants and some 22 000 m2 of lawn completing the landscaping.
While work to expand Champ-de-Mars station was underway in 2014, we installed a green roof. As a result, some 58 m2 of the roof surface is covered by a variety of plant material, including clover, fescue and bluegrass. These two projects are in addition to the green roofs at Angrignon station and at Legendre bus body shop.
The disposal of electronic waste is regulated as those products are highly harmful to the environment. In light of its commitment to sustainability, the STM wanted to do more by establishing a partnership with Insertech, a social economy enterprise located in Montréal’s Technopole Angus since 1998.
Insertech provides professional salvage, data destruction and eco-friendly disposal services for computer components and hardware. Whenever possible, the business first tries to repurpose the equipment, as rebuilding what can still be used extends the hardware’s lifespan by an average of three years, further offsetting its impact on the environment.
Also, as a social economy enterprise, Insertech hires and trains young adults who face challenges re-entering the workforce. So far, over 850 young adults received job-related training.
Since December 2012, the Société de développement social de Ville-Marie and the STM, along with a number of partners, have been working together to provide an innovative alternative for homeless people at several downtown metro stations, even establishing a service point at St. Michael’s Mission. Thanks to this project, social workers with the help of STM staff reach out to the homeless in the métro to offer them support, take them to St. Michael’s Mission or redirect them to other support groups.
From December 2013 to November 2014, the four outreach workers handled some 1430 interventions at the five targeted stations. During the 2014 winter season, a shuttle service was set up at Bonaventure station each night when the metro closed to take the homeless to shelters. From December 2013 to April 2014, the shuttle service took 465 people to the city’s shelters for the night.
