Ubaté branch on the path to certification

As part of the institutional environmental certification process that has been gradually advancing as a green university in the different regional units, under international standards of ISO 14001, on October 27 the Ubaté Branch received the first internal audit of the Environmental Management System by a consulting firm, which was carried out at the facilities of the Branch and the Agro-environmental Unit El Tíbar, with the participation of the different processes and departments that are part of the strategic, mission, support, and monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation macro-processes, which are developed in the Branch; on the academic side, the participation of the Zootechnics Program of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences was included.

“The internal audit exercise carried out, which sought to verify the effectiveness of the Environmental Management System's compliance in the context of the Ubaté Branch from the institutional guidelines, through interviews, information review and observation of the conditions for operation with environmental criteria in facilities, achieved the expected result, the confirmation that the Ubaté Branch not only meets the requirements, but has become an environmental benchmark for the Municipality,” explained Valeria Gómez, manager of the Branch's Environmental Management System and facilitator of the process.

The team at the branch campus, led by Director Dr. Johanna Andrea Gil Palacios, who has been committed to the environmental cause since her previous role as coordinator of the Business Administration program, received the overall assessment regarding compliance with the applicable legal and regulatory requirements. The assessment highlighted strengths such as: the environmental culture of the university community, the integration of processes and academics with environmental criteria, the best practices identified in the Agro-environmental Unit, and particularly the positive translocal impact of the University from the branch campus, which is currently an environmental benchmark in the municipality.

Similarly, the connection with the Sembrando Esperanza Cultural Learning Field is highlighted, where activities of great importance are developed that contribute to the Environmental Management System; the specific recommendations to close identified gaps that lead to continuous improvement, concluding with the recommendation to submit to the certification audit, which will be projected for the 2023 period.

“Ubaté will follow the path taken by the Girardot branch and the Facatativá extension, who recently received the recommendation to grant ISO 14001 certification from Icontec, confirming the progress as a Green University, living in balance with nature,” said engineer Sandra León, coordinator of the Environmental Management System of UCundinamarca.

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