Campus Greening: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

UBC uses bikes, hybrid cars, and green buildings in its sustainability efforts.

In 2005–06, the Sustainability Office at the University of British Columbia (UBC) moved steadily forward with one of its major goals of recent years: to unite all of UBC’s faculties and departments under one university-wide sustainability strategy for the whole university. The strategy was initiated in response to UBC’s Sustainable Development Policy, which was adopted in 1997 and calls for action plans with clear targets in all departments to improve performance in key sustainability areas.

In 2001, UBC earned recognition as Canada’s “leader in campus sustainability,” thanks to a series of initiatives ranging from Social, Ecological, Economic Development Studies (SEEDS), an academic program that brings together students, faculty, and staff in projects that address sustainability issues, to the ECOTrek energy and water reduction project, which involved rebuilding and retrofitting the infrastructure of nearly 300 academic buildings. In 2002, the university reached the Kyoto Protocol’s climate change targets a decade ahead of the 2012 deadline set for Canada as a whole, reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent while also saving money. The following year, UBC became Canada’s first and only university to receive “Campus Ecology Recognition” from the U.S.-based National Wildlife Federation, a distinction that was reconfirmed in 2005.

In 2006, UBC emerged with yet another coup, developing North America’s first comprehensive sustainability strategy at the university level, complete with targets and action plans. The five-year plan, titled Inspirations and Aspirations: The Sustainability Strategy, outlines UBC’s goals, objectives, and actions for improving the institution’s economic, social, and ecological performance.

In preparing the plan, UBC held a stakeholder consultation process with 20 departments, all faculties, and all major student organizations. Together, these groups developed a framework and identified nine major goals for sustainability: improve human health and safety; make UBC a model sustainable community; increase understanding of sustainability inside and outside the university; reduce pollution; conserve resources; protect biodiversity; maintain and maximize the utilization of physical infrastructure; maintain and enhance the asset base; and ensure ongoing economic viability. The stakeholders then identified objectives and set specific targets. The result: every target listed in the plan has at least one UBC department, faculty, or organization assuming responsibility for achieving it. The campus community as a whole is now completely dedicated to achieving these goals.

UBC hopes to become a driving force in the worldwide effort to create positive and healthy relationships between human beings, the societies in which we live, and the natural environment upon which we all depend. The new sustainability strategy aims to serve not only as an expression of this intention, but as a model for institutions around the world.

—Submitted by Laura Madera, Coordinator, Design and Communications, UBC Sustainability Office