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Before UBC staff and faculty left for the winter break, they set up the campus to save big on energy and greenhouse gas emissions.

This past December, departments across campus joined together to reduce UBC’s environmental footprint over the winter holiday. By making a series of energy saving actions across campus, the impact they created over the nine-day break was significant: saving $20,500 in energy costs, 356,900 kWh (enough to run 4,350 refrigerators over the same period), and 13 tonnes of carbon emissions (or 10 round trips between Vancouver and Ottawa)!

Honouring a Time Before, During and After Canada’s Indian Residential Schools.

UBC has partnered with a private donor to commission the carving of a totem pole that recognizes the complex aspects of reconciliation related to Canadian Indian residential schools.

The 55-foot cedar pole is being carved on site by James Hart, Haida master carver and hereditary chief, and other carvers from the Haida community. Drop by the white tent at Main Mall and Agronomy Road to see the carvers in action.

Biodiversity is the foundation of life, and one of the most valuable resource on our planet.

Despite its importance, current patterns of consumption don’t account for the true value of biodiversity, which is why it’s under threat all over the world; some estimates say global biodiversity has gone down more than 50 percent since 1972. 

It’s nearly five pm on Saturday April 1, 2017, and a crowd of more than three thousand people has gathered on Main Mall at UBC to help raise the Reconciliation Pole, a monument to the survivors of Canada’s residential schools.

Community members help raise Reconciliation Pole on April 1. 2017. (Photo Paul Joseph, UBC Communications and Marketing)

On Wednesday April 5, two dozen 4th year Faculty of Land and Food System students sat down for a delicious buffet of food cooked for them by chefs from Student Housing and Hospitality Services.

With a difference — all the food had been recovered, leftovers the students themselves had collected the day before as part of a SEEDS project. In the future, recovered food will go to the AMS Food Bank to feed students in need.

The Sustainability Soirée, held on May 16 at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, is an annual celebration of staff, faculty and student contributions to sustainability on campus.

UBC’s sustainability champions gathered together on May 16 for the Sustainability Soirée at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, to celebrate UBC's commitment to sustainability on campus. The annual event shines the spotlight on faculty, staff, and student contributions to sustainability-focused research projects and employee engagement programs.

A new partnership with the Vancouver Foundation has allowed Campus + Community Planning to expand the UTown@ UBC Community Grants program off campus to the Musqueam community.

Thousands of cyclists participated in the spring edition of Bike to Work Week, a competition designed to encourage and support cycling across Metro Vancouver.

Once again, UBC came first during the Spring 2017 edition of Bike to Work Week. UBC led in the category for organizations of more than 1,000 people and also had the highest participation rate for the higher education category.

UBC is using a new landscaping project, Library Gardens, to pioneer a new standard in eco-friendly landscape architecture never before applied in Canada.

 

“From an ecological perspective, landscapes can and should do so much more than just look good,” says Dean Gregory.

The Planning Institute of British Columbia recognizes UBC student's study of residential bicycle parking.

A UBC student’s research on bicycle storage in campus residential buildings has garnered recognition from the Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC).