Campus Initiatives
Secure bike storage in new Buchanan Tower secure bike parking facility. Photo Credit: Adam Cooper
With close to 140,000 trips being made into and out of campus each day, encouraging more sustainable modes of transportation is crucial to meeting UBC’s sustainability goals. Our Transportation Planning department began working in 1997 to reduce automobile trips to and from campus by promoting public transit, walking, cycling and carpooling. Transit ridership to campus has nearly quadrupled since then, and we have 13,300 fewer cars coming to campus each day.
Photo Credit: Julianna Campbell
Sustainability—balancing best value, social equity and environmental protection—is at the core of UBC’s purchasing principles. At UBC, we are constructively engaging with suppliers and students, staff and faculty to support and encourage purchasing decisions that reflect UBC’s sustainability values.
Sustainable Purchasing Guide
The Sustainable Purchasing Guide helps students, staff and faculty members at UBC to purchase more sustainable products and services. The guide is a resource for making purchasing decisions that exemplify our commitment to sustainability.The guide supports the adoption of UBC Supply Management's ...
Supplier Engagement
UBC is working with suppliers to encourage them to align with our sustainability objectives. We’re asking suppliers to think of creative ways to ship to us, to reuse or recycle packaging–and to have a plan for leftover materials.Some of our current initiatives include:Sustainability ScorecardTo reduce climate impacts through...
reuse-it! UBC
reuse-it! UBC facilitates the reuse of goods between departments on campus to reduce the number of reusable items that enter the waste stream.Launched in March 2011, this online service supports department-to-department transfers of furniture, office supplies and electronic equipment. ...
Paper Purchasing
UBC is working to reduce paper usage on campus and ensure paper that is consumed contains a minimum of 30 per cent post-consumer waste content. In 2010, we reduced paper consumption by 65 per cent compared to 2000 levels. Using the Sustainable Purchasing Guide and the Sustainability Coordinators Toolkit, the UBC community can also contribute by m...
Fair Trade
In 2011, UBC was designated the first Fair Trade Campus in Canada, thanks to a collaboration between UBC Food Services, AMS Food and Beverage Department, UBC Engineers Without Bord...
Sweat Free
Since 2004, the UBC Bookstore has worked together with Oxfam Canada and UBC to promote its ‘No Sweat’ Policy. The policy ensures buyers will only purchase clothing from suppliers and manufacturers who employ fair labour practices and are environmentally re...
Green Cleaning
Providing a healthy and safe working environment for students, staff and faculty is a priority at UBC. Our Green Housekeeping Program, run by UBC Building Operations, includes a comprehensive set of green cleaning and housekeeping initiatives that incorporate sustainability into Custodial Services’ daily operations....
What You Can Do
Keeping sustainability top of mind when making purchasing decisions contributes to our vision of creating a campus that operates sustainably at every level. Whether you’re a staff member purchasing items for your department, or a student organizing an event, we have the resources you need to help you make sustainable purchasing choices.Susta...
Work has begun on a new $85-million clean energy system that will dramatically reduce UBC’s greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. When it’s completed in 2017, the new hot-water system will heat 130 buildings on campus — and replace the aging steam system, parts of which are nearly a century old.
A UBC student’s call to help a university in Cambodia resulted in a flood of donations from departments all over campus, via the university’s new reuse-it! program. The second-hand items were enough to fill a container, which is now on a ship bound for Southeast Asia.
Bike to Work Week (B2WW) is fast approaching and UBC Transportation Planning encourages all UBC faculty, staff, students and residents to get involved. There is a skills training workshop, activities across Vancouver, and a commuter station at UBC where you can get a free bike tune-up, snacks, and enter to win great prizes, including a new bike!
Reaserchers go green as part of the Green Research Challenge
The Green Research Challenge is a great opportunity for researchers and lab users to learn more about UBC laboratory solid and hazardous waste programs, water and energy reduction and green purchasing options.
Beginning May 2, 2011, teams will collect points over a two-month period by participating in a series of green research activities that range from watching a climate change documentary to assessing energy use in a lab.
Form a team and sign up to compete against other UBC lab employees for your chance to win weekly prizes.
Hands-on collaboration in action
Is it feasible for UBC to become entirely self-sufficient for its water needs? How can it work to reduce its waste and stop sending so much discarded material to the landfill?
UBC is committed to nurturing a sustainable community that bridges both academic and residential parts of our Vancouver campus. As a result, we’re redefining how we approach waste and water management.
Your feedback will be used as a springboard to create a draft vision and the short-, medium- and long-term targets and actions for the Plans.
To meet one of the goals in UBC’s Strategic Plan, the Robson Square Sustainability Committee wanted to begin composting food waste.
05.8.13 -
Honouring Environmental Leadership
It may be obvious, but it’s true: fighting for a better world requires hard work. Tzeporah...
05.2.13 -
Cultivating Ecosensitivity
By Paul Marck Call her a champion of plant poetics, wielding a scythe to shear down barriers...
05.2.13 -
New Life in Old Growth Forests
By Heather Amos A birder, mountaineer and backcountry skier, Spanish-born Carlos Molina is a...
New events coming online soon.
05.23.13 -
UBC engineer helps pioneer flat spray-on optical lens
A team of researchers, including a University of British Columbia engineer have made a breakthrough...
05.22.13 -
Mega genomes of spruce species decoded
Canadian and Swedish scientists today released genome sequences of two of the most economically...
05.15.13 -
“Fish thermometer” reveals long-standing, global impact of climate change
Climate change has been impacting global fisheries for the past four decades by driving species...
