Educators at UBC who seek to incorporate sustainability practices in their teaching can choose from the following diverse selection of initiatives. Programs are offered by UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology, the UBC Farm, the UBC Campus Sustainability Office, and the UBC Learning Exchange. Most initiatives are open to students and staff as well as faculty members.

Sustainability Across the Curriculum Community of Practice (CoP)

The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) and the UBC Sustainability Initiative (USI) coordinate a Sustainability Across the Curriculum CoP that is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, post-docs, staff, faculty and community members who are interested in sustainability education. The group meets occasionally face-to-face and everyone is welcome to join. Contact us for more information.

Integrating Sustainability into Transdisciplinary Programs for Experiential Education

The UBC Farm offers a unique on-campus field site for experiential learning and provides support for instructors from any discipline who wish to integrate field components into their courses.  Curricular integration can range from simple site visits, discussion, and case studies to in-depth long-term field research or community service activities. Co-curricular opportunities including volunteer work in a range of programs and approximately 40 public-access workshops per year are also available.

UBC SEEDS Program

UBC SEEDS (Social Ecological Economic Development Studies) is Western Canada’s first academic program that combines the energy and enthusiasm of students, the intellectual capacity of faculty and the commitment and expertise of staff to integrate sustainability on campus.  Using the campus as a living lab, the SEEDS program brings undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff together to work collaboratively on applied, accredited research projects that address real-life campus sustainability issues.

UBC Community Learning Initiative

The UBC Community Learning Initiative, an initiative of the Learning Exchange, offers a range of support to course instructors who wish to integrate community service-learning (CSL) or Community-Based Research (CBR) projects into their existing courses or who wish to develop new courses that have a CSL or CBR component. Community Service Learning (CSL) has three key elements: classroom learning; volunteer work that responds to community-identified priorities; and structured reflection activities that challenge students to make connections between what they are studying and their experiences in the community.

Provincial Education Initiatives

A growing number of provincial initiatives aim to advance sustainability education in British Columbia's colleges and universities. Several opportunities and resources are available to UBC educators interested in integrating or enhancing sustainability in their classrooms and co-curricular activities.