The Catalyst program empowers participants to develop and demonstrate sustainability leadership through education, mentorship, experiential learning and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Program Pillars

The program is supported by four pillars:

Education: Learn through workshops on leadership, sustainability, and professional development. Each stream approaches topics depending on participant level of engagement.

Mentorship: Access mentorship and guidance through your own groups and advisors, or through Sustainability Hub advisors. 

Experiential Learning: Integrate lived experiences to advance your leadership abilities through project or problem-based learning. 

Multidisciplinary Networks: Integrate and interact with interdisciplinary teams, engaging multiple perspectives and encouraging collaboration with project team members and on-and off-campus groups.
 

Sustainability Leadership Competencies

Program learning objectives are based on the framework of sustainability leadership competencies, including: 

Self-awareness: Identify a personal and cultural value base and make tangible connections to community and sustainability issues or goals.

Systems Awareness: Identify and appreciate interconnections of any system and be able to understand how these interactions influence goals.

Interdisciplinary Integration: Actively engage and participate in interdisciplinary interactions around sustainability and climate-related issues.

Interpersonal and Collaborative: Work collaboratively with organizations and individuals from various backgrounds and perspectives.

Strategic Application: Conceptualize and implement ideas by integrating competencies and problem solving.

Connection to UBC Strategic priorities

Sustainability Hub
  • Transformative Learning Goal 6: Cultivate the use of transformative pedagogies, including a variety of enriched, experiential and applied learning approaches, for sustainability education across UBC and beyond. 
  • Transformative Learning Goal 7: Increase the number of students and other learners from diverse communities on and off campus to participate in UBC-wide co-curricular and curricular sustainability experiences every year. 
  • Local and Global Engagement Goal 13: Build strong diverse supportive and reciprocal relationships with local and regional communities to mobilize for climate action and sustainability.
Climate Emergency Task Force Report
  • Foster a culture of engagement and advocacy on climate action 
  • Encourage civic engagement 
  • Increase capacity and resources for engagement 
  • Expand climate education opportunities and resources for the UBC community and broader public
Inclusion Action Plan 
  • Support mentorship, peer support, and affinity/resource groups that enhance spaces and initiatives toward inclusion
  • Promote extracurricular programming, professional development opportunities, and events that help build inclusive cultures.