Resource Library

This report explores the potential for the transition to a circular economy to support a just and sustainable post-pandemic recovery. It provides a base of understanding about net and inclusive circular job growth and a just circular transition, with some recommendations for Greater Vancouver. It also provides insights into how sharing, reuse and repair show up in the lives, livelihoods and enterprises of some marginalized communities in Greater Vancouver.

Partner: Share Reuse Repair Initiative
Keywords: sustainable development & green economy, waste management & recycling, circular economy

This project aims to quantify and compare the climate mitigation benefits of nature-based “green" flood control infrastructure and traditional "grey" constructions. Includes an analysis of literature and data on GHG emissions, identifies the significant information gaps in the literature and offers a set of recommendations to be considered for future work.

Partner: Watershed Watch Salmon Society
Keywords: biodiversity, ecological systems, green buildings

This project involved a review of literature and global case studies, and included key informant interviews to determine the feasibility of converting parking garages into affordable housing. Recognizing that City-owned sites face pressure to fulfill many societal needs, four recommendations were developed from the key findings of the research to support the prioritization of 107 East Cordova Street for redevelopment.

Partner: Atira Women's Resource Society
Keywords: social sustainability, transportation, affordable housing, sustainable transportation modes, retrofitting existing infrastructure, parking 

This discussion paper provides First Nations communities in BC with an overview of the domestic and international legal frameworks that relate to the right to free, prior and informed consent and mining. The project aims to promote knowledge of legal developments and legal rights, to make suggestions, prompt discussion and  solicit feedback on the ways in which communities could implement the right to free, prior and informed consent in the context of mining on Indigenous lands.

Partner: BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council (FNEMC)
Keywords: leadership & behaviour change, social sustainability, human rights

This study explores how CCEL efforts have increased the overall capacity for faculty members to navigate through the effects of the pandemic while achieving their goals and expectations. With this project, CCEL seeks to understand how their support has helped faculty members in pivoting to online community engaged learning, and if the inclusion of elements of place-based learning, contributes to increased opportunity for students and partners to engage.

Partner: UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL)
Keywords: social sustainabilitycommunity engagement, education and learning

This project explores the opportunities in Canadian law towards the shift from the linear economy to the regenerative, circular and sharing economy. It examines how existing policies promoting environmental sustainability in Canada and Canadian substantive law - property law, intellectual property law, contract law, consumer protection law and corporate law, can be deployed and reformed to facilitate the transition to the regenerative, circular and sharing economy in Canada.

Partner: Ecojustice
Keywords: leadership & behaviour change, sustainable development & green economy, waste management & recycling

Racialized and Indigenous communities (and other historically marginalized groups) are often disproportionately impacted by pollution and unsustainable resource development. Through the development of an interactive dashboard with maps that chart racialized, Indigenous, and lower-income communities and highlight their proximity to industrial polluters such as toxic waste facilities, landfills, or other environmentally hazardous activities, and impactful resource development projects, the study seeks to track the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms on historically marginalized groups in British Columbia (BC). By identifying the environmental racism faced by communities in BC, West Coast Environmental Law seeks to target their environmental legal aid efforts better to support the environmental protection and sustainability of marginalized communities. 

Partner: West Coast Environmental Law
Keywords: environmental racism, environmental justice, climate justice

Sustainable Product and Service Factsheets help inform more environmental, ethical, and social purchasing decisions in large public institutions across Canada, including cities, universities, and government agencies. More Canadian organizations want to align their purchasing with their sustainability goals and their staff needs simple tools to make sustainable choices when purchasing thousands of products and services every day. 

Partner: Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP)
Keywords: social sustainability, supply chain management & green procurement, sustainable development & green economy

City governments globally are recognizing the benefits of living with nature, and are launching efforts to protect and regrow urban biodiversity. However, these efforts can reinforce existing inequities,  through green gentrification or ecosystem disservices (for example). How might we build cities that are biophilic, just, and equitable? This project offers a framework for understanding urban social-ecological justice and offers a practical planning tool based on a scoping review.

Partner: Urban Biodiversity Society
Keywords: biodiversity, ecological systems, social sustainability