AMS Sustainability

May 7th Sustainability Meeting Update

justin — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:15:29 +0000

At the April 23rd Sustainability Projects Fund committee meeting we reviewed 6 projects and two letters of intent approving funding for the summer operations of the CHBE biodiesel project, honeybees at the UBC Farm, and the building of a prototype for an interactive art project in the New SUB for a total of just under $9,000. These new projects will be submitting monthly blog posts.

Our next SPF meeting will be on June 27th so email your letters of intent by the end of May to get feedback on your idea or submit a form by June 20th to apply for funding.

Sustainability Movie Night – The Clean Bin Project

andy — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:23:24 +0000

Thank you to everyone who came out to our first Sustainability Movie Night! We gathered in the beautiful space of the CIRS building, and had the pleasure of having tea and brownies provided by Sprouts cafe before the movie. We then watched The Clean Bin Project, a documentary made in Vancouver! Jen, Grant, and Rhyannon pledged to try to buy no more “stuff” and produce zero landfill waste for one year – more than a year later they continue to live the project now. The movie is eye-opening, touching, and inspiring. They recommend to choose one sustainable action and do your very best to stick to your promise. Starting with one promise is helpful when sometimes the challenge of changing our society seems overwhelming. You can do it! Some possibilities include not using plastic bags, and composting. You can find more resources, and find kindred spirits in sustainability at cleanbinproject.com.
After the movie many people had conversations in the CIRS building. This was a chance for people to share thoughts of the movie, share perspectives and stories surrounding sustianability, and to provide support for others ideas. We enjoyed local food dishes prepared by members of the UBC clubs who organized the event. Some of the dishes were fruit skewers and yogurt, quiche, and roasted root veggies. We showed where our ingredients came from on a bulls-eye poster, the centre of which was local Vancouver. A good resource at UBC is Sprouts, where you can have healthy meals and organize with friends to buy a bulk bag of your favorite vegetable or grain. Another great thing to do is become involved with local farms – a good list to start from is Metro Vancouver City Farms.
We hope that bringing people together to see The Clean Bin Project and to have dialogue gave hope and inspiration to create and celebrate a healthier, more sustainable society.
A big thank you to the AMS Sustianability Projects Fund for sponsoring the event.

Sustainability in Action! Series | Final Update

andy — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:54:00 +0000

The Geography Students’ Association’s Green Team recently held an event to raise awareness about reusing and recycling old clothes to reduce our consumption.

At the GSA’s last BZZR Garden on March 16^th, a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) activity was put on by the Green Team where students and staff could re-purpose old t-shirts by turning them into fashionable circle-scarves. Fabric paints were also available for participants to paint their old plain t-shirts and make them new again.

People really got creative, making their t-shirts into not only scarves but also into headbands, bracelets, and more- it was great to see what fellow geographers could come up with using just an old t-shirt, some scissors, and fabric glue!

The event was a success and a great way to end the term. We are looking forward to more DIY events next year.

Vermicomposting Human Waste | March Update

andy — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:29:57 +0000

The worm experiment was modified from single environment chambers to a shared refuge. Worm survival has increased with this change. Worms apparently need a large refuge of mature compost from which they emerge to consume human waste. Where urine was mixed with fecal matter, all worms died. Source separation is a key aspect of vermicomposting human waste. Interim biochemical analysis has not yet been conducted.

“Bikes On Hand” Bikeshare

andy — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +0000

The Green College “Bikes On Hand” BikeShare is set to promote bicycling as the paradigm for sustainable regional mobility and take collective ownership to UBC students and to the streets! Thanks to the AMS Sustainability Projects Fund, the residents of Green College will soon have access to a set of 4 re-furbished, single-speed bicycles for travelling further afield, moving in groups and ditching their cars in favour of community-shared transportation! Green College is a community of graduate students eager for interdisciplinary exchange and is an atypical student residence because many of its services are run by the students themselves.

For graduate students at Green College, it is a critical experimental period for realizing the possibility of bike-centric transportation in their burgeoning active professional lifestyle. In cities across the globe, bikes are replacing car ownership in conjunction with public transport and the growing movement of car sharing services (ZipCar and Modo), which, on UBC campus, are a mere ~5min bike ride from most locations. Our Bikes On Hand program will encourage a bike-centric lifestyle and ultimately support community events, local businesses, and increase the use of green space and ridership on and around bicycle routes.

The project aims to be fully functional by May 1^st so that students can take advantage of the improving weather and surprising spare time. The groundwork is being laid and the location of the bike station has been decided (see pictures!). The bikes station is in an ideal location where visitors must pass on their way to the numerous lectures hosted at the college. The bicycles have been commissioned from the Bike Kitchen and we’re ready to unveil, here and now, the decals that will be emblazoned on the stunning brown tanned bikes (see picture for decal, not bikes).

Yet, there are still considerable challenges ahead in the coming weeks. We will need to renovate the bike rack space in order to advertise the program and provide rain-cover for the bicycles. And, we will depend on our residents to help us devise some creative plans for cost effectively building a fashionable, enduring structure that also represents our sustainable ideals. One idea we have devised involves creating a structure from recycled materials (with attention to structural integrity rather than appearance), which would then be covered with geotextile and a cultivated layer of moss. We’ve also hatched a plan to include a small, low-end solar panel with a set of LEDs to ensure that the station is lit throughout the dark days of winter. As our project develops, our group is committed to developing a standardized protocol and blueprint for creating similar stations across campus and anywhere were people thrive on putting ideas into action. I hope you find our project exciting and continue to follow our progress on the AMS Sustainability Projects Fund Blog!

Geography Students’ Association GeoGarden

andy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:34:29 +0000

by the GeoGarden Team

The GeoGarden project is a community food garden to be constructed and maintained by the Geography Students Association (GSA) on the east side of the Geography Building beginning in the spring of 2012. Community gardens are a form of urban agriculture that reclaim small and/or marginal spaces for the production of food. The GeoGarden will meet UBC’s long-term sustainability goals by promoting awareness of food security and urban agriculture. In addition to meeting these goals, the GeoGarden will also contribute to building community and creating educational opportunities.

The soon-to-be GeoGarden!

The Geography Garden is an opportunity to engage geography students, staff and faculty in new and exciting ways. A student-run garden expands the space over which participants have a direct influence, and more importantly, the space over which their efforts yield tangible results. Their engagement in the garden will create things of value – like carrots, tomatoes, and Swiss Chard – that they can smell and touch. Food they create and later consume. Actively participating in the life cycle of a meal promotes a greater appreciation of the food we consume in general, and in this context the garden can serve as a forum for discussions on food security and the ethics of local vs. global consumption.

One of the main goals of the GeoGarden is to serve as an educational tool to complement lessons learnt in classes. The garden is meant to introduce students, staff, and faculty to urban agriculture and provide an opportunity for them to engage with it. The garden project also has many components to facilitate reaching out to the wider community to prompt discussion and action on food security and sustainability. The garden’s educational components are: a journal keeping track of garden maintenance by week for future reference; a blog to communicate learnings and journal entries with the public; a case study for Geography classes; signage to inform passers-by about the garden and its plants; a garden resource library in the Geography student lounge; workshops on urban gardening skills in collaboration with other on-campus groups.

The garden will act as focal point for social and academic harmonization which would help create a sense of environmental stewardship. Moreover, the aesthetic appeal of the garden itself would instil a sense of pride in caring for the environment. The Geo Garden will serve as a model for future food garden projects around campus, and can facilitate their deployment for other communities on campus.

GSA Sustainability in Action! Series | March Update

andy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:27:50 +0000

by Brittany Jang

On March 15^th, we welcomed City of Vancouver social planners Mario Lee and Ali Grant as our last guests for the Geography Students Association’s highly successful Sustainability in Action! Series. The pair came to present Vancouver’s approach to social sustainability in an effort to foster dialogue on all issues regarding sustainability including environmental, economic and social concerns.

Mario and Ali provided us with a presentation going over the history of social sustainability in Vancouver as well as examples of current work and approaches. Sustainability is often thought of as only environmental, but through their presentation Mari and Ali showed us that Vancouver planners are very mindful of social sustainability issues in our city such as the widening gap between rich and poor, location and concentration of immigrants, food security and rising costs of living. Furthermore, Ali Grant presented a specific example of social Sustainability in Action! as the city vies to be a Healthy City, which is a city that fosters healthy citizens through proactive and preventative planning such as the implementation of more bike lanes and accessibility to community centres and recreational facilities.

Mario and Ali then took questions from the students. Many students were keen to ask questions about community engagement, and how social planners went about collecting a diverse set of opinions from community members and implementing their concerns into the strategies ultimately put into practice. To learn more about social sustainability in the City of Vancouver please visit http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/sustain_social.htm.

UBC Solar | March Update

andy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:24:52 +0000

by TY Chow

Time flies and it’s almost the end of an amazing school year! We wish your year is as awesome as ours because this year, UBC Solar had made great progress on our solar car!

First’s up – we have done some outreach at E-Fest 2012 at Vancouver Public Library Central Branch. We met many people, mostly students and families, who are interested in our project. We, of course, have promoted the idea of sustainability at the event! We are not going to bore you with the details because we have got great news!

Great news number one! Our proud mechanical team and electrical team have finally got the motor controller working! They put the motor and rear swing arm on and drove around in the area near the Engineering Design Centre. It was the first time we’ve driven the car with the driver controlling from inside the car. (Okay, it might not be the completed car, but you can see the roll-cage is rolling!) You can check out our video here!

Great news number two! The bottom-side of the areoshell body is done! After many hours of work in the workshop, we have finally completed the bottom half of the areoshell. Since we have gained the experience and completed the mould for the top part, it wouldn’t take very long to finish the top side of the areoshell body.

So, be patient and wait for more of our good news next month!

GSA Sustainability in Action! Series | February Update

andy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:18:43 +0000

by Molly Henry

On February 7^th, the GSA Sustainability in Action! Series facilitated a tour of the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS). The group of fifteen attendees from across the Geography Department were fortunate to have this tour led by John Robinson (Executive Director for the UBC Sustainability Initiative, and professor with the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, and the Department of Geography).

The CIRS building is an ambitious project, designed to be the most sustainable building in North America, which operates as a living lab – focusing on research to advance sustainable building practices so that they can become applicable and affordable for the rest of the world. With this in mind, CIRS research has been developed around ‘regenerative deign’, whereby buildings and other systems can produce net positive results for both humans and the environment. CIRS has been designed to be net positive in seven ways: four environmental and three human. In the words of John Robinson himself: “Adding a 60,000 square foot building to the UBC campus will reduce campus energy use and carbon emissions, improve the quality of the water flowing through our site, and sequester more carbon in the building than all the carbon emitted in building it and supplying it with materials. On the human side, CIRS is intended to make its inhabitants healthier, more productive and happier.”

Highlights of the tour included the water and sewage treatment facility (it didn’t smell!) and the rooftop garden, as well as the design of the facility, which features beautiful exposed wood beams and extensive use of windows to take advantage of natural light. To round off our tour, the group enjoyed a delicious sustainably sourced lunch from The Loop Café on the main floor of the CIRS building.

The GSA would like to thank John Robinson for his time, as well as the AMS Sustainability Fund for sponsoring this event.

Footprints Final Report

andy — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:05:31 +0000

Footprints: Stepping into a sustainable future is a student-run event for students from all different disciplines to come together with professionals to generate powerful ideas and conversations around sustainability. Previous years have brought topics such as political change, local food production, sustainable community planning, and carbon offsetting to the forefront

Enjoying some local food

of discussions. This year, the conversation focused on sustainable initiatives in Vancouver with guest speakers John Tylee (Director, Policy and Communications, Vancouver Economic Development Commission), Moura Quayle (Professor, Thinking Strategies, Sauder School of Business) and Orion Henderson (Director, Operational Sustainability at UBC). The dialogue was focused around three key topics: 1) Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, 2) Vancouver’s ‘green’ economy, and 3) sustainability initiatives on the UBC campus. Through brainstorming and group work, presentations, and Q&A periods, both students and speakers were able to share their views and gain some insight into the direction of sustainability in our community.

Presentation on the Greenest City Action Plan by Moura Quayle in the Dr. Simon K Y Lee Global Lounge and Resource Center

Lead first by Moura Quayle, students were asked to critically examine the ten broad goals of the Greenest City Action Plan using the ‘six thinking hats’ strategy as a tool for discussion. Students were able to identify opportunities, set-backs, logistical details, and emotional responses to the various goals Vancouver has for creating the greenest city by 2020. Following was John Tylee discussing the current trends of the city’s greening economy as well as the difficulties faced by businesses of ‘going green’. Finally, Orion Henderson introduced students to the history of sustainability on campus and discussed some of the university’s current and planned initiatives to promote efficiency and sustainability at UBC.

Students discussing Vancouver’s goals towards becoming the greenest city in the world

As part of the event, all food provided was locally sourced, including baked goods from the Agora Café, beets from the UBC Farm, chesses from the Okanagan and Saltspring Island, and fresh fruits and vegetables from Vancouver’s Winter Farmer’s Market.

With the support of AMS Sustainability, we were able to make this year’s event a great success! This year was our third consecutive year of creating dialogue and we hope it will continue to bring inspiration to students and professionals in the future. If you are interested in the organization of next year’s event, please contact footprints.dialogue@gmail.com.

From left to right: Tanya Katamay-Smith (Footprints Coordinator), Samantha James (Footprints Coordinator), Moura Quayle (Professor, Thinking Strategies, Sauder School of Business), John Tylee (Director, Policy and Communications, Vancouver Economic Development Commission), and Amy MacDonald (Footprints Assistant)

“A great opportunity for students from different faculties to get together and discuss issues that we all care about.”

– Student participant from Footprints, 2012