UVic has joined an elite group of Canadian employers committed to advancing sustainability. UVic is included in this year's list of Canada's 100 Greenest Employers, and is the only employer from Victoria.
The McKinnon pool heat recovery system is just one of many initiatives that have helped UVic achieve its second gold rating with the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). The 2017 score maintains UVic鈥檚 gold ranking, originally established in 2014, and makes it the second highest-rated university in Canada.
Outstanding research in ecology was announced this week by the Ecological Society of America. A team of UVic researchers and grad students were recognized for their contribution to the fields of plant ecology and biogeography with the William Skinner Cooper Award for their research study, "Intertidal resource use over millennia enhances forest productivity," published in Nature Communications last year.
UVic is entering into an agreement with Ricoh Canada to provide new multifunction (copy / print / scan / fax) devices, printers and fleet management services to campus. Ricoh will begin site visits in January to assess how document handling鈥攂y photocopy, printing and scanning鈥攚orks in different campus offices. Information from the initial phase of the project will guide equipment replacement as well as future enhancements to UVic鈥檚 print and document management infrastructure.
A new report from the UVic-led Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions provides answers on how to motivate change-friendly behaviour, based on a review of environmental psychology research.
A significant amount of freshwater in western Canada and the North originates as snowpack from the Rocky Mountains. Terry Prowse, a UVic geographer and a senior federal research scientist who studies hydrology, water resources and freshwater ecosystems.
A small army of volunteers is on the march to eradicate the spread of plant species that threaten native-growing flora on the UVic campus. Their project on invasive species management is one of four projects approved and funded this year by the Campus Sustainability Fund, which provides one-time allocations to campus projects that focus on water savings, sustainability awareness and learning opportunities.
A six-week archaeology field school brought the promise and challenges of the Pacific west coast to life for 19 enthusiastic anthropology students this summer. The group traveled to the west coast of Vancouver Island to do research at ancient First Nations settlements, and to learn archaeological field techniques and environmental and cultural history from Tseshaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations, professional archaeologists, and marine ecologists at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.
A team of engineering researchers from UVic and the University of Rochester has developed a way to detect single molecules using a light-based technology inspired by the 鈥渨hispering gallery鈥� effect, first discovered in London鈥檚 iconic St. Paul鈥檚 Cathedral.
Science is closer to linking some weather-related disasters to human-caused climate change. This spring, a US National Academy of Sciences committee鈥攐n which Zwiers served鈥攔eleased a milestone report acknowledging that progress is being made on attributing some extreme events to climate change caused by human activity.
If the Earth鈥檚 remaining untapped fossil-fuel resources are burned鈥攖he equivalent of five trillion tonnes of carbon emissions鈥攖he average global temperature is predicted to increase by between 6.4掳C and 9.5掳C, with Arctic temperatures warming between 14.7掳C and 19.5掳C, according to a paper published this week in Nature Climate Change. The strong warming increase is considerably larger than previously anticipated.
番茄社区 experts are available to media to discuss the National Energy Board鈥檚 recommendation to conditionally approve the twinning of Kinder Morgan鈥檚 Trans Mountain pipeline.
Driving on ice roads in the far north is a normal occurrence for geographer and storm expert David Atkinson. In late April, Atkinson and colleagues drove the ice road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, and later flew up even farther to Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour (pop. 80 people). His purpose was to interview residents about the impacts of weather (especially storms), as he says, 鈥渨ho knows more about northern weather than the people most affected by it?鈥�
Take a virtual tour from seaweeds and sea stars to wolves and eagles, with a new digital field guide. The guide provides experts and amateurs with a tool to identify over 700 species in the Great Bear Rainforest to help deepen our appreciation of the biodiversity along BC鈥檚 central coast.
From seaweeds and sea stars to wolves and eagles, a new app provides experts and amateurs with a tool to identify over 700 species in the Great Bear Rainforest to help deepen our appreciation of the biodiversity along BC鈥檚 central coast. The guide for phone, computer and tablet is a collaborative project developed by UVic's Brian Starzomski and including grad studentChanda Brietzke and alumna Kelly Fretwell.
Scientists have found that trees are growing faster in BC due to global warming, which counters the carbon-loss impacts of the province鈥檚 devastating mountain pine beetle outbreak.
