Cycling and walking to campus is about to become a whole lot easier, with the implementation of much-needed improvements to the University Drive Connection Pathway.
The John and Myrtle Tilley Graduate Scholarship helps one of UVic鈥檚 first civil engineering PhD students research water accessibility issues in Malawi.
Donor funding expands a lab鈥檚 research, and teaching and outreach programs in community-driven applied conservation science.
UVic has been included in the list of Canada鈥檚 Greenest Employers for the sixth time. The national awards recognize an elite group of Canadian employers that lead the nation in creating a culture of environmental awareness and action.
As COVID-19 turned the world upside-down, urban geographer Cam Owens had the immense task of shifting his International field school into an online course. The fourth-year geography course, Sustainable Cities, has been a surprising success considering how rapidly Owens had to adapt the field school to an online environment.
A global impact ranking released today by Times Higher Education (THE) evaluating universities鈥� global contributions towards meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) puts UVic among the world鈥檚 top tier of leaders in climate action, and among the world鈥檚 top 100 institutions overall in contributing to a sustainable future for the planet. THE ranked UVic fourth among the world鈥檚 universities for climate action鈥攎eaning research and action taken to understand and respond to the global challenge of climate change.
The university鈥檚 Purchasing Services department has developed a new Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC). The code sets out ethical standards of conduct for UVic suppliers while supporting the university鈥檚 commitment to sustainability.聽
The university鈥檚 Sustainability Action Plan guides efforts across campus to achieve greater sustainability in operations. The close-out report on the 2014-2019 plan, now available, shows that UVic has reduced operational greenhouse gas emissions 25 per cent below 2010 levels, while natural gas consumption intensity has decreased by 22 per cent. A new plan sets sustainability goals and actions until the end of 2021, when a broader Climate and Sustainability Action Plan is expected to be available.
When Saeed Rahman set out to understand how businesses can advance sustainability efforts through better integration of ecological knowledge, he turned first to farmers. What he found was that most agricultural organizations were using a different sustainability lexicon than businesses in other industries.
Sandra Frey, MA grad in the School of Environmental Studies, received the Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation鈥揗aster鈥檚 for her breakthrough work with wildlife camera data collection as an early warning system to detect and prevent wildlife decline, and manage land-use policies.
A UVic hydrologist is one of an international group of scientists and experts who are calling for action to protect global groundwater resources鈥攚hich makes up 99 per cent of the Earth's liquid freshwater. Tom Gleeson is lead author of a Nature Correspondence article published this week that says we are not doing enough to protect and manage global groundwater resources from contamination, salinization, depletion and neglect.
An interdisciplinary team of UVic and international scholars is exploring how vulnerable communities can build local and regional governance of food systems in the context of climate crisis. They met recently on Vancouver Island for a workshop that launched the Four Stories About Food Sovereignty project.
Dare Sholanke, a recent geography master鈥檚 grad, studied Vancouver鈥檚 waste governance system, examining binners' (informal recyclers) and the role of grassroots organizations in municipal waste management.
UVic chemist Dennis Hore and his research team are investigating materials they hope will make up the next generation insulators for the electrical power grid.
Gustavson School of Business third-year students get familiar with global sustainability challenges through the Mission Impossible annual project matching teams of domestic students with incoming exchange students. First conceived by Monika Winn, it鈥檚 a rite of passage for BCom students entering the core year.
In its continuing commitment to promote a sustainable future, the university is updating two policies related to its investments and is inviting feedback from interested faculty, staff and students. Goals of the review include continuing to achieve UVic鈥檚 investment objectives, updating responsible investment practices and aligning each of the policies within the university鈥檚 Strategic Framework. Consultations will continue through October.
