Justin Ritchie, the AMS Sustainability Coordinator, compares the UBC Reads Sustainability project to a book club—with one important difference. “There’s not that kind of guilt trip there for not reading the book,” he says, laughing.
UBC Reads Sustainability is an initiative that’s part book club, part lecture series, and part opportunity to learn beyond the classroom. Above all, it’s a forum for students across disciplines to discuss sustainability issues.
The program invites authors of cutting-edge books on sustainability issues to speak to the UBC community. Books are chosen because their subject matter extends across disciplines—just as sustainability does throughout the university. A discussion follows each presentation that tackles sustainability from a variety of angles.
“Probably very few people have actually read the book before the talk,” Ritchie says, “but after the discussion and interacting with the author, they may be inspired to do so. And even if students never read the book, they can take its ideas back to their faculties.”
The UBC Reads Sustainability speaker series has hosted several well-known authors in the past years. Most recently in 2012, the program sponsored Captain Charles Moore, Richard Heinberg, Morris Berman, and Alanna Mitchell.
“Through these speaker series we want to start a dialogue about sustainability campus wide,” says Kshamta Hunter, the Student Advisor for the UBC Sustainability Initiative’s Teaching & Learning Office. Any student, staff, or faculty member may attend the co-curricular talks, which make sustainability learning more accessible outside of formal courses.
For more information on upcoming talks and to register, see UBC Reads Sustainability, where you can also find audio and video of past lectures. To suggest an author for a future talk, please contact Kshamta Hunter.
For information on other sustainability-oriented courses and programs, visit the Sustainability Education Resource Centre or Email us for an advising appointment.