In a post-Paris Climate Conference (COP21) world, the global community is increasingly looking to cities for their continued leadership in addressing climate action.
The increased focus on cities is not surprising. Major contributors to climate change, cities are responsible for consumption of 78 per cent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 per cent of all carbon dioxide, despite covering only two per cent of the earth’s surface.
Understanding the potential impact that city-based solutions can have on accelerating sustainability, the University of British Columbia has been working with the City of Vancouver to leverage student ingenuity to not only advance the Greenest City Action Plan, but also align with the outcomes of the 2015 Paris Conference of Parties.
Since 2010, the Greenest City Scholars Program has brought 79 UBC graduate students together with City of Vancouver staff to work on specific sustainability projects. Daniel Klein and Anezka Gocova, for example, worked on water and food challenges facing the city. As participants in the 2015 Greenest City Scholars cohort, they contributed to the next generation of innovation required to overcome the pressing sustainability concerns of the 21st century.
Access to drinking water has long been identified as one the most important and precarious human rights which may be affected by climate change. And although Metro Vancouver is known for its abundant water reserves and resources, climate change – along with a growing population – is predicted to reduce water availability in the future.
Daniel Klein’s project supports the City’s goal to mitigate potential challenges such as predicted hotter, drier summers, by working to reduce per capita water consumption by 33 per cent from 2006 levels.
"My project was very close to my research work in urban water management. The Park Board and City of Vancouver share responsiblity for water management across 215 parks, so looking at how I can make contributions to City’s water use planning and overall climate action goals is very relevant" said Daniel, a PhD student with the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
Similarly, the global food system has already witnessed the negative impacts imposed by climate change and drought. According to the Food Price Report issued by the Food Institute at the University of Guelph, fruit and vegetable prices in Canada rose between nine and ten per cent last year. Urban agriculture has been presented as one approach that cities can adopt to empower residents to address food security concerns, and build stronger communities while doing it.
Anezka, a Master of Landscape Architecture student with the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, worked closely with the City of Vancouver, Vancouver’s Park Board, and community gardening groups across the city in order to expand Vancouver’s local food growing potential.
“One of the biggest learning opportunities of this job was learning how to communicate with the public and finding ways that would enable local gardeners to successfully apply for, design and construct an urban agriculture project on City of Vancouver publicly owned land,” Gocova said, reflecting on her project.
The partnership has been beneficial to both the City of Vancouver and UBC, as projects help the community at large by providing health, economic, educational, social and environmental benefits.
“We really value our partnership with UBC on the GC Scholar Program. It provides City staff with additional resources to explore new and emerging opportunities related to sustainability, as well as to look at environmental challenges from a different perspective,” said Doug Smith, Director of Sustainability at the City of Vancouver.
Victoria Smith, Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the UBC Sustainability Initiative says “the Greenest City Scholars program is the successful result of our active partnership with the City. It demonstrates how we, as a university, as an agent of change, work with community partners and help shape sustainability off campus.”
The program runs in the summer, from early-May to mid-August, and is open to UBC graduate students from all academic disciplines.
Learn more: https://sustain.ubc.ca/get-involved/students/greenest-city-scholars