Before COVID-19, momentum was building for 2020 to stand tall as a bold year of climate action with cities across the world declaring a climate emergency and pledging to urgently reduce emissions. And despite the challenges of the pandemic, there is reason for continued hope, among them the ideas and energy of young people who have been leading climate action movements.
At UBC, a competition launched by the UBC Sustainability Initiative drew more than 40 inspiring visions and solutions from students and student groups, centred on the theme: “What will sustainability at UBC look like in 2030?”
In response, student ideas included tackling climate change, ending environmental injustice, transforming food systems, protecting nature, green building and building retrofits, zero waste, and other sustainability issues. Ideas focused on campus, but they also expanded into life beyond UBC.
Posting to Instagram using the hashtag #UBC2030, participants got creative with 30-second video clips, photo series, mock newspaper/magazine covers, songs, multimedia art, and more for a chance to win amazing prizes from Patagonia, Arc'teryx, the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, the UBC Botanical Gardens, UBC Bookstore and UBC Farm.
The winners are:
- Video by student group Climate Justice UBC, using a myriad of styles to highlight all the different voices that must be counted to shape a sustainable tomorrow. Leads: Rachel Cheang and Nafeesa Alibhai.
- A proposed new first-year course for all students to learn about the past, present and future of Canada, covering major events in Canadian history and current social, economic and environmental sustainability issues. Lead: Daphne Liu.
- “Water Loop”: imagining the transformation of UBC’s Main Mall boulevard into a treatment wetland where chemical waste can be filtered, pollutants can be broken down through bacterial organisms and specific plants for phytoremediation. Lead: Marc Massicotte.
- Eco Magazine: a magazine from 2030 that highlights the central role of student agency to promote long-lasting change and captures empowering proposals including a scholarship for sustainability champions and Indigenous land defenders and undergraduate opportunities to engage in local politics. Leads: Caelin and Lindsay Palmer.
- Third Quadrant Digest: by student group Third Quadrant Design imagines advances at UBC by year 2030, including reduction in paper use, a refreshed landscape, optimized waste management and vibrant student life. Team: Aleksandra Vujicic, Anda Cen, Emma Ng, Jasmine Lee and Tierra Parminter.
View the winning entries and more on our competition page: sustain.ubc.ca/ubc2030
"We are blown away by the creativity and passion of the UBC students who envisioned a more sustainable UBC in 2030 for our contest," said Linda Nowlan, Senior Director of the UBC Sustainability Initiative. “If we can realize the visions of our students who entered the contest, there is hope for a more sustainable world.”
“UBC has over 18,000 international students coming in every year, but many are unfamiliar with Canada. We want students to be knowledgeable about our history, how our government works today, and to be able to critically examine news to avoid misinformation in the future. Introducing this course is easy to implement but has powerful and long-lasting effects on the leaders and voters of tomorrow." Daphne Liu, competition winner.
"The implementation of the systems we proposed at UBC would be the beginning of setting a precedent for universities nationwide. In particular, we strongly believe that reducing the footprint of lifestyle systems (such as paper use and disposable cutlery) will have a steady return on investment that truly embodies the definition of long-term sustainability. Furthermore, we hope that UBC will see that integrating these systems directly into student lifestyle will encourage them to reflect upon and improve sustainability in other aspects of their lives.” Jasmine Lee, representing winning group, Third Quadrant Design.
Now the UBC Sustainability Initiative will embark on planning another 10 years of action at UBC in January, fresh with the input of students and their vision for a more sustainable university.