Wednesday, February 5, 2014 - 10:39
Derek Pope, Greenest City Scholar. Credit Jacqueline Liu.

By Salina Marshall

A year and a half after graduating from the University of British Columbia, Derek Pope is exactly where he wants to be. He’s got a good job with the City of Vancouver. He’s working in the field he studied. And he’s doing something he believes in: reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Most graduates hope that their studies will lead to meaningful employment. So how did Pope make it happen? He points to the Greenest City Scholars Program--a partnership between the UBC Sustainability Initiative and the City of Vancouver--as one of the factors behind his success. “What I’m working on now is very related to what I was working on as a Greenest City Scholar,” he explains. 

This innovative summer internship program sponsors UBC graduate students to work on sustainability projects with the City of Vancouver. The students are partnered with a city team and a mentor to investigate and implement projects identified under Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. The plan identifies 10 long-term goals, supported by a set of measurable and attainable targets, for Vancouver to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. 

Pope participated in the program when he was a masters student in chemical and biological engineering. He worked in the city’s Sustainability department helping to find ways to eliminate the city’s dependence on fossil fuels. He researched the potential for the city to use biomass boilers, which burn wood waste, as a clean energy system for buildings. 

The program gave him the opportunity to research a real-world scenario from which the city can benefit. “It’s important to stop and think about what you’re learning in school and how you can apply it towards the environment,” he says. 

After graduating from UBC in December 2011, Pope kept his eye open for positions with the city while working another job. In March 2013, he was hired by the city’s Engineering department. Pope now works as a Project Engineer on the Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) System, which uses waste heat recovered from untreated sewage to provide space heating and hot water to new buildings in Southeast False Creek, including the Olympic Village. 

“My role is primarily in expanding the number of buildings that the NEU is supplying clean energy to, and improving the NEU system performance,” he says. “I’m also involved in planning new clean energy systems throughout Vancouver.” 

For Pope, this is a dream job. “It’s encouraging to see the progress that we’re making towards reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions,” he says. “That’s why I got into engineering in the first place: to try to reduce our impact on the environment.” 

Pope notes that it can be challenging for new graduates to find their first good job. They must compete with other graduates and candidates with several years’ work experience. “Having something like the Greenest City Scholars internship to put on your resume can really set you apart from the rest,” he says. “It made a really big difference for me.” 

The Greenest City Scholars Program is open to UBC graduate students from all academic disciplines.

February 03, 2014