The Catalyst program offers recognition and validation to participants in existing and emerging leadership experiences on and off campus for their sustainability and climate action work.

Program Pillars

The program is supported by four pillars:

Education: Learn through workshops on leadership, sustainability, and professional development. Each stream approaches topics depending on participant level of engagement.

Mentorship: Access mentorship and guidance through your own groups and advisors, or through Sustainability Hub advisors. 

Experiential Learning: Integrate lived experiences to advance your leadership abilities through project or problem-based learning. 

Multidisciplinary Networks: Integrate and interact with interdisciplinary teams, engaging multiple perspectives and encouraging collaboration with project team members and on-and off-campus groups.
 

Sustainability Leadership Competencies

Program learning objectives are based on the framework of sustainability leadership competencies, including: 

Self-awareness: Identify a personal and cultural value base and make tangible connections to community and sustainability issues or goals.

Systems Awareness: Identify and appreciate interconnections of any system and be able to understand how these interactions influence goals.

Interdisciplinary Integration: Actively engage and participate in interdisciplinary interactions around sustainability and climate-related issues.

Interpersonal and Collaborative: Work collaboratively with organizations and individuals from various backgrounds and perspectives.

Strategic Application: Conceptualize and implement ideas by integrating competencies and problem solving.

Connection to UBC Strategic priorities

Sustainability Hub
  • Transformative Learning Goal 6: Cultivate the use of transformative pedagogies, including a variety of enriched, experiential and applied learning approaches, for sustainability education across UBC and beyond. 
  • Transformative Learning Goal 7: Increase the number of students and other learners from diverse communities on and off campus to participate in UBC-wide co-curricular and curricular sustainability experiences every year. 
  • Local and Global Engagement Goal 13: Build strong diverse supportive and reciprocal relationships with local and regional communities to mobilize for climate action and sustainability.
Climate Emergency Task Force Report
  • Foster a culture of engagement and advocacy on climate action 
  • Encourage civic engagement 
  • Increase capacity and resources for engagement 
  • Expand climate education opportunities and resources for the UBC community and broader public
Inclusion Action Plan 
  • Support mentorship, peer support, and affinity/resource groups that enhance spaces and initiatives toward inclusion
  • Promote extracurricular programming, professional development opportunities, and events that help build inclusive cultures.