Sustainability Scholars Program

The objectives of this project are to analyze and interpret the financial, environmental, and community-wide implications of Corporate Carsharing. A previous report suggested that Corporate Carsharing would be approximately as financially viable as allowing employees to travel in departmentally assigned vehicles on a department-to-department basis, the old status quo. The Report also suggested there would be strong environmental, social, and community benefits of the Corporate Carsharing program. This project aims to discern whether these benefits have been realized.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green transportation, sustainable development & green economy

This document serves as a guide for the City of Vancouer's Solutions Lab Community of Practice (SLab CoP) as it continues to evolve in 2018/2019. The plan for building practices and nurturing community has been informed by the first three sessions prototyped in Summer of 2018 and input gathered from current core group members of the CoP.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: leadership & behaviour change, social sustainability, sustainability in education

The purpose of this project is to assist the Community Impact Real Estate Society (CIRES) in developing an efficient and updateable geospatial dataset that establishes a baseline of space, uses, and metrics for its retail portfolio. This report provides an overview of how the CIRES Web Map application was created. It also includes a summary of the data collection process, how the data is analyzed, the web application widget choices as well as some of the challenges and decision-making points throughout the project.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: healthy city, green buildings, social sustainability

This report explores best practices in workplace-based childcare and how they might be supported by the City of Vancouver. The review provides information on operating models; facility siting and design; supply and demand; employer partnerships; as well as other criteria that pertain to workplace childcare. It aims to provide preliminary considerations to the City of Vancouver as it develops policy for quality, non-profit workplace childcare.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: social sustainability

The City of Vancouver has an extensive fleet of vehicles. Due to the significant impact of transportation on total greenhouse gas emissions across the region, the City wants to reduce this impact by replacing more internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) in its fleet with electric vehicles (EVs). This study uses life cycle analysis to comparatively analyze two vehicle models of similar size of each type (ICEV and EV) currently used in the City’s fleet. 

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: lighter footprint, transportation

The City of Vancouver is working towards zeroing its carbon emissions. Goods and services procured by the City continue to be the key contributors to GHG emissions. Through this project, the City is interested in assessing the magnitude of emissions associated with a good or a service to understand the strategic importance of suppliers as a part of corporate GHG reductions plan and to focus on contractors with the most significant impact.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: climate and renewables, green economy, supply chain management & green procurement

This report proposes a methodology  to facilitate informed decision making about the participation in Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)-- management systems based on industry taking responsibility for the products they produce through their full life-cycle--to aid in negotiating fair compensation for participation. This model was conceived as a dynamic tool that can be used in different contexts, in bigger or smaller operations.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: zero waste, waste management & recycling

The University of British Columbia (UBC) wanted to create a legacy of real-time reporting for the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) conference. The goal of real-time reporting was to fully understand the sustainability footprint of the ISCN conference and to develop shareable tools to capture, measure and report on the environmental footprint and sense of wellbeing at the conference in real time.

Partner: UBC Sustainability
Keywords: sustainability in education, sustainable development & green economy

This report  provides a high-level introduction to community solar gardens, a concept that has proven effective in increasing the accessibility of solar energy in the United States. Best practices and policies from Canada and the US will be explored, including community engagement strategies, project plan, technology evaluation, design and development, and financing options available. This report will also provide an update on the status of the Urban Solar Garden project in New Westminster, British Columbia.

Partner: City of New Westminster
Keywords: sustainable development & green economy, green buildings