In April 2019, UBC was ranked number one in the world for taking urgent action to combat climate change by Times Higher Education. Following this ranking, UBC declared a Climate Emergency in December 2019.
“UBC acknowledges the urgency of the climate crisis and we must directly face the coming challenges. At this pivotal moment, the decisions and actions we take today will reverberate beyond our own borders and lifetimes,” said UBC President Santa J. Ono.
The Declaration on the Climate Emergency includes the commitment to establish a community engagement process to gather ideas from the UBC community in order to shape the institution’s Climate Emergency response.
The community engagement process started in early March 2020 on the UBC Okanagan Campus where several pop-up events were established to open dialogue on campus and gather ideas and strategies from its diverse community.
The pop-up events at the UBC Okanagan Campus featured an interactive booth where students were encouraged to share their feedback in person or via an online survey. The five-minute survey, that closes in late March, asks participants to rank climate response strategies based on their values. As an added incentive, those who take the survey are entered for a chance to receive a $100 gift card to the UBC bookstore.
By taking part in UBC’s Climate Emergency engagement process, students, staff and faculty alike can play a role in reducing the university’s overall footprint and thereby help make a difference in the global climate crisis.
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