I am sharing an update on the Strategic Plan deliverable I’m leading, which falls under our commitment to provide future-proof applied education and the initiative for augmented and sustainable environments.
The Sustainability Vision was launched in 2019 to identify and embed policies, practices, and culture at BCIT to advance sustainability, which we define as enabling socially just lives within ecological limits. Institute Sustainability provides expertise, coordination, facilitation, capacity, and reporting across BCIT to model best practices while eliciting greater societal change.
This year, we completed BCIT’s first Institute-wide comprehensive accountability reporting through the Sustainability Tracking and Reporting System (STARS) from the Association for Advancement in Higher Education (AASHE). We are proud to have achieved a Silver Rating for our sustainability accomplishments. We also assessed BCIT’s contribution to the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and presented lunch and learn sessions on the SDGs and campus waste reduction to over 80 students, faculty, and staff.
Through the Centre for Ecocities, we refined our tools to help 30 BC municipalities measure their ecological footprints and consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions inventories. We also offered five training workshops and webinars on related topics to 240 urban practitioners in our ever-growing Ecocity Peer Network.
In partnership with UN-Habitat and Colleges and Institutes Canada, we delivered the Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership curriculum to 120 youth from 14 countries who are seeking skills and knowledge to tackle the most critical global challenges. We also completed our Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded research on how cities are measuring and managing living within Earth’s carrying capacity and are now finalizing related journal articles for publication.
Along the way, our team promoted BCIT’s expertise in sustainability to local, national, and international audiences through conferences, podcasts, and lectures. We were especially pleased to have provided employment opportunities to 11 BCIT students and recent grads throughout 2021.
We look forward to continuing to work with the highly active BCIT Green Team, further developing our collaborations with both the Student Association and Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships, and sharing more information on our STARS report with the BCIT community early in the new year.
Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for sustainability at BCIT!
Best regards,
Christina Olsen
Acting Director, Institute Sustainability
Commitment: Future-proof applied education
Initiative: Augmented and sustainable environments
Deliverable: Sustainability Vision implementation
Deliverable lead: Christina Olsen, Acting Director, Institute Sustainability