BCIT

Centre for Ecocities

Helping build socially just cities in balance with nature

Happy Earth Day 2021!

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Cover image for the Saanich Climate Plan.The Centre for Ecocities is thrilled to be supporting the work of our Municipal Pilots in helping them create and apply the results of their Ecological Footprint assessments and Consumption-based Emissions Inventories (CBEI).

One of these pilot communities, the District of Saanich, has taken a leadership stance incorporating the results of their CBEI into their 2020 Climate Plan. Saanich has also embedded One Planet Living principles into their climate plan, using the principles as a lens to ensure that climate actions are also contributing to broader sustainability objectives.

The Climate Plan has won multiple awards including an award from the Planning Institute of British Columbia for “Excellence in Policy Planning”  in 2020.

Cora Hallsworth headshot.Cora Hallsworth, our Manager of Municipal Programs and Saanich resident, has been leading One Planet Saanich with the support of One Earth, since 2018. One Earth is a community mobilization initiative through which a range of organizations from businesses to school groups are creating and implementing their ‘One Planet Action Plans’.

In addition to One Planet Saanich, the municipality is actively engaging stakeholders with these consumption-based sustainability metrics in a range of ways, they:

Head shot of Rebecca Newlove.Rebecca Newlove, District of Saanich Sustainability Manager, wrote a personal note of thanks acknowledging the Centre’s role as “instrumental in building this plan” and “huge thanks again for all of your input and support. We’re lucky we get to continue working with you all in realizing the actions.”

Come hear more from Cora, Rebecca and speakers from One Earth and the City of Vancouver about working with the results of Ecological Footprint assessments and CBEIs at our upcoming webinar on May 13th.

Webinar: Engaging Stakeholders on Consumption-Based Sustainability Metrics

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At the Centre for Ecocities we are focused on helping to create socially just cities that are in balance with nature. Key metrics that we use to help inform this transition are the ecological footprint and ‘consumption-based’ greenhouse gas emissions.

Join us to explore how local governments and their partners can meaningfully engage stakeholders with these important consumption-based sustainability metrics.

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Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training

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Climate Changemakers Event Poster.The Centre for Ecocities is collaborating with Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) to deliver the first cross-Canada pilot of Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training.

This initiative will provide the foundation for a broader global programme the Centre for Ecocities is developing with input from staff from UN-Habitat and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

This initial three-hour workshop will provide training for youth to become climate change leaders in Canada. The primary participants will be those involved across the country in CICan’s Career Launcher program, a federally funded initiative that helps young emerging professionals find employment. BCIT’s alumni and students are also invited to be part of the training.

Through the pilot training, participants will learn how to leverage their impact as sustainability and climate leaders through whatever career path they choose.

The Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training pilot workshop will be delivered in a three-hour webinar on April 9th, immediately following the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum 2021 on homelessness, taking place April 7 and 8.

The Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership workshop will provide engaged young leaders with the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and experience needed to increase their capacity to influence positive change in their communities and unpack and promote a carbon neutral “one planet” lifestyle. The training will provide:

  1. An overview of sustainability challenges, orientation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and an introduction to science-based and action-oriented tools drawn from the World Environmental Situation Room (UNEP), the City Prosperity Index (UN-Habitat), and the Sustainable Living Protocol developed by the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).
  2. Leadership training, including how to organize and coordinate climate impactful projects in communities.
  3. Communication training in social media and inter-governmental communications.

These skills empower the youth to become “Climate Changemaker emissaries”.

Register online through CICan.

 

International Women’s Day

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Image of Jennie Moore sitting on the Sustainable Development Goal 11 cube for Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Dr. Jennie Moore

Written by Cameron Ellis

March 8th, 2021 is International Women’s Day – a recognition of women and their achievements in social, economic, political, and cultural spheres. The day serves as a call to action for accelerating gender parity and working toward true equality in a just society. This year’s theme is #ChooseToChallenge, a commitment to calling out gender bias and inequality as it presents itself in our communities.

The Centre for Ecocities exemplifies the outstanding contributions that women are making in the quest to build socially just cities in balance with nature. Leading the Centre’s efforts is Dr. Jennie Moore, Director of Institute Sustainability at BCIT. As Director, Dr. Moore is committed to tackling the challenges facing humanity’s outsized ecological footprint. She created BCIT’s High Performance Building Lab and launched the Factor Four initiative on that has reduced the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of BCIT’s Burnaby campus by 50% since 2009. Whether in technological or policy change, Dr. Moore’s work helps empower individuals to take action in sustainability.

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World Engineering Day

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World Engineering Day 2021 Poster.Written by Cameron Ellis, BCIT Technical Writing student.

March 4th, 2021 is World Engineering Day – a recognition of the work done by engineers in a dynamic modern world, and a spotlight on the importance of engineering and technology as part of a sustainable future. This year’s theme is “Engineering for a Healthy Planet – Celebrating the UNESCO Engineering Report”. The event will be celebrating the launch of the 2nd UNESCO Engineering Report, titled “Engineering for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals.” Published 10 years after UNESCO’s 1st Engineering Report, the latest features the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, looking to the future of engineering as it aims to close the sustainability gap through exciting innovation and global cooperation.

Engineering plays a significant role in the goals of the Centre for Ecocities. Engineers are often responsible for the technologies that cities can implement in their sustainability strategies, including green roofs, living walls, smart micro-grid technology. To help rationalize the need for these cutting-edge technologies, the Centre is gathering data with the ecoCity Footprint Tool, piloted in 10 cities throughout British Columbia. When used by city officials, the tool provides an assessment of the ecological footprint of their communities. From there, we can provide recommendations that put the communities on a path to sustainability. The Centre for Ecocities now also has four BCIT engineering students to assist with analysing these sets of data, as well as moving toward urban restructuring tailored to the communities’ needs.

 

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Webinar: Exploring Buildings’ Embodied Emissions

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Learn more about the importance of Life Cycle Assessment and the embodied emissions of buildings. We will be joined by Jeremy Caradonna from the Province of BC’s Office of Mass Timber Implementation and Patrick Enright, Senior Green Building Engineer at the City of Vancouver. They will discuss the significance of embodied emissions in our buildings, how they are measured and innovative policy responses that any local government can implement.

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2020 Year in Review

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Image of the Cover of the 2020 Year in ReviewWe are pleased to present the inaugural annual report from the BCIT Centre for Ecocities.

Our Mission is to help cities and communities close their sustainability gap. We deliver on our mission through applied research, education, and advisory services.

We achieved a great deal this year despite the onset of the global pandemic. We built partnerships, developed relationships, and worked with municipalities, students, faculty, and other collaborators to drive transformative change locally and globally.

We are excited to create new ways to serve cities, BCIT’s students and faculty, and others around the world who can benefit from ecocity focused applied knowledge and training. Whether through micro-credential courses or other accessible real-world learning, we see a path ahead filled with opportunities to help cities and their citizens achieve sustainability in all its dimensions.

Ecocities Now Book Released

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Ecocities Now: Building the Bridge to Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

Image of the book cover for Ecocities Now.We are pleased to announce the publication of Ecocities Now. The purpose of the book is to publish the ten best papers submitted for presentation at the International Ecocity World Summit held in Vancouver, October 7-11, 2019. The objective is to accelerate knowledge dissemination about the development of ecocities through attention to what constitutes an ecocity, what cities around the world are doing, what Vancouver as an emerging ecocity is doing, and how education can play a role in preparing the next generation of ecocity practitioners.

The work uses the Summit’s overarching theme and sub-themes as an organizing framework and aligns with the International Ecocity Standards that serve as a diagnostic tool to help cities assess their progress on the path to becoming ecocities. The Ecocity Standards are also proving useful to communities in developing locally relevant pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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World Soil Day

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World Soil Day Where Food Begins poster.December 5th, 2020 is World Soil Day – the United Nations Observance that celebrates healthy soils for a food-secure future. This years’ campaign “Keep soil alive, Protect soil biodiversity” focuses our attention on the workers that live in the soil – from tiny bacteria to agile millipedes and earthworms – all of which contribute to processes that are indispensable to life on Earth.

These days biodiversity loss is a worry – and soil is also affected. Soil is home to more than 25% of our planet’s biodiversity. There are more living creatures in a single teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on Earth. Soil organisms are responsible for many critical ecosystem services, on which humans depend: from supporting plant growth, to storing carbon and being a vast reservoir for pharmaceuticals. But soil biodiversity is under pressure! Unsustainable soil management affects life below ground (from www.fao.org/world-soil-day).

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