the university of british columbia volume 52 | number … · the university of british columbia...

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F B R I T I S H C O L U M B I A V O L U M E 5 2 | N U M B E R 4 | A P R I L 6 , 2 0 0 6

UBC REPORTS

It can power a massive submarineor a 10-speed bike light, and thepower source can be derived frompig manure.

This versatile device is a hydrogenfuel cell, powered by the most abun-dant element on earth and key totechnologies that UBC plans todemonstrate as part of the BCHydrogen Highway™ project.

The university is an integral partof the BC Hydrogen Highway™, aco-ordinated, large- scale demon-

stration program, created to accelerate the commercialization ofhydrogen and fuel cell technologies.The National Research Council’s(NRC) Institute for Fuel CellInnovation at UBC Vancouver’ssouth campus is also a member.

Announced by the FederalGovernment in 2004, the program’snetwork of test sites, or highway,includes Victoria, Surrey, NorthVancouver, and Vancouver Airportto Whistler, with full implementation

UBC a Test Site on Hydrogen Highway $10-million proposal would see hydrogen run campus vehicles, cell phones

B Y H I L A R Y T H O M S O N

Almost everyone knows Pogo ‘Possum’sfamous utterance from Earth Day, 1970. Oncontemplating the desecration of his belovedOkefenokee Swamp, Walt Kelly’s memorablecartoon-strip character sadly observed: “Wehave met the enemy and he is us.”

Well, 36 years later, the rest of us are justcatching up with Pogo in appreciating themeaning of ecological degradation. It is finallypenetrating our consciousness that climatechange, tropical deforestation, desertification,the ozone hole, fisheries collapses — the wholelitany of so-called environmental problems —aren’t really “environmental” problems at all.They are actually the raw symptoms of humanecological dysfunction. We have indeed met theenemy and he is us.

One way of determining how great anenemy we are, is through ecological footprintanalysis (EFA). I began developing this methodover two decades ago after finding myselfembroiled in a debate with an economist colleague over the relevance of ecological carrying capacity to humans. He argued theconventional wisdom of the day, that the combination of trade and human technologicalingenuity enables modern humans to squeezeso much out of the earth that the term “humancarrying capacity” is now meaningless.

Lawrence Summers, then Chief Economistof World Bank, put it this way in 1991: “Thereare no... limits to the carrying capacity of theearth that are likely to bind any time in theforeseeable future. There isn’t a risk of an

apocalypse due to global warming or anythingelse. The idea that we should put limits ongrowth because of some natural limit, is a profound error and one that, were it everto prove influential, would have staggeringsocial costs.”

Back then, such assertions were made withintimidating assurance and conviction, but tomy ecologist’s ears something was missingfrom the implied cornucopian vision. In part,the problem lay with the standard definition of carrying capacity. To ecologists and gamemanagers, carrying capacity is the maximumpopulation of a given species that can occupya particular habitat without impairing its long-term productivity. However, if humansare the species, and trade and technology augment local productivity, well… maybe theeconomists have a point.

But what happens if we invert the carryingcapacity ratio? Rather than asking what population a given area can support, let’s askhow much area is needed to support a given population, wherever the area is or howevertechnologically sophisticated the population.This shift in perspective merely acknowledgesthat trade and technology don’t actuallydecouple economies from nature, they merelyshuffle resources around and increase theintensity of resource exploitation. It thus re-establishes humans’ direct connection to the land and puts global carrying capacityfirmly back on the sustainability agenda.

Footprints to SustainabilityB Y W I L L I A M E . R E E S Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning

Prof. Rees is well-known for inventing the “ecological footprint analysis,” a quantitativetool that estimates humanity’s ecological impact.

T H E S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y I S S U EWith hundreds of UBC students, faculty researchers, staff andalumni engaged in issues surrounding sustainability, more than 300academic courses directly related to the subject, and a Trek 2010strategic plan commitment, UBC Reports has decided to focus anentire issue on sustainability.

Look inside for a number of articles by our international experts onthe global challenges in air, water, food and energy systems. At thesame time, read how your UBC community is acting locally to makea difference.

in time for the 2010 WinterOlympics. A consortium of organi-zations have come together todesign, build, test and evaluatehydrogen fuel cell applications thatinclude transportation, stationary,portable and micropower uses ofthe technology.

UBC’s Campus SustainabilityOffice (CSO) has proposed a $10-million suite of projects —approved in principal by Industry

continued on page 10

continued on page 7Jorge Marques displays one of the hydrogen fuels cells to be demonstratedin a campus sustainable energy technology showcase.

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2 | ubc reports | april 6, 2006

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IN THE NEWSHighlights of UBC Media Coverage in March 2006. C O M P I L E D B Y BA S I L WAU G H

Everything but the Kitchen Sink:UBC Geologists Experimentwith Household ItemsThe New York Times reports onUBC geologists Alison Rust andMark Jellinek, who use everydayitems such as chocolate fudge andliqueurs to demonstrate geologicalconcepts.

“Lava would be pretty imprac-tical to take into the classroom,”said Rust, a postdoctoral fellow.“These household items arecheap, non-toxic and I don’t haveto worry about spills.”

In an experiment called, ‘TheEarth: Kinda Like a Mai Tai?’Jellinek pours various liqueursinto plastic cups to demonstratehow the composition of differentgeological affects their motions.

The Human Genome Project,Hollywood-StyleIf you’re trying to impress thenuances of genetics research uponan unknowing public, featuringhalf-naked, singing deliverymenwho shimmy their way up DNA-shaped ‘ladders of love’ might notbe the most obvious way to go,reports the U.K.’s The Scientist.But that’s what you get in TheScore, a stylized laboratory dramathat switches at will betweengoofiness and artful poignancy.

The play-turned-film was thebrainchild of UBC medical geneti-cist Michael Hayden, who com-missioned the work, based looselyon his own lab, after the nearcompletion of the HumanGenome Project motivated him tocommunicate with the publicabout the project’s implications.

“The creative process in itspurest form is exactly the same ingreat art and great science,” saysHayden. In its attempt to provethis, the film pieces together acaricatured portrait of a lab andits tangled web while managing tocheck off a number of majorthemes: big versus small science,science versus religion, the lure ofselling out.

UN Peacekeeping Mission inSudan ‘Near the Point ofOverstretch’The Economist cites UBC Prof.Andrew Mack’s Human SecurityReport, which estimated that whilethe number of armed conflictsaround the world had dippedsharply since the early 1990s dueto UN peacekeeping efforts, morepeople are being killed in Africanwars than in all the rest of theworld.

The article reports that as theinsurgency in Sudan’s Darfurregion spills over into Chad,efforts to strengthen the belea-guered African Union force in theregion, by turning it into a14,000-person fully-fledged UNblue-helmet mission with a robustmandate, take on new urgency.

The editor of a review of globalpeacekeeping by New YorkUniversity’s Centre onInternational Co-operation (CIC)argues that without more supportfor the UN, a new mission inDarfur could push peacekeepingefforts “past the point of over-stretch,” and calls for “strategicreserves” to be developed, so thattroops can be sent more quickly to

trouble spots and missions understrain can be reinforced faster.

Online Black Market: HumanEggs for SaleA Canadian Press story, picked upby several Canadian dailies,including the Montreal Gazette,Hamilton Spectator, and theHalifax Daily News, looks at howalmost two years after the federalgovernment passed a law banningthe sale of human eggs, womenare still advertising their ova forsale on the Internet — and HealthCanada has no problem with it.

“I’m very surprised,” said UBCgeneticist Patricia Baird, whoheaded the 1993 RoyalCommission on New ReproductiveTechnologies. “Clearly, if it’s illegal to sell eggs, it should be illegal to advertise selling them.The potential for exploitation ofwomen who need money to selltheir eggs is enormous.”

Egg harvesting is an invasive,medically risky procedure thatrequires donor women to takepowerful hormones, usually byinjections that first stimulate, thensuppress, the ovaries. ■■

UBC Reports is printed by Teldon Print Mediawhich is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified.FSC Certification is a code of practices developed bythe environmental movement as if they were the

various government agencies that regulate logging, pulp andpaper making practices. These environmentally sound practiceshave been taken out to the industry, adopted where possibleand consequently there is FSC Certified paper available today.

PRINTED ON 30% POS T CONSUMER PAPER.

Companies operating in all three aspects of the industry have a distinct advantage over those that don’t because FSCCertification is a “chain-of-custody” process that follows the virgin fibre from the forest to the finished paper product. The real value of FSC Certification lies in this ability to trackthe fibre from the source and audit all the industrial processes used from tree to paper and then finally to brand the finishedprinted product with the appropriate FSC logo.

UBC geneticist Patricia Baird says that ads to sell human eggs should be illegal.

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B Y BA S I L WAU G H

ubc reports | april 6, 2006 | 3

Can’t tellyour eco-footprint

from a one-tonne chal-lenge? Don’t know a

“Frankenfood” from a monocrop?Sprouts, Canada’s largest student-run food co-op, intends to changeall that.

Located in the basement of UBC’sStudent Union Building (SUB), thenot-for-profit grocery store and education centre serves up not onlyinformation on hot-button issuesrelated to our food, but also affordable, organically grown localand fair trade foods.

Elana Cossever is president of theUBC Food Co-op, the student clubthat has operated Sprouts since itopened in September 2004. Withover 1,000 voluntary members, it isthe largest student-run food co-opof only a handful in Canada and theonly co-operative campus retailer in B.C.

“People come to our store notonly to buy all these amazingly tastyorganic, local and fair trade foods,but also to learn about the ecologi-cal, economic, and social benefits ofeating these types of foods,” saysCossever, a Master’s candidate inthe School of Community andRegional Planning.

“There is so much research goingon at UBC into sustainable eatingpractices — our store gives peoplethe opportunity to put the researchinto practice.”

In Sprouts’ small, brightly-paintedlocation, shoppers will find artisancheeses and breads, fresh fruit andproduce, wraps, frozen soups, coffees and teas, bulk foods, snacks,condiments and vitamins. The storealso sells biodegradable cleaningsupplies and personal hygiene products.

Hayes Zirnhelt, a first-year engi-neering student who lives on cam-pus, says that convenience is onlyone reason why he shops at Sprouts.

“Because it’s in the SUB, it meansI don’t have to go off-campus whenI want to stock up on things — andif I’m in a hurry, I can just pop infor a banana or a wrap betweenclasses,” he says. “But mostly Icome here because I believe in eating organic foods — I think itjust tastes better, and I want toknow that I’m not eating pesticidesor anything.”

While the co-op’s motto is “people- and planet-friendly foods,”it could easily also be “act locally,think globally,” says Cossever.“Because 90 per cent of the energythat goes into industrial food production is from environmentallyharmful fossil fuels — much of itfrom transportation — we are constantly looking for organic suppliers closer to home.”

“We purchase items that can’t beproduced locally — bananas, choco-late, coffee and teas — through fairtrade networks, which work withgrowers that protect human rights,environmental standards and paybetter than the often exploitativecommodity markets,” says Cossever.

In addition to the co-op’s commitment to social issues aroundthe globe, it has also partnered withsocial enterprises closer to home.Through the federal Katimavik program, young Quebecois aged 17 to 21 come to work at Sproutsfor three-month terms to gainEnglish-speaking work experience in a socially responsible work environment. The store also purchases all its soups, wraps,breads, and baked goods fromVancouver’s Downtown EastsideStudio Café, which offers at-riskyouth and adults training as chefs.

Sprouts offers information on fair trade, eating local and otherfood-related issues through a seriesof outreach initiatives, including aSprouts cookbook, a lending library,e-mail newsletters, cooking demon-strations at student residences andother special events. The co-oprecently arranged for Guatemalancoffee farmers to come to UBC tospeak first-hand on how fair tradenetworks ameliorate their livelihoods. As part of March’sEthical Consumption Week, Sproutspresented “The Future of Food,” afilm by Deborah Coons Garcia(widow of musician Jerry Garcia)on genetically modified food at theUBC Norm Theatre.

Before moving into its currentlocation, the co-op’s membershipconsisted of less than 100 studentsoperating out of a portable behindthe Faculty of Land and FoodSystems’ MacMillan building. Butwhen the group launched a weekly

Sprouts’ huge organic brownies incorporate all thefacets of sustainability — ecological, economic, andsocial. Available for $1.75, they are made fromscratch by at-risk youth and adults at Vancouver’sDowntown Eastside Cook Studio Café using fairtrade cocoa and cane sugar, free range eggs, and localdairy and milled flour. UBC Food Co-op presidentElana Cossever calls the brownie the store’s “little

open-air market in the SUB, membership swelled to 400. On thebasis of these numbers, the AMSoffered the co-op a permanent location.

In addition to the exposure thatcomes with being located in thecampus’ busiest building, Cossevercites the efforts of researchers suchas Bill Rees and Alejandros Rojasand the operational initiatives of theCampus Sustainability Office forSprouts’ growth. “Because of thework being done on sustainability,students, staff, and faculty havereally embraced the store when theyfind out about it,” says Cossever.

A large part of Sprouts’ success isdue to its seven-person executive’sability to complement the store’srevenues with addition sources ofincome including, from UBC’sAMS, a $20,000 donation of in-kind renovations and a $3,000

Innovative Project Fund grant. Thestudent government continues tooffer its space rent-free in recogni-tion of the co-op’s club status. In2004, then AMS Vice PresidentAcademic Lyle McMahon, whospearheaded the AMS Ethical andSustainable Purchasing Policy, donated $2,000 of his salary to thestore’s operation.

Cossever says that this financialsupport allows the co-op to keepprices as low as possible, which isanother reason for Sprout’s continued growth in membership.

“Because organic farmers don’thave the economics of scale of conventional food producers, thebiggest argument against eatingorganically is that it is more expensive than non-organic foods,”says Cossever. “We feel that studentsshould be able to afford to buy fairtrade and organic foods — and

because of our not-for-profit model,we can sell these foods for less thanyou will find anywhere else.”

Sprouts’ ecological and socialefforts are attracting internationalattention. The U.S. KelloggFoundation, established in 1930 bycereal pioneer W.K. Kellogg to promote sustainable food systems,has lauded the store and invited thenco-op president Alice Miro to attendits 2005 policy conference. Last year,Canada’s Sierra Youth Coalition fea-tured Sprouts as part of its NationalSustainable Campus Conference,and later this year, the store will beprofiled in a magazine published byThe Food Project, a Boston-basednon-governmental organization.

Sprouts is open Mon-Fri, 9:30a.m. — 6 p.m. from September tothe end of classes in April. For more information visit,www.ams.ubc.ca/clubs/nfs. ■■

sustainabilitymascot.” “It’s still super rich, but I thinkwe’ve made it as ‘guilt-free’ as a chocolate brownie isgoing to get.” ■■

“Because 90 per cent of the energy that goes into industrial food production is from environmentallyharmful fossil fuels — much of it from transportation — we are constantly looking for organic suppliers closer to home.”

Want to Make a Difference? Have a Brownie

Co-opSproutsPlanet-FriendlyFoods

l.

In addition to information on hot-button environmental issues, Sprouts serves up affordable, organically grown local and fair trade foods.

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The world’s production of oil haspeaked and is on its way down,meanwhile the awakening of neweconomies like China and India hasdeepened the thirst for the stuff. Thisis popularly referred to as the PeakOil crisis. Many have interpreted thisas the death knell to fossil fuels andthe dawn of a new era of energy conservation and alternative energy.Unfortunately, those who havepinned their hopes for such changeson high oil prices will be disappoint-ed to learn that we are simply atanother energy crossroads. Beyondconservation and renewableresources, there are plenty of fossilfuels yet to exploit. And the nuclearindustry, in phoenix-like resurrectionfrom the glowing ashes of Chernobyl,is also in the running as our savior.

History has seen humanity copewith many past Peak Oil equivalents.In the fourteenth century, the UK hadtheir “Peak Wood” crisis. Wooddemand had changed the landscape,destroyed ecosystems, and the short-age promised disruption of society.However, the rising price of wood ledto the emergence of coal as the newfuel of choice and even greater energyuse. At the turn of the twentieth cen-tury, whale oil was the lighting fuel ofchoice. With the demise of largewhales the price of fuel for lightingrose tenfold to over one hundred dollars per barrel and the era ofpetroleum was born. In the 1920s,Henry Ford was building his cars torun on renewable fuels (ethanol).Agricultural productivity could notkeep up with demand when yieldswere poor, the price of ethanol rosewith each draught and blight, thisopened the door to petroleum prod-ucts to captured the motorized trans-portation market.

Today, we are at a crossroadsagain. Our options include: renew-ables, nuclear, non-conventional oilsand coal. Unfortunately, none ofthese options are free from vice.Hydro dams are by far the mostestablished renewable energyresource. However, even the existing

dams are opposed by environmental-ists on the basis of their ecologicalimpacts. Wind is the next most com-petitive option in the marketplace.However, in generating power fromthe flow of energy in the atmosphere,wind turbines change the climate too.The nuclear option scares the publicbecause of fuel processing andradioactive wastes that will be with usfor thousands of years. They are alsoof concern because security aroundnuclear infrastructure is sociallyoppressive.

Renewable alternatives such as bio-diesel and ethanol are being rampedup rapidly, but at most can contribute20 per cent of our liquid fuel needsbefore 2020. The “smart money” ison infrastructure to convert coal andtar sands into liquid fuels. Theseoptions will have the upper handbecause their fuel is most compatiblewith our existing infrastructure. Thisrush to fill the shortfall will lead toover-capacity. There will be a glut inthe liquid fuels market, and the priceof “oil and its equivalents” will notrise beyond $100 per barrel as pre-dicted, but fall towards the marginalcost of production from tar sands andcoal at between 20 to 40 dollars perbarrel. This will not be conducive toenergy conservation in the long run.And while we can be chastised forbeing profligate, we cannot deny therest of the world the needs that onlygreater energy consumption can fulfill.

There is a silver lining to this seem-ingly gloomy tale. As recently as fiveyears ago, the spectre of oil at $60 perbarrel would send politicians scurry-ing. Environmentalists urging for pol-lution controls and carbon mitigationto prevent further climate change weredismissed for their unacceptable cost.Since we have now lived through oilat these high prices without economicand social crises, the environmentalistscan now remind politicians that theirfears were groundless and that we as asociety can afford to meet our seem-ingly unquenchable thirst for energywhile dramatically reducing its harm-ful effects on the environment. ■■

A Peek Past Peak OilB Y H A D I D O W L ATA BA D I , Professor, Canada Research Chair in Applied Mathematics

and Global Change, Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability

When there’s only so much waterto go around, who gets it and why?

It’s the kind of question UBCOkanagan anthropology professorJohn Wagner hopes to answer as heembarks on an exploration of howwater has been used by Aboriginalpeoples, European settlers, agricul-tural irrigation districts and commu-nities in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.

“I’ll be looking at the history ofirrigation systems, water rights, andthe policies that have been developedto manage water in the valley,” saysWagner, who lived in the Okanaganin the 1970s and returned threeyears ago after doing doctoralresearch in a coastal community inPapua New Guinea and working fortwo years on a sustainable fisheriesresearch project in Nova Scotia.

Wagner’s project, entitled FromAbundance to Scarcity: the PoliticalEcology of Water Use in theOkanagan Valley, has received$85,864 in funding from the SocialSciences and Humanities ResearchCouncil. The project is slated to runthree years — but he has a longerview. “I’m going to spend the rest ofmy professional life working onthese issues in the Okanagan,” hesays.

How WaterWorks in aValleyAnthropologist examinesthe political ecology ofwater in the Okanagan

B Y B U D M O R T E N S O N

Drenched in 2,000 hours of sun-shine a year, the Okanagan is a landof contrasts: the width of a wirefence can separate irrigated leafyorchards and vineyards from nativegrasslands spiked with cactus andsumac. Lakes reach from north tosouth, and lush green corridorsalong creeks and streams — knownas riparian areas — punctuate thelandscape. Yet for all its prominencewater is by no means abundant here.This fragile environment is home toone of Canada’s most arid climates.

“Over recent decades, rapid development and urbanization haveresulted in habitat fragmentationand loss of biodiversity with theOkanagan now being classified asone of the most endangered habitatsin the country,” says Wagner.“Riparian environments and wetlands are among the types ofhabitat most under siege as a resultof past and current water and landmanagement strategies. You couldn’t

have all the agriculture in this valleywithout water, and we’ve been prettygood at redistributing water.”

But that redistribution of waterraises complex issues that go back to early European settlement of theregion, when government began allocating water rights.

“Water allocation practices haveimportant social outcomes as well asecological and economic outcomes,”he says. “Water equity is an issue tolook at. The people who were getting the water rights at that timewere the people who were going todevelop the region. It was not theAboriginal people.” In the Pentictonarea, for example, indigenous agri-cultural activity was well establishedand thriving by the end of the 1800s.Then, as water rights were grantedto newly arriving farming interests inthe early part of the 1900s, less andless was available for Aboriginal pastures and other agriculture.

High oil prices will not lead to theend of fossil fuel use as somehope, says Prof. Dowlatabadi.

John Wagner is studying how water, a scarce resource in one of Canada’smost arid regions, is distributed and used in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.

continued on page 8

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A world-wide sustainability transi-tion is intended to enhance humanprosperity, protect the Earth’s life-sup-port systems and reduce hunger andpoverty. To what extent are weapproaching this goal in the area ofwater resources (question 1) and is iteven useful to address this questionby sector (question 2)?

The total amount of freshwateravailable for human use is not atissue: more than one billion cubickilometres of freshwater are found atand close to the Earth’s surface. Leastof all in Canada is this a problem,where half of one percent of the global population has access to 9 percent of global surface freshwater. Butthe distribution of surface freshwater

(distant from many urban centres)and the timing of precipitation (least during seasons of greatest agricultural, industrial and domesticdemand) present challenges to human ingenuity.

Groundwater, on which 25 percent of Canadians are dependent, isincreasingly threatened by pollutionfrom inappropriate land uses. Moreserious is the fact that Canadians usemore water per capita than any othernation except the United States (over600 litres per capita per day for alluses on average). Immediate improve-ments would not be painful to makegiven that Canadian households withmetered water use consume less than300 litres per capita per day for

The Unclear State of Our Water B Y O L AV S L AY M A K E RProfessor Emeritus of Geography and Acting Director,Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.Co-author with Tom Spencer (Cambridge) of Physical Geography and Global Environmental Change (Adison Wesley Longman)

domestic purposes, whereas thosepaying a flat rate for water consumeover 400 litres per capita per day forthe same purposes. However, thepolitical will to implement such simpleimprovements remains weak.

It has been pointed out numeroustimes that inadequate access to andinappropriate management of freshwater resources are leading to awide range of ecological and humancrises. Human populations continueto grow, wetlands are experiencingsevere reduction, land use changesthat favour urban development areintensifying, and tropical rainforestscontinue to be logged at unsustainablerates. If the global climatic changesthat are well documented continue to

move in the direction of greaterwarmth and aridity then water relatedillnesses and regional conflicts overscarce shared watersupplies can beexpected to accelerate.

The answer to the first question istherefore that Canadians in particular,and humanity in general, are notmaking good progress towardsachievement of sustainable waterresources. Criteria that are increasing-ly being considered and which represent positive signs in this discouraging scenario include: (1) anagreed principle of guaranteed accessto a basic amount of water necessaryto maintain human health and to sus-tain ecosystems; (2) basic protectionsfor the renewability of water

resources, and; (3) institutional recommendations for planning, management and conflict resolution.

The answer to the second question isthat freshwater resources intersect withso many human activities that it is atleast a questionable strategy to attemptto deal with the issue sectorally.Whether we look at so-called in-streamuses of freshwater, such as hydro-electric power production, shipping,recreation or fish habitat, or so-calledwithdrawal uses such as domestic,industrial, irrigation, livestock wateringand thermal plant cooling, freshwaterresources must surely be managed inconjunction with holistic policiesdirected towards realization of aworldwide sustainability transition. ■■

Growing a New Generation of Green Buildings B Y B R I A N L I N

Trees aren’t the only thingssprouting up green at UBC thesedays. Walk into one of the newerbuildings, and you’re likely toencounter a range of environmentallyfriendly features.

The first two green buildings —the C.K. Choi Building for theInstitute of Asian Research and the

Liu Institute for Global Studies —were constructed in the late 1990s.They have won five internationalawards, including a listing on theAmerican Institute of Architects’ TopTen Earth Day 2000 Green Buildings,for features such as natural ventila-tion, recycled building materials andcomposting toilets.

More recently, the Fred KaiserBuilding, which opened in September2005 and houses the Dept. ofElectrical and Computer Science, waslauded for its use of solar-protectantceramic window coating to conserveenergy while maximizing naturallighting. Designed to be a “living lab-oratory” for engineering students, thefacility’s skylights are lined with pho-

tovoltaic cells to store solar powerfor emergency lighting and serves asan educational tool for electricalengineering students.

The Life Sciences Centre (LSC)made history this January when itwas awarded the prestigiousLeadership in Energy andEnvironmental Design (LEED ®)

Gold certification by the UnitedStates Green Building Council for itsinnovative sustainability features.The largest building at UBC, the LSCis only the second facility that housesresearch laboratories in Canada toreceive the environmentally-friendlyseal of approval. Only four otherbuildings in the province and sevenothers in Canada have reached thisrating.

Compared to standard buildings,the LSC emits 1,000 tonnes fewergreenhouse gases annually, consumes28 per cent less energy and 50 percent less water. A dynamic monitor-ing system, which adjusts interiorlighting and ventilation according tothe external environment, con-

tributes to an annual saving of 6.4million kWh of electricity and nearly$200,000 in energy costs.

Over at the Great Northern WayCampus (GNWC), the Centre forInteractive Research onSustainability (CIRS) is set to beginconstruction this spring. Designedwith 3D virtual software, CIRS will

incorporate cutting-edge sustainabili-ty features, including oxygenatedenvironments and remote-sourcelighting technology, invented byLorne Whitehead, UBC Vice-President, Academic.

UBC’s newest campus inKelowna, B.C., is also poised tomake major innovations.Groundwater geo-exchange technol-ogy, where groundwater will be usedto heat and cool $400 million worthof new buildings planned for theUBC Okanagan campus, will bereplacing an existing natural gasplant, which is nearing the end of itslifespan.

It is estimated that the new systemwill prevent 38,000 tonnes of car-

“As far as sustainability is concerned, no other community in NorthAmerica is aiming for such high standards.”


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The C.K. Choi building is the first green building at UBC.



The global food system that cur-rently serves UBC and its region hasdelivered large volumes of low-costfood, but is also implicated in thehealth issues that flow from overand under-consumption and facesmany challenges to its sustainability.Not the least of these challenges arethe costs of long distance transportation of food and the separation of the vast majority ofpeople from the sources of theirsustenance.

Food security and sustainablefood systems have become centralconcerns in the Faculty of Land andFood Systems (FLFS, formerlyAgricultural Sciences), at UBC.This is the result of our Faculty’stransformation to a more explicitfocus on “human health, a

sustainable food supply and theresponsible use of finite land andwater resources using student-centred learning and interdiscipli-nary perspectives.” Instructors andstudents in the FLFS Land, Foodand Community core curriculumhave mounted two initiatives, TheFood Security Project in the City ofVancouver and the UBC FoodSystem Project, aimed at providingour students with a solid understanding of the ecological,social and economic sustainabilityof food systems.

The Collaborative Project onFood Security in the City ofVancouver This Community-Based ActionResearch Project exploresapproaches for reconnecting food,human health and environmentalhealth to improve food securityand, secondly and more specifically,

CoursesExamineFoodSystemsClose toHomeB Y A R T B O M K E , Associate Professor, and

A L E J A N D R O R O J A S ,Senior Instructor,Faculty of Land and Food Systems

When most of us think of air pollution, images of factories belching smoke or vehicles leavingbehind a cloud of soot often cometo mind. Such conditions led to historical episodes of deadly air pollution — the most notoriousbeing the great London smog inDecember of 1952 when there were

approximately 12,000 excess deathsresulting from a 5-day period ofintense air pollution. With growingworldwide industrialization, emis-sions have increased and becomemore widespread. The introductionof more complex fuels, and combus-tion occurring in a wider range ofconditions, has led to growing toxic-ity of emissions, and increasinglyevident effects on ecosystems.

Modern power plants, factories

and cars produce far less pollutionthan even 30 years ago and air quali-ty in many cities throughout world(including Vancouver) has improveddramatically. This success hasoccurred primarily in cities inWestern Europe and North America,and is exemplified by the introduc-tion of smokeless fuels for spaceheating and the removal of lead asan anti-knock agent in motor vehiclefuels. These examples show thatappropriate legislation and manage-ment initiatives combined with newtechnologies and population educa-tion can have dramatic effects.

Yet all is not well. Today, half ofthe world’s population, primarily the

rural poor of developing countries,still cooks over open fires. Theresulting smoke exposure leaves non-smoking women with lung diseasetypical of smokers and is a majorcontributor to infant pneumonia —the number one cause of infant mor-tality in the world. The WorldHealth Organization estimates thatsuch air pollution is responsible for 2million deaths per year. This ineffi-cient burning of fuel is also a major

Air Pollution The price for our way of life

B Y D O U W S T E Y N ,Professor, Department of Earthand Ocean Sciences, and

M I C H A E L B R AU E R ,Professor, School of Occupationaland Environmental Hygiene

by contributing to the City ofVancouver’s efforts to enhance foodsecurity and sustainability.

This project involves collabora-tion with the adjacent community,the Vancouver School Board and the City of Vancouver to share andproduce knowledge about the existing situation and devise andimplement action plans for transition to greater food securityand food system sustainability.

The UBC Food System Project The initial idea for this course wasto link the Faculty’s curriculum withthe UBC Farm on the UBC SouthCampus. However, the teachingteam’s original idea evolved to recognize the UBC Farm as onethread of a larger tapestry: the UBCfood system. Thus, the central themeof the course became the problem ofthe overall sustainability of the UBCfood system.

We saw the UBC food system asa microcosm of, and interrelated to,the global food system. Given itsarea and rapidly increasing popula-tion, we felt that assessments of thesustainability of the UBC Vancouvercampus and its evolving “UniversityTown” development must includeconsideration of how the “Town”will be fed and how this can informits land use and institutional foodsystem.

The UBC Food Security Project isthe first project at a university inCanada to come up with sustainability principles and to connect students with the majorstakeholders — the departmentsand people who manage the food,the campus farm, and the waste atthe university. Besides the teamfrom the FLFS, and the UBCCampus Sustainability Office’sSEEDS Program, initiators of theUBC Food System Project, the other

partners in the project are UBCFood Services, the Alma MaterSociety’s Food & BeveragesDepartment, UBC Farm (Centre forSustainable Food Systems), UBCWaste Management, UBC Campusand Community Planning.

Both the Collaborative Project onFood Security in Vancouver and theUBC Food Security Project areintended to connect our studentsand instructors’ teaching and learn-ing objectives with the immediateenvironment and the people of theregion. UBC and British Columbia,in general, are in an era of unprece-dented growth and facing challengesto the sustainability of our agricul-ture and human settlements. Thecore values of our Faculty demandthat we connect ourselves and ourstudents with the nutrition andhealth of our population and thesustainability of our campus andcommunity food systems. ■■

source of green-house gas emis-sions contribut-ing to climatechange. Thereare many currentinitiatives to mitigate thisproblem but theyhave onlyscratched thesurface given thehuge numbers ofpeople involved.

Many decadesof research haveled to hugeadvances in our

understanding ofmeteorological,and chemical factors underlying the formation ofair pollution and the complexitiesinvolved in its fate and impacts onhumans and ecosystems. Thisunderstanding has made it clear thatour activities and lifestyle contributeto costly air pollution locally, regionally and globally. Living closeto one of the many roads in our

Our “just-in-time delivery” economy and sprawlingcities result in more localized truck traff ic and its carcinogenic diesel exhaust.

Prof. Bomke (above) and Senior Instructor Rojas (left) have made UBC itself into a living lab to study food systems.

Prof. Douw Steyn says his research is driven by an interest in the polluted atmosphere.

cities results in increased risks fornumerous respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases.

For the convenience afforded bythe car, we pay by emitting fine particles in our neighbourhoods andproducing precursors that form

ozone which damages cash crops,stunts the growth of our trees andaffects human lungs hundreds ofkilometres downwind. Our “just-in-time delivery” economy and sprawling cities result


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Sustainability primarily refers tothe human use of the natural environment, and implies that weshould sustain…something. And forsome length of time. Well, shouldwe?

The answer, of course, dependson what we ought to sustain andfor how long, and it is preciselythese contentious issues of contentand duration that frustrate the definition of the concept of sustain-ability. Also, who should do the sustaining, for whom, and why?

These are ethical issues. They arenot scientific issues, although sci-ence is indispensable for suggestinghow we might sustain, and for pre-dicting the consequences of failingto do so. Instead, these are funda-mental issues about how we shouldor ought to treat others by way ofthe natural environment. They areissues about interpersonal, interna-tional, and intergenerational justice;about how we ought to distributenatural resources spatially and temporally. Some would includeinterspecies justice. In turn, rational-ity, not personal opinion, is thefoundation of principles of justice.

Take intergenerational justice, forexample. It is not rational that onegeneration should get more of whatit wants than others if the only distinguishing feature of the luckygeneration is its prior existence intime. That distinction is arbitrary,and rationality abhors arbitrariness.Intergenerational injustice is simplyraw, irrational discrimination.

So who should sustain what, forhow long, and for whom? At a minimum, we ought to practiceintergenerational justice, which inturn implies conserving enough ofthe natural environment to ensurethat future generations will have thesame opportunities in life that wehave. Recent work on sustainabilityof forests, fisheries, agriculture, andother resource sectors has given ussome clear insight into what weought to do. For example, we knowthat we have to give fish popula-tions time to rebuild themselves; theworld’s fisheries are largely depletedfrom massive overharvesting. Andwe know that we have to learn tolive without further destroyingspecies’ habitats; we are now losing

species at a rate unprecedentedsince the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

At the same time, three ethicalissues are impeding our ability tosustain. First, some still believe inthe ‘techno-fix,’ that humans aresufficiently ingenious to find substitutes for any resource thatbecomes too scarce. Admittedly,humans are innovative, and to somesmall extent we can substitute oneresource for another.

But the human-caused rate ofchange to the Earth is so large andrapid — to the point of affectingmajor life-support systems — that itis unlikely that future generationswill be able to substitute for thedamage we are doing. The preceding article by Professor Reesspeaks to this issue.

Second, since we cannot knowexactly what future generations willwant, some people would like todismiss the idea that we carry anyobligations to those who will followus. This is a non sequitur. We donot know the specific preferences offuture generations, but we do knowthey will want all-purpose goodssuch as biological resources and tolerable environmental conditions.Yet it is precisely these conditions,including the environmental condition known as ‘biodiversity’(the source of biological resources),that the present generation isdegrading so rapidly.

Finally, the political structure ofWestern nations caters to the short-term preferences of the current electorate for a straight-forwardreason: voters authorize liberaldemocratic governments to act onlyin their best interests (in theory).Sustainability strongly implies thatWestern nations — the most rapa-cious consumers of the world’sresources — constrain their rates ofconsumption for the sake of futuregenerations (not to mention mostcurrently living people). But thesegovernments cannot act in the interests of future generations unlessthe current electorate authorizesthem to do so. And we do not; notby a long shot.

The one thing we should not sustain, therefore, is our currentway of thinking. ■■

A Matter of Inter-Generational Justice B Y PAU L WO O D Associate Professor, Faculty of Forestry

Canada — to test and showcase theefficiency of hydrogen fuel cells.

“Our role in the project is to integrate fuel cell technology into ourplans for a sustainable campus,” saysJorge Marques, CSO energy manager. “We want to explorecommunity-oriented applications forhydrogen technology.”

Hydrogen fuel cells are electrochemical devices that generateelectricity without combustion bycombining hydrogen and oxygen toproduce water and heat. Their primary advantage is that, unlikeinternal combustion engines, theycreate little air pollution, greenhousegases, noise, or vibration, and operate at high efficiencies over awide range of loads. In addition,hydrogen can be produced anywherein the world.

“We want the UBC community toexperience concepts they may haveonly read about or seen on TV,” saysIrfan Rehmanji, project co-ordinatorfor the UBC node. “The node willintegrate a number of concepts thataffect our daily life and will be aphenomenal outreach and socialmarketing tool.”

The university plans to participatewith Vancouver’s WestportInnovation to convert a heavy-dutyvehicle to a diesel-hydrogen hybridengine. Another initiative involves anew patrol vehicle for CampusSecurity that uses a hybrid fuel celldrive train, designed by LowerMainland companies DynastyMotors and Delta-Q technologies.The fuel cell will be supplied byVancouver-based Ballard PowerSystems.

Micro fuel cells, supplied byVancouver-based partner AngstromPower, will be used to power lightsfor bikes or bike helmets, to explorehow the cells can be used for small-scale applications. Some UBCwalkie-talkies and 10-20 cell phoneswill also be retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cell units.

In addition, UBC will work withTransLink, the Greater VancouverTransportation Authority, to run afuel cell-operated 36-passenger community shuttle bus on theVancouver campus area.

There are three major fuel celldemonstration projects in Canada,says Alison Grigg, manager of the

BC Hydrogen Highway™ Project.In addition to the highway, there isthe Vancouver Fuel Cell Vehicleproject and Hydrogen Village inToronto.

“B.C. is leading the way inhydrogen fuel cell technology,with delegates from aroundthe world coming to look at whatwe’re doing,” says Grigg. “UBC is alogical development and demonstra-tion site because of its vision for asustainable campus and its leader-ship in sustainability practices andresearch.”

Hydrogen does not exist by itselfin nature — it must be producedand compressed to be useful. It canbe extracted from substances such asnatural gas or other fossil fuels, orfrom methane gas produced at landfills or hog farms. Hydrogencan also be produced using solar orother renewable electricity, such asthat derived from water that is electrolyzed from having an electriccurrent run through it.

The NRC Institute for Fuel CellInnovation on campus currentlyoperates a hydrogen fuelling station,which will be used for the UBC

demonstrationprojects. Creating andstoring hydrogen economically isone of the challenges of the hydrogen economy, and has led environmentalist David Suzuki toquery if the hydrogen economy ishope or just hype.

He wrote in Science Matters inMay 2004 that “to be pollution-free,hydrogen must be made usingrenewable energy, such as solar orwind. Otherwise, we will simply shiftthe pollution source from our vehicletailpipes to smokestacks at hydrogen-production plants.”

Sources of hydrogen are beinguncovered all the time, says Grigg,who is confident that sufficient andsustainable supplies can ultimately be

made available.Final funding

approval for UBC’s projects isexpected this month.

The Hydrogen Highway™ is supported by several Government ofCanada organizations that includeNatural Resources Canada, IndustryCanada, Hydrogen Early AdoptersProgram, Sustainable DevelopmentTechnology Canada and Fuel CellsCanada, a private, not-for-profitindustry association based at UBC.

For more information on fuelcells, visit www.fuelcellscanada.ca. ■■

UBC a Test Site on Hydrogen Highway continued from page 1

At a minimum, says Prof. Wood, we ought to conserve enough of the natural environment to ensure future generations will have the same

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In 1997, UBC was the first Canadianuniversity to adopt a sustainabilitydevelopment policy. In 1998, UBCopened the Campus SustainabilityOffice (CSO) — the first of its kind,as well.

Eight years later, student, facultyand staff efforts are seeing results.They have helped UBC’s Vancouvercampus surpass Canada’s 2012Kyoto Protocol targets, havingreduced over the past 16 years greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent. And last year, UBC wasCanada’s first and only university toreceive Green Campus Recognitionfrom the U.S.-based NationalWildlife Federation.

How does a campus communityof 50,000 organize itself to treadmore lightly on the earth? CSODirector Freda Pagani says the secretlies in making it easy for students,staff and faculty to do good.

“People emotionally are ready todo something, but don’t knowwhat,” says Pagani, who has steeredCSO from the start. “Our role is tosays here’s an easy thing you can doand it’s fun.”

Since 1999, despite a 24 per centincrease in students, UBC hasreduced energy use in campus build-ings by 10 per cent — saving $8 million. As well, UBC has cut downon water use by 32 per cent, enoughto supply 14,700 homes for a year.

Since 1997, UBC has seen transitridership increase by 140 per cent —now at more than 50,000 daily users— and single-occupant vehicle trafficdecrease by 18 per cent per capita.This has been largely through initia-tives like U-Pass that provides all

students with an affordable monthlytransit pass and unlimited access toTranslink bus, SeaBus and SkyTrainservices. The U-Pass first becameavailable in 2003 when UBC’s transportation planning department,formally known as TREK, partneredwith the Alma Mater Society andTransLink.

Pagani, who holds a PhD inResource Management andEnvironmental Studies, says themindset of sustainability requires aradical shift in thinking, one that shesees happening at UBC. Her ownturning point came in spearheadingthe concept of UBC’s C.K. ChoiBuilding, which, upon its opening in1996, won several awards and setnew green benchmarks for theworld.

“I was pretty depressed about theworld and I was doing my bit toreuse plastic bags and turn off lights,but it didn’t feel like I was makingenough of an impact.”

At that time, Pagani was workingat UBC’s project development office.She decided that her next buildingproject would demonstrate a greenbuilding. Pagani worked with a teamof 30 architects, engineers, designers,administrators, who were told todream big, but to bring theC.K.Choi Building in on budget and

on time.“That experience changed my

life,” says Pagani. “At the end,everyone said that was the best proj-ect they’ve ever been in. Mostlybecause everyone felt we had giventhem permission to be creative, to beimaginative and to make a differ-ence.”

Pagani was told that she wouldhave to fund her own salary andCSO activities through energy sav-ings. She devised ecotrek, one of thelargest institutional retrofits inCanada. In 2002, UBC kicked offthe $35-million-dollar program tosave money and energy by upgrad-ing mechanical and electrical systemsin core campus buildings. By thisyear, ecotrek will reduce CO2 emis-sions by about 15,000 tonnes eachyear and generate annual savings ofabout $2.5 million.

By 2010, UBC aims to have another 20,000 people living on campus. The University Town Plan

Beating the Kyoto Targets

will develop eight residential andmixed-use neighborhoods featuringstudent, faculty and staff housing,university-related shops and services,a community centre, a school and arange of public amenities. The planstipulates that at least 50 per cent ofhouseholds must include one residentwho works or studies at UBC, with

an eye to reducing automobile trafficto and from campus.

Pagani says that UBC has adopteda five-year sustainability action planto build on this momentum. Goalsinclude integrating sustainabilityissues into research, teaching andcurriculum.

But at the heart of all these efforts,says Pagani, is a deeper shift that’sslowly taking shape.

“We’ve made a good start witheconomic and environmental sustainability, but we’re still learningabout community and how to treateach other.”

That aspect of sustainability willtransform everything we do andthink, says Pagani. “Connection isthe key — our connection to eachother and to the natural world.”

For more information aboutUBC’s sustainability initiatives, visit:http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/http://www.recycle.ubc.ca/http://www.trek.ubc.ca/ ■■

“So they had to abandon that activity,” says Wagner.

In collaboration with theEn’owkin Centre, an Indigenouscultural, educational and creativearts institution in Penticton, and thePenticton Indian Band, he has previously interviewed elders fromthat community and will soon beinterviewing orchardists and ranchers from other communities in

How Water Works in a Valley continued from page 4

the Penticton area. “We want peopleto describe the changes they’ve seenin water use during their lifetimes,”he says.

It is a big project, but ultimatelyWagner hopes to be able to share hisfindings with water managers, guiding tomorrow’s stewardship of aprecious and limited naturalresource. To that end he will also bestudying the operation of water man-

agement organizations in the valley. “There are a lot of institutions in

the Okanagan with authority overwater and water quality, but they’renot co-ordinated,” says Wagner. “The hope is that by studying theinstitutional structure of water management organizations here wewill be able to find ways to managewater in a more sustainable andequitable manner.” ■■

How a community of50,000 is learning totread more lightly on the earth.

B Y L O R R A I N E C H A N

People are emotionally ready to do good; just make it easy for them, advises Freda Pagani, director, Campus Sustainabilty Office.

Since 1999, despite a 24 per cent increase in students, UBC hasreduced energy use in campus buildings by 10 per cent — saving $8million. As well, UBC has cut down on water use by 32 per cent,enough to supply 14,700 homes for a year.

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Eco-footprinting thus starts from aseries of simple premises:

• People remain integral components of the ecosystemsthat sustain them;

• Most human impacts on ecosys-tems are associated with energyand material extraction and con-sumption (all economic activityhas material consequences);

• Many energy and material flowsare readily measurable and canbe converted to correspondingproductive or assimilativeecosystems areas;

• There is a finite area of productive land and waterecosystems on Earth.

From this perspective, everyhuman population imposes an eco-logical ‘load’ or ‘footprint’ on Earthmeasured in terms of sustaineddemand for bio-productivity. Wetherefore define the ecological foot-print of a specified population as thearea of land and water ecosystemsrequired, on a continuous basis, toproduce the resources that the popu-lation consumes, and to assimilate(some of) the wastes that the popula-tion produces, wherever on Earththe relevant land/water is located.Per capita eco-footprints can be esti-mated by dividing aggregate nationalfootprint by the total population.

What does EFA tell us that might berelevant to prospects for global sustainability? For starters:

• Energy/material consumptionremains highly correlated withrising GDP/income per capita;

• The average eco-footprints ofhigh-income countries rangefrom about 4.5 to almost tenhectares of global average productivity per capita (ha/cap);those of developing countries areas small as 0.5 ha/cap;

• Many high-income countrieshave eco-footprints up to severaltimes the size of their domesticbio-capacities;

Footprints to Sustainability continued from page 1

• The average human eco-footprint is about 2.2 ha/cap;

• There are only about 1.8 ha/capsignificantly productive landand water on Earth.

These five key findings alone sug-gest that the sustainability challengeis greater than the world communityhas heretofore been willing to con-cede. First, the denizens of wealthymarket economies like the US,Canada, most Western Europeancountries and Japan appropriate twoto five times their equitable share ofearth’s bio-capacity while those oflow-income countries likeBangladesh, Mozambique and evenChina, use only a fraction of theirequitable allocation.

Second, many wealthy consumersocieties have greatly overshot theirdomestic carrying capacities and arerunning large eco-deficits with therest of the world. These countrieswould have long since stabilized orimploded in the absence of trade. Asexpected, trade sustains short-termgrowth and short-circuits the negative feedback from degradedecosystems that would otherwiseserve to warn countries that they areapproaching local biophysical limits.In effect, the world’s rich nationsfinance their ecological deficits byextending their ecological footprintsdeeply into exporting nations andthe open ecosphere. (We nowachieve through commerce whatused to require territorial occupa-tion!) The downside is that by shuf-fling bio-capacity around, tradeensures that the entire human familywill hit global limits simultaneously.

Third is an obvious ecologicalcorollary — not all countries canrun an eco-deficit. For every sustainable deficit there must be apermanent surplus somewhere elseand there are no true surpluses. Theaggregate world population hasalready overshot global carryingcapacity by about 20 per cent (Thedirect empirical evidence is accelerat-

ing global degradation). Fourth, on an ecologically full

planet, the less-developed countriescannot sustainably follow the devel-oped world’s path to material extrav-agance. If 1.2 billion people of Chinahad the same per capita eco-footprintas citizens of the US, China alonewould require the entire bio-capacityof Earth. (The US, with less that 5per cent of the world’s population,uses about a quarter of its resources.)To bring the present world population up to, say, NorthAmerican material standards withprevailing technology would requirefour additional Earth-like planets!This poses a conundrum for growth-based sustainability. As someone once wryly observed, “goodplanets are hard to find.” An ever-expanding global economy thus putshumanity on a collision course withecological sustainability. Geo-politicalsustainability too — in a competitiveworld of climate change and increas-ing resource shortages, rising materialexpectations everywhere may becomegreatest threat to human security.

The challenge of EFA to sustain-ability is therefore really quitestraightforward. We must learn toshare Earth’s bio-capacity more equi-tably. First-World countries shouldbe implementing policy measures toreduce their per capita ecologicalfootprints to 1.8 ha/capita to createthe ecological space for neededgrowth in the Third World — andthe reductions will have to deepen asworld population grows. For wealthyconsumer societies, this implies a 75per cent reduction in material andenergy consumption and poses animmense challenge both to technolo-gy and lifestyles. (Other energy/material flows studies argue for 90per cent reductions). These numbersmay seem politically impossible, butthey are ecologically necessary forsustainability. Unfortunately, prevail-ing mainstream approaches merelymakes the growing human enterprisemore efficiently unsustainable. ■■

bon dioxide emissions into theatmosphere over a 20-year period,the equivalent to taking 8,000 carsoff the road, or planting 18,000acres of fruit trees or vineyards.

In addition to these academic facility milestones, UBC’s residentialdevelopments are also going“green.”

“In just the past year, seven development projects on campus

have adopted the ResidentialEnvironmental Assessment Program(REAP),” says Jorge Marques, energy manager of the UBCSustainability Office.

Launched in November 2004, themade-in-UBC pilot program is theresidential equivalent of LEED®,which is awarded to leading-edgebuildings that incorporate environ-mentally sustainable design, con-struction, and operational features toreduce environmental impact.During its pilot year, housing devel-opers were encouraged to voluntarilycomply — and exceed — sustainabil-ity principles already being applied totheir institutional counterparts.

REAP is now mandatory for all

New Generation of Green Buildings continued from page 5

new residential developments oncampus, including the upcomingSouth Campus Neighbourhood,which will consist of nearly 2,000homes.

“It ensures a basic level of energyand water efficiency and encouragesdevelopers to take additional steps toproduce a more sustainable project,”says Marques. “In one mid-sizeddevelopment that is currently under

construction, the home owners willcollectively save over $11,500 inenergy costs per year as a directresult of using this program.”

While LEED®, used for institutional buildings and high-rises,can be costly and time-consuming,REAP takes a market-drivenapproach to attracting developers toadopt sustainability initiatives, saysMarques.

“It was never meant to be outrageously costly or onerous. Wesimply offer developers principlesthat are good for the environmentand ultimately healthier for the residents.”

Neighbouring municipalitiesincluding North Vancouver, Burnaby

and as far away as Kelowna havenoticed REAP’s success and requested information to potentiallyadopt the program.

Meanwhile, Joe Redmond, vice-president of UBC PropertiesTrust, which co-developed REAP,says the University’s commitment tosustainability goes far deeper than conscientious designs and energy-efficient buildings.

“In both the UBC Official andComprehensive Community Plans,concrete goals were set to transformus from a commuter campus to auniversity town where 25 per cent of the students live here and 50 percent of campus housing will have atleast one resident studying or working at UBC,” says Redmond.

“The decrease in fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gasemission from that policy alone willfar exceed energy efficiency savingsof any green building. The impactwill be tremendous.”

“As far as sustainability is concerned, no other community inNorth America is aiming for suchhigh standards.” ■■

“In just the past year, seven development projects on campus have adoptedthe Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP).”



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in more localized truck traffic and itscarcinogenic diesel exhaust. Ourthirst for inexpensive consumerproducts leading to increased emis-sions from Chinese factories and thecontainer vessels traversing theworld and idling in ports has bothlocal and global implications. Sincethe most severe impacts are felt inthe growing economies of Asia —where air pollution in urban areasleads to hundreds of thousands ofdeaths per year — our purchases arelinked to global health inequity.Further, the west coasts of Europeand North America now receivemeasurable quantities of air pollu-tants from across the Atlantic andPacific oceans respectively. This isevidence that the entire lower atmos-phere in the Northern Hemisphere isbecoming increasingly polluted, evenin “pristine” oceanic areas.

So, if we are the problem, then wemust work towards solutions. Thesesolutions depend on emissionsreductions through technologicaladvances such as fuel cells, and alsothe use of solar, wind and otheralternative energy sources.Technological advances alone areunlikely to be sufficient — changesin land use and urban structure andtransportation will be needed. Butmost importantly we must realizethat it is our lifestyle and all of itsconveniences that ultimately must bethe key to sustainable air quality. ■■

Air Pollutioncontinued from page 6

Order of CanadaThree members of the UBC community — a renowned environmentalist, a leading expert in fisheries oceanography and ananimal ethicist— were appointed tothe Order of Canada by GovernorGeneral of Canada Michaëlle Jeanon Feb. 3, 2006.

David Suzuki, professor emeritusof zoology, has been promoted withinthe Order to the rank of Companion.An award-winning scientist, environ-mentalist and broadcaster, Suzukirecently returned to the university asa speaker in the UBC GlobalCitizenship Seminar Series. (For anaudio recording of his lecture, visitwww.ubc.ca/podcasts.)

Appointed to the rank of Officer isoceanography Professor EmeritusTimothy Parsons. In 2001, Parsonsbecame the first Canadian to win theprestigious Japan Prize — Japan’sequivalent to the Nobel Prize — forhis contributions to fisheries oceanog-raphy and marine conservation.

David Fraser, a professor in theFaculty of Land and Food Systemsand the W. Maurice Young Centrefor Applied Ethics, has been appoint-ed to the rank of member. Fraser’swork on animal welfare and ethicshas led to many innovations in ani-mal housing and management, rang-ing from designing better pig pens toreducing highway accidents involvingwildlife.

Established in 1967, the Order ofCanada is the highest honour thatCanada can give its citizens forexceptional achievement, merit orservice. These most recent appointments are effective Nov. 17,2005. For more information, visitwww.gg.ca/honours.

Steacie FellowshipsA UBC tree geneticist and a softwareengineer have each been awarded2006 Natural Sciences andEngineering Research Council(NSERC) Steacie Fellowships — oneof Canada’s premier science and engi-neering prizes — earning UBC two ofthe six prizes awarded Canada-wide.

Joerg Bohlmann, an associateprofessor of Botany and Forest

Sciences, explores trees’ chemicaldefense mechanisms against insectsand other pathogens. Also a memberof UBC’s Michael SmithLaboratories and an associate ofUBC’s Wine Research Centre,Bohlmann’s work could lead to new,environmentally safe methods forplant protection.

He is one of four co-directors ofCanada’s first large-scale forestrygenome project. The $15-millionproject involves sequencing thegenome of poplar and spruce toidentify the genetic blueprint thatdetermines features such as woodquality and health, including defensemechanisms and resistance systemsin forest trees.

Bohlmann, who joined UBC in2000, has also been recognized as aUBC Distinguished UniversityScholar, a Peter Wall Institute EarlyCareer Fellow and has received theFaculty of Science AchievementAward for Leadership.

Gail Murphy, an associate professor in the Dept. of ComputerScience, has been recognized for hercontributions to understanding andreducing problems associated withevolving large software systems.

Murphy’s research involves look-ing at which system structures bestsupport the expression, evaluationand verification of large softwaresystems, and in helping softwaredevelopers manage these structures.She looks at computer systems tofind patterns of use so that softwareto detect developers’ patterns ofactivity and assist that activity automatically.

Murphy, who joined UBC in1996, is a recipient of a Dahl-Nygaard Junior Prize from theAssociation Internationale pour lesTechnologies Objets (AITO) aEuropean association to promote the advancement of research inobject-oriented technology, and aUBC Killam Research Fellowship.

NSERC Steacie Fellowships —comprising salary support andresearch funding — are awarded tooutstanding Canadian university scientists or engineers, who haveearned their doctorate within the last

12 years, and whose research hasalready earned them an international reputation. For more on the 2006Steacie Fellowships, visithttp://www.nserc.gc.ca.

UBC chemist wins Prestigious Killam Research Fellowship On Feb. 28, 2006, UBC chemistryprof. Michael Fryzuk was awardedone of 10 new Canada Council forthe Arts Killam Research Fellowshipsfor his research work, “NewStrategies for the Activation ofMolecular Nitrogen.”

Among Canada’s most distinguished research awards, theKillam Research Fellowships enableCanada’s best scientists and scholarsto devote two years to full-timeresearch and writing.

Made possible by a bequest ofMrs. Dorothy J. Killam, the awardssupport scholars engaged in researchprojects of outstanding merit in thehumanities, social sciences, naturalsciences, health sciences, engineeringand interdisciplinary studies withinthese fields. ■■

Prof. Michael Brauer’s research interests include air pollution health effectsand air quality.

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T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F B R I T I S H C O L U M B I A

The Life Sciences Centre’s LEED (Leadership in Environmental Design)

Gold status refl ects an extraordinary achievement in green building

practices at The University of British Columbia. From recycled materials

to ongoing energy savings, this home to BC’s expanded medical

education program and leading edge research institutes points the way

to a more sustainable future.

Sustainability is a value deeply embedded in UBC’s academic vision.

After all, we’re home to Prof. William Rees, internationally renowned

for his Ecological Footprint tool, and more than 300 of our courses

have high sustainability components. We have Canada’s fi rst

Sustainability Policy for a university, fi rst campus sustainability offi ce,

and we’re the only Canadian university to gain Green Campus

recognition from the US Wildlife Federation. We’ve already met 2012

Kyoto greenhouse gas reductions, and we’ve saved $8 million in energy

and water costs with innovative retrofi ts.

The Michael Smith Laboratories, named after UBC’s Nobel

Laureate, has achieved a 55 per cent energy reduction. Our Fred

Kaiser Building has been certifi ed LEED Silver. New buildings at our

UBC Okanagan campus in Kelowna will be heated and cooled by

geothermal energy.

The pattern or sustainability extends from where we study and

work to where we live. Our emerging University Town in Vancouver is

transforming a commuter campus into a more sustainable live-work-

study community.

Gold. Standard.Green, too.

The largest structure in Canada certifi ed Gold by the US Green Building Council is now on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus.

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the university of british columbia volume 52 | number … · the university of british columbia...

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