In a bid to raise awareness and encourage environmentally sustainable practices
across campus, academic and operational units will compete to attach their names
to two new student scholarships. The scholarships will be given to two students
who exhibit outstanding environmental stewardship next May.
“It is a way to get faculty and staff involved in reducing energy, water and
paper use on campus,” says Freda Pagani, director of the Sustainability Office.
“And taking part in the Eco-Challenge is a good way to promote a greater sense
of community here on campus.”
Pagani’s office, in conjunction with the Waste Management Program and the
UBC Trek Program, is issuing a challenge to all faculties, administrative and
operational units across campus to top one another in their efforts to conserve
energy, water, paper, reduce car commuting, and reduce waste from now to May.
Each month, faculty and staff will earn points towards the honour of attaching
their unit name to one of the scholarships by initiating and practicing ways
to reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink how they do business.
The Sustainability Office has selected a topic each month along with the achievements
required to win points. The challenge for November and December focuses on energy.
Monthly winners will receive prizes donated by: Waste Management, the Trek
Program, Food Services, the Bookstore, the Museum of Anthropology, the Botanical
Garden, the Chan Centre, the Frederic Wood Theatre, University Golf Club and
Gabriola Cycle and Kayak.
Faculty and staff are also being asked to contribute to the scholarships.
Contributors will have their names entered in a prize draw next year.
“This is a way to return the savings realized by faculty and staff in their
environmentally sustainable practices to students,” says Pagani.
Pagani has provided $1,000 in seed money towards the operational units’ scholarship
fund while the President’s Office has matched that with $1,000 towards the academic
units’ contribution.
“That $1,000 is from the savings that we have accumulated already from the
reduction in energy use here at UBC since the Sustainability Office opened last
May,” says Pagani.
For details about the Eco-Challenge, visit the Sustainability Office Web site
at www.sustain.ubc.ca or phone 604-822-0473.
