UBC leader in campus sustainability

The Sheaf
Written by Crystal Clarke
Thursday, 25 November 2004
Freda Pagani, the University of British Columbia’s Director of Campus Sustainability, visited Saskatoon last week. Pagani has been with the project since its inception, after completing her PhD in architecture and was involved in the building of the C.K. Choi Building, an award-winning demonstration green building. On Wednesday, November 17, she gave a talk to students about the innovations that UBC has undergone in order to make it the world’s leader in sustainable campuses and a goal for Canadian universities to strive towards, including the U of S. Her talk was held together by one theme: the unexpected success of the UBC program and its unexpected outcomes.

UBC’s Campus Sustainability Office opened in 1998, one year after implementing a sustainable development policy. The policy was implemented in UBC’s 300 different departments where volunteer sustainability coordinators work on enforcing the policy by providing tools to the department to make sustainability easier and more accessible. This was an unexpected inspiration for Pagani, as the meeting of the staff from around the campus came together and worked together to make the project possible.

The C. K. Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research has brought much attention to the project and the UBC campus, as it won an award for the American Institute of Architects’ in 2000. It opened in 1996 and has set new green building benchmarks for the world. The building features reused and recycled materials, natural ventilation, highly efficient lighting, grey-water recycling, and composting toilets. UBCs next green building, the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues, opened in 2000. This building highlighted the replacement of cement in the concrete mix with fly ash, a waste material from coal-fired power plants to make “high-volume fly ash concrete.” UBC has more plans for innovative buildings and the work is never done.

The Campus Sustainability Office is also looking at improving the sustainability of existing buildings on campus. UBC houses Canada’s largest university energy and water retrofit program. The upgrades generate savings of about $2.5 million annually. Coincidentally, this covers the cost of the Sustainability Office. Not only does the EcoTREK (the program working on the retrofitting of existing buildings) save up to 30% on core energy uses every year, it also reduced CO2 emissions by about 30,000 tons and reduces water use up to 45 percent and saves lots of money. Ecotrek’s project value is $35 million, which is paid by the savings in energy and they have met Kyoto’s targets of CO2 emission decrease by 6 percent below 1997 levels.

However, these successes weren’t unexpected at all. According to Pagani, this was accomplished through projecting and meeting goals. The unexpected successes of the program are the behind-the-scenes interactions and inspirations from the staff and students at UBC. “A community was built for the staff and students at UBC around sustainability,” said Pagani. She was especially excited about the universal bus pass (UPASS) that passed a couple of years ago that increased ridership by 53% and decreased single-vehicle occupancy trip by 20% from 1996. The program has brought attention to all aspects of sustainability, including social and economic sustainability.

The biggest unexpected benefit of the program was the snowball effect that it caused on UBC’s campus. “Every student that comes to the campus must think about sustainability,” said Pagani.

Winter blues or SADness?

The Sheaf
Written by Crystal Clarke
Thursday, 27 January 2005
There are many reasons to get down in January. Whether it is a post-Christmas debt or because you are just plain miserable due to the cold temperatures and lack of sunlight, many people become depressed this time of year. However, there may be something more to the “winter blues” than just being a little less energetic because Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is being diagnosed more often.

SAD has only been diagnosed since the 1980s, even though it has been noticed since the early 1800s. Some research has shown that there is a lot of similarities between SAD and atypical depression and the methods for diagnosis are still being worked on. Diagnosis seems to be the most difficult part of the disorder because of the ambiguity of some of the symptoms. The symptoms include sadness, anxiety, irritability, inability to concentrate, withdrawal into solitude, and loss of interest in life, which are common amongst diagnosis of depression.

However, SAD also includes unusual sleep patterns, increased appetite, weight gain, and lethargy. The important part of diagnosis is that SAD follows a predictable pattern year after year, with symptoms starting in the fall and becoming more severe in January and February, followed by a lessening of symptoms in the spring, as the light increases.

There are three common theories as to why SAD occurs, but research is ongoing to determine the actual cause. The first theory suggests that the body overproduces melatonin, a hormone, during the long winter, which is supported by studies showing that light therapy inhibits its flow. Another theory proposes that the body produces less serotonin, a chemical produced by the brain that is commonly associated with causing depression, in the winter months. Thirdly, there is evidence that people with SAD have less sensitivity to light and never fully adjust to dim winter days, which could disrupt the body clock by making short days seem even shorter.

The most ambiguous part of the disorder is the fact that there is no treatment that is guaranteed to cure SAD. In fact, there have been few studies to find something that can cure SAD and what has been researched doesn’t seem to work all the time, let alone some of the time.

Light therapy is the most prominent method of treatment that is shown to work sometimes, but one should see results fairly quickly from using it. Some research say that just becoming more active, even going for a 20-minute walk, can bring positive results. There are also skeptics that think the disorder doesn’t exist and that making positive changes through diet and overall health will decrease the symptoms that become more prominent with the “winter blahs.”

Over-diagnosis can be problematic with the disorder, so when one is diagnosed with SAD he or she should probably seek out a second opinion from a different doctor. Women are seemingly most affected by SAD. No matter what, overall health should be looked at as an important part of treatment, with other methods examined after one’s lifestyle has been looked at.

Winter is a hard time for most people in the northern hemisphere, but for some this season is seemingly more difficult. There is definitely something about the darkness and cold temperatures causing people to remain indoors that can be looked at. However, reoccurring symptoms can suggest that there is more to the “winter blues” than just “cabin fever.”

Green justice not easy

The Sheaf
Written by Crystal Clarke
Thursday, 30 September 2004

Green Justice. The name sounds easy enough, but behind it are issues of oppression, racism, classism, and hierarchy. The environmental movement is being taken by storm by a bunch of newly educated people across Canada. The myths of the environmental movement have been deconstructed and replaced by understanding and information. So allow me to share the information with you.

During the weekend of September 16th, the Youth Environmental Network held their annual Capacity Building Retreat right here on the Prairies. The retreat usually brings youth from around Canada to build support for their environmental organization, in ways of getting more members, finding funding and funders, policy-making, and networking. However, this year was a little bit different as the weekend’s focus was issues of oppression within the mostly white, middle-class environmental movement and how diversity within the movement can be established without white people taking power, tokenizing non-white people, or maintaining respect of the diverse groups throughout this large country.

Environmental justice is a new term to the environmental movement, let alone to the general university public. This movement started in the mid-80s when groups started connecting social justice issues and environmental issues. Environmental racism was defined when a study found that race determines where hazardous waste facilities are located in Los Angeles. The YEN’s Green Justice Retreat Resource kit states that “Environmental racism brings attention to how systemic racism is a key factor in environmental planning and decision making processes as they are carried out by governments, as well as the mainstream environmental movement. People of colour are often excluded from or restricted within decision-making bodies that are responsible for creating and implementing environmental policies, programs, and permits.” The kit also states that non-white people and poor people suffer more from environmental hazards, mostly caused by the lifestyle of white, upper class people. Environmental justice is about taking action against environmental racism.

The idea of environmental justice is not one that many people think about within environmental organizations, let alone environmentalists. Racism and environmental justice was the focus of the retreat, challenging people’s comfort zones and ensuring that people learn about issues within environmental justice and issues of racism that are faced everyday. It started out with a focus on racism within the last few centuries and how little progression there has been. A recent example of how racism still exists within the system is Africville, a town in Nova Scotia that black people fled to during the slave era in the United States. In this town, racism and environmental racism still exists and has pushed the people out of their town into larger centers.

Heavy issues of anti-oppression workshops to teach the participants how systemic racism is, how to recognize it, and how to deal with it were also discussed at the retreat. A particularly interesting workshop was conducted by the Indigenous Environmental Network, based out of the United States, a group that focuses on the rights of Indigenous people for environmental and economic justice. A workshop that I attended was based on climate justice and how climate change affects people of colour and Indigenous people more than predominantly white communities. As we see an increase in the number of hurricanes and large storms hitting places like Haiti, we can see this affects minority groups.

So what do we do? The YEN set aside an entire morning for people to come up with “Action Plans” for their respective organizations. Within this, they looked at anti-oppression training opportunities, anti-oppression policy-making with the organization, meeting and decision-making procedures, coalition building between organizations, organization promotional and program literature review, and program development and review. For example, if a group wanted to build a coalition with an Aboriginal group and work on a project together, the action plan would help to make that coalition fair and just.

Needless to say, none of these issues are easy and anti-oppression training is very hard to go through as a white person. As a “white” environmentalist, I learned that instead of feeling guilt I need to recognize the systemic racism that some people are faced with and how the groups that I am a part of can try to get away from participating in and supporting that racism. This is no easy task, but one that is obtainable. Since participating in this retreat, I have found that I see the world in a different light: through the lens of the anti-oppression framework. I also know that I cannot fight racism alone, so I encourage you all to take a moment to look around at the racism that exists on our campus and in our community…and then do something about it.