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Get Involved in Sustainability
Sustainability Subcommittee
Looking to get involved in sustainability with your student union? AMS Sustainability is here to help! Our monthly subcommittee meetings provide a forum for students to discuss and engage with sustainability initiatives on campus.
At these meetings, students can learn about a range of topics related to sustainability, including the Sustainable Action Plan and Sustainable Project Fund offered by the AMS. Additionally, representatives from various sustainability clubs will provide updates on their current projects and events, giving students the opportunity to learn about ways to get involved digitally. Whether you’re a seasoned sustainability advocate or new to the movement, we welcome all interested students to attend.
If you are interested in attending the next Sustainability Subcommittee meeting, please contact the AVP Sustainability at sustainability@ams.ubc.ca.
Office Hours
Office hours are located in LIFE 0017 and provide an opportunity for students to ask how the AMS can support their student-led sustainability projects or general inquiries about the AMS Sustainability Projects Fund. To book an appointment outside of the scheduled office hours, please contact the Sustainability Projects Coordinator at sustainprojects@ams.ubc.ca or the AVP Sustainability at sustainability@ams.ubc.ca.
Office hours with the Sustainability Projects Coordinator: Mondays at 3pm – 5pm
Interactive Sustainability Centre
With the replacement of the space occupied by the Student Life Sustainability Centre by the Clubs Resource Centre, the AMS currently lacks a concrete venue for collaboration on ASAP. Since January 2020, discussions, consultation and planning for a new sustainability centre – the AMS Interactive Sustainability Centre (ISC) – has been taking place amongst various stakeholders. The ISC is a hub for students to foster sustainability.
Our Interactive Sustainability Center goals include:
- Engaging in consultation with various sustainability-focused groups in order to determine what kind of programming could take place in the ISC
- Finalizing a design for the ISC that best suits the programming which will take place in the space
- Beginning construction on the ISC in the LIFE Building (Room 0017), with the goal of completing and opening the space by January 2021
Engagement, as enabled and envisioned through the ISC, can be thought of as a ladder (Koss et al. 2020 – SEEDS project):
- Sustainability Awareness — This is the lowest rung on the ladder of engagement, and where individuals can begin to engage with sustainability. Perhaps they have seen signs in coffee shops to bring their reusable mugs, or there is a celebrity they like who often talks about the importance of climate change and sustainability. This is where people’s interest in sustainability is peaked.
- Visit the ISC — As an individual expands their sustainability awareness, they will have seen information leaflets advertising the ISC, or one of their friends who is sustainability-minded will tell them to visit. Since the ISC is in the Life building, it is centrally-located on campus and new visitors will be able to easily alter their foot-paths to visit. After visiting the ISC, you now have an information leaflet, a sense of where to seek further information online, and you are aware of the sustainability events taking place on campus. Additionally, you are now versed in the campus resources for sustainability (i.e. various student groups that are active in sustainability).
- Attend an ISC Event — With the knowledge you gain at the ISC, you decide to attend an ISC event. This is a crucial step as you transition from an active observer to someone who takes part in greater actions that affect the sustainability narrative. If you are new to on-campus sustainability, you may decide to attend the event with a friend. By offering “Introduction to Sustainability” workshops (a Sustainability 101 if you will), or a talk by a well-known community activist it will be easier to get new people involved.
- Volunteer at an ISC Event — After attending several ISC events, you are now equipped with sustainability knowledge that you would like to share. Volunteering at an event will give you a different perspective on sustainability, and the event could encompass any type of workshop, lecture, world cafe, or other activity the ISC may run. The ISC may even look at ideas from the City of Vancouver, such as their Climate Emergency Workshops, and use them as a model to get campus users to critically think about reducing their own carbon footprints.
- Organize an ISC Event — Volunteering has shown you how certain events are organized, and you have an event idea to fill an ISC programming gap. For example, you may want to organize a beach cleanup with the Great Canadaian Shoreline Cleanup to help remove trash from our beaches. Since the ISC and the sustainability groups on-campus have a strong partnership, you are able to easily secure the resources and support you need to successfully run the event. In fact, you are even able to forge a new partnership with the UBC Aqua Society, located just across the hall from the ISC.
Interested in booking the ISC? Bookings for the ISC are free and open to all UBC students! Email the Sustainability Projects Coordinator at sustainprojects@ams.ubc.ca for more information.
