The University of British Columbia
PAE-13: Staff Professional Development in Sustainability

UBC provides many opportunities for staff professional development in sustainability. In 2010, UBC held 6 sustainability trainings for Sustainability Coordinators on topics such as waste reduction, sustainable purchasing, energy conservation in the work place, battery recycling, green house gas emissions reductions, and transportation alternatives. Monthly newsletters are delivered to Sustainability Coordinators to distribute to their departments, providing updates, tips and links to events and resources on sustainability issues. UBC continues to promote online toolkits which educate staff on energy conservation, GHG reduction, zero waste and alternative transportation. http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/campus-sustainability/getting-involved/sustainability-coordinators/sctoolkit. Other professional development training opportunities in 2010 included the UBC Sustainability Initiative's Campus as a Living Laboratory Symposium, which attracted over 325 students, staff, faculty and community members who attended workshops addressing campus sustainability http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/CLLSymposium. UBC Reads Sustainability features leading authors on sustainability topics to engage staff and the UBC community in campus-wide discussions on sustainability: http://ubcreadssustainability.com/about-ubc-reads-sustainability. The UBC Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability also hosted a Public Lecture Series on Applied Sustainability–UBC as a Living Lab, which featured 10 public lectures from key UBC Sustainability Staff and Executives on applied sustainability topics. http://www.ires.ubc.ca/events/public-lecture-series/. The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology has a Community of Practice on Sustainability which hosts regular events, networking sessions and professional development opportunities (eg: Sustainability Education Intensive) to faculty, staff and students interested in sustainability education http://ctlt.ubc.ca/programs/communities-of-practice/sustainability-across-the-curriculum-working-group/. UBC also hosts a number of staff professional development opportunities for Green Research. The annual Green Research Workshop provides UBC faculty, staff and students with learning opportunities on green research practices, products and services, the quarterly Green Research e-newsletter provides green research information to UBC faculty and staff, and the Green Research Challenge engages staff in green research activities (http://riskmanagement.ubc.ca/environment/green-research).