University of British Columbia
EN-8: Staff Professional Development

UBC provides many opportunities for staff professional development in all aspects of sustainability.

UBC Continuing Studies offers professional programs and courses in Sustainability Management, Decision Making for Climate Change, Diversity and Inclusion, Intercultural Communication and Cultural Planning as well as week-long intensive Summer Institutes in Sustainability Leadership and Intercultural Communications, Diversity and Inclusion. All UBC employees can apply their free tuition waivers toward individual courses in these programs. https://cstudies.ubc.ca/study-topic/sustainability

In 2013/14, UBC held bi-monthly sustainability trainings and networking sessions for staff Sustainability Coordinators on topics such as zero waste, green buildings and funding for workplace sustainability initiatives. 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. UBC’s Employee Sustainability Guide provides sustainability information, tips and resources for staff across the university. http://sustain.ubc.ca/get-involved/staff/employee-sustainability-guide

Other professional development opportunities in 2013 included a free Flexible Learning course called Climate Literacy: Navigating Climate Change Conversations, a 10 week course covering the scientific and socio-political aspects of climate change, https://www.coursera.org/course/climateliteracy, and UBC Reads Sustainability, which features leading authors on sustainability topics to engage staff and the UBC community in campus-wide discussions on sustainability: http://sustain.ubc.ca/get-involved/students/reads

The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and the UBC Sustainability co-host a Sustainability Across the Curriculum Community of Practice (CoP) 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 research community. The quarterly Green Labs Program lunch and learns provide UBC faculty, staff and students with learning opportunities on green research practices, products and services, the quarterly Green Labs e-newsletter provides green labs information to UBC faculty and staff. http://riskmanagement.ubc.ca/environment/green-labs-program

Human health and well-being is a campus-wide priority and UBC offers staff and faculty many Pro-D opportunities to support all aspects of human health. Professional development programs offered in the 2013-14 school year include Mindfulness@Work, a six week course which offers employees training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to reduce stress and promote physical and mental wellbeing (http://www.hr.ubc.ca/health/healthy-ubc-initiatives/mindfulwork-six-week-program/) and a free Mental Health First Aid workshop in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association. http://www.hr.ubc.ca/health/ongoing-programming/