University of Victoria
EN-4: Outreach Materials and Publications

The UVic Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability have their own Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts where they are able to update both the campus and further reaching communities on their upcoming, ongoing, and completed projects and initiatives. These platforms are also used to engage students, staff and faculty in online surveys and questionnaires in order for the Office to best understand the current attitudes and practices surrounding sustainability on campus.

https://www.facebook.com/greenuvic/
https://www.instagram.com/green_uvic/
https://twitter.com/green_uvic

Throughout the University of Victoria campus, there are a variety of signs that point out different sustainability features on campus. This includes but is not limited to:

•Plaques that indicate our 9 LEED certified buildings. Each of these plaques are featured in prominent high-traffic areas of their respective buildings and give information on the building’s designation as well as additional background information.

•Various signs around campus that notify passers by of landscaping areas that feature native and endangered plant species, such as in the Ian Ross Memorial Garden where the federally endangered Pink Sand Verbena is being grown among many other native plant species.

•An informational sign at the Bowker Creek headwaters area which is currently enduring ongoing restoration efforts

•A sign at the base of the S,YEWE Legend Pole in the University’s quad depicting the traditional story featured in the wood carvings as told by the Legend Pole carver Temosen (Charles Elliot)

•Several signs in and around the Rain Garden at the Mearns Centre informing passers by of successful restoration efforts in the garden including the removal of invasive species and planting of traditional native species

•Interpretive boards within Finnerty Gardens that contain the plant and its links to cultural and art information

•A series of educational signs used by classes and visitors as a learning tool that make up the District Energy plant interpretive system explaining functional and sustainable aspects of the Energy plant

The Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability has provided an online brochure for the UVic Sustainability Campus Green Walk. This brochure showcases various sustainability features on campus including where to find these features and background information on each of them.

https://www.uvic.ca/sustainability/assets/docs/Tour-campus%20green%20walk.pdf

The University of Victoria Community Green Map project is an online community-campus initiative and office which aims to facilitate processes for community engagement, student learning, globally-relevant research and sustainable community planning through participatory community mapping. On their website, users can interactively look through various sustainability features on the UVic Campus, as well as the Greater Victoria Area.

http://mapping.uvic.ca/

There is also a Forest Biology Tree Walk Guide available online which has detailed maps and descriptions of different tree species on the University of Victoria Campus. Included in these descriptions are various additional interesting facts on the tree species.

https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/forestbiology/assets/docs/treewalk.pdf

Campus Sustainability tours are also conducted on specials request, both by on foot or on bike. Additionally, the office is contacted to provide sustainability updates for campus tours during new student orientation.

The University of Victoria Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability has provided a Residence Sustainability guide which gives a framework to students on how they can participate in green living. It focuses on tips to reduce your environmental footprint, a full list of “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to recycling and composting, tips for how to save energy in your dorm room, information on reusable water bottle filling stations, information on how to get involved with sustainability programs and groups on campus, and much more. This guide is provided to residence students in person and is also available online.

https://www.uvic.ca/sustainability/assets/docs/res-sustainability-guide.pdf

In addition, in September 2023, a New Student Orientation Handbook on Climate Action and Sustainability was made available to all students. It focuses on engaging and educating students on sustainability initiatives across campus, such as new sustainable infrastructure, plant-formward dining, responsible waste management, active transportation, water conservation, sustainable purchasing, and campus climate action.

https://www.uvic.ca/sustainability/assets/docs/2023newstudentsustainabilityhandbook1.pdf

In addition to the various forms of outreach described above, UVic also provides sustainability outreach videos on our Sustainability website: https://www.uvic.ca/sustainability/resources/videos/index.php

Since 2021, the University of Victoria has a dedicated central site to report the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) across four areas of the university: academics, research, operations and policy-making.
On this site, a detailed set of indicators is presented for each one of the 17 SDGs in a given year, followed by evidence of activity in each area.
https://www.uvic.ca/about-uvic/un-sdg-uvic/index.php

Co-op and Career Services has a reporting site for the impact of students placements on the SDGs, featuring stories related to sustainability.
https://www.uvic.ca/coop/contact-us/co-op-and-career-services/co-op-sdgs/index.php

CIFAL Victoria has a dedicated dashboard reporting the training activities related to the SDGs:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/audrey7905/viz/CIFALUVicSurveyResults/Dashboard1?publish=yes

The Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability website is the hub of sustainability publications on campus (http://www.uvic.ca/sustainability), and many of the sustainability reports indicated above are available on that website's resources page (http://www.uvic.ca/sustainability/resources/reports/index.php). Many other units of the institution publish sustainability materials, including the Department of Geography, the School of Environmental Studies, the Faculty of Engineering and the Martlet (student run newspaper at UVic which is cited here).