UBC houses more than 8,500 students in residence complexes on the Vancouver campus.  To mobilize this community to reduce waste, water and energy consumption in residences and to build a culture of sustainability by supporting student leaders, the Sustainability in Rez Program aims to inspire and engage residents of UBC to make more sustainable lifestyle choices and help implement more sustainable practices in their residences.

About the Program

The Campus Sustainability Office (CSO) collaborates with Residence Life to support Sustainability in Rez and its related sustainability committees and grassroots initiatives in Totem Park, Place Vanier, Gage, Fairview, Thunderbird, Fraser Hall, Marine Drive, and Acadia Park Residences. The CSO also supports sustainability committees in two private graduate residences, St. John’s College and Green College.

The program seeks to support, promote, monitor and evaluate the adoption of sustainable practices in residences at UBC, targeting water conservation, energy efficiency and waste reduction, along with the integration of a variety of student-led initiatives including:

•  100-mile dinners
•  Stuff Swaps
•  Lecture Series
•  Documentary Screenings
•  Green Cleaning Workshops
•  Energy competitions (including Do It in the Dark)

 Get Involved

Join your residence sustainability committee and gain valuable skills and knowledge in sustainability while inspiring and engaging other students to make sustainable lifestyle choices. You’ll get to plan fun events to promote ecological and social sustainability with like-minded students, help implement more sustainable waste, water, and energy practices in your residence, collaborate and network with students living in other residences on campus, and of course… have fun!

 Benefits

By participating in the Sustainability in Rez, you will:

• Meet and collaborate with others that share your passion for sustainability
• Cultivate lasting change in your residence
• Build your knowledge and leadership through workshops and events which showcase sustainable solutions on campus on topics such as energy conservation, waste reduction and food security
• Gain experience and references that will open doors in the future

Sustainability in Rez Resources

Check out our new Sustainability in Rez Toolkits! These 'how-to' guides offer sustainable living tips and actions you can take each day in trad-style (Totem and Vanier) or suite-style housing as well as on campus. Our first edition focuses on energy, waste and food.

Click below to access the fun, flippable format of these two toolkits on ISSUU:

Totem and Vanier Toolkit

Suite-Style Toolkit

To download and save your own copy, click on the links below:

Download the Totem and Vanier Toolkit

Download the Suite-Style Toolkit

Call to Action!

1. Join your residence sustainability committee or begin pursuing your own initiatives in Rez – contact Shelley Long to learn more.
2. Keep updated on current events at our participating residences on our Blog, or by clicking "like" on our Sustainability in Rez Facebook page.

For details on our Do It in the Dark energy competition, please see this page.