News
From June 1st to 8th UVic will welcome up to 10,000 delegates from across Canada for the
Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences annual conference. The Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability is working with conference organizers to make this event as sustainable as possible by promoting zero-waste events (including waste reduction and waste diversion) throughout the week, and encouraging delegates to purchase carbon offsets to reduce their carbon footprint related to travel. See the
conference website to find out more about sustainability at Congress. Green Teams will be working throughout the week to promote these concepts with our guests. If you'd like to volunteer and get involved, please email
action@uvic.ca.
Read more about A Sustainable Congress.
Registration for Bike to Work Week (May 2th to June 2nd) teams is now open on the
Bike to Work Victoria website. UVic regularly contributes over 40 teams in this regional event that celebrates cycle commuting and encourages new people to give it a try with the support of colleagues. Fun events and chances to win prizes happen all week, as well as cycle safety seminars. If you'd like to host a team or join a team, contact
action@uvic.ca to find out more.
Read more about Registration open for Bike to Work Week.
UVic's two new electric vehicle charging stations come into operation the week of April 2nd. These level 2 (240 volt), 60 amp stations from Sun Country Highway are available for use by the campus community and guests 24/7 outside the Campus Security Building in parking lot #2. They are located in metered parking spaces for a fee of $1.50 per hour (a $.25 premium over our regular parking rates) for a maximum of 2 hours. Funding for these stations has been provided by the BC government's Community Charging Infrastructure Project, an incentive program that has funded over 500 electric vehicle charging stations across BC. Find out more about the program at the Plug In BC website.
Also note that the province recently announced an extension of its Clean Energy Vehicle Incentive Program which provides BC residents with up to $5,000 off the pre-tax sticker price of qualifying new battery electric, fuel-cell electric, plug-in hybrid electric and compressed natural gas vehicles. See media release for more info.
Read more about New Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.
Student Kelsey Mech was presented with UVic's first Student Sustainability Champion Award at an event on March 14th that also included a talk by legendary Canadian environmental activist and author Tzeporah Berman. Two other students, Miranda Maslany and Matt Hammer, also received recognition for their outstanding contributions towards campus sustainability. See photo below
.
Read more about Student Sustainability Champions.
The UVic Sustainability Project hosts a Sustainability Contest. Submit your idea to help improve campus and community sustainability which could be a poster, video, song, video, poem, or whatever you like, as a team or individual. Great prizes up for grabs! Deadline is March 28th, with voting March 29th to April 7th. See
poster and contact Kyle Morris at
kwmorris@gmail.com for more info.
Read more about UVSP Sustainability Contest.
The new Centre for Athletics and Recreation (CARSA) building project is set to start on campus this month. Saanich is also getting ready to start making changes along McKenzie Ave including separated bike lanes from Shelbourne to Gordon Head, eventually all the way down to Cadboro Bay. See
Saanich News story for details.
Read more about CARSA project and bike lanes on McKenzie.
