About us

Ellie Gilchrist is a fifth-year English and Environmental Studies Double Major with experience in carbon reduction business consulting and regenerative urban agriculture.

Basma Majerbi, Associate Professor of Finance at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, oversees the calculation of the annual carbon footprint of Gustavson faculty, staff and students.

Curran Crawford (Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kate Moran (CEO, Ocean Networks Canada) and Sybil Seitzinger (Executive Director, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions) are leads in the newly launched negative emissions technology initiative, 'Solid Carbon'.

Meet the team

The Climate Solutions Navigator was supported by a dynamic and diverse working group that included leaders from over 15 UVic departments, research centres and administrative units. Chaired by Drs. Sybil Seitzinger and Rachael Scarth, this multidisciplinary team provided a unique opportunity to address gaps and opportunities for climate solutions across campus.

Rationale

The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special report on Global Warming highlights the need to reduce global emissions by 45% in 11 years to avoid the severe and intractable impacts of an overshoot of the 1.5 °C target. Our initiative helped address the imperative outlined by the IPCC by building on existing assets and overcoming obstacles relating to limited influence and impact of individual efforts at UVic.

Led by the Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, this project was supported by UVic’s Strategic Impact Fund.

Goals

The working group facilitated the development of climate solutions, mitigation and adaptation through:

  • increased awareness of strengths, capacity and gaps for climate solutions research activity
  • new research partnerships across the university and with industry, public and civil society
  • enhanced opportunities for both research and solutions implementation at UVic

Timeframe

July 2019 – June 2021