Carleton’s energy research centre opened their third year of lecture seminars with a visit from a University of British Columbia (UBC) professor.
John Robinson presented on the role of universities in Canadian innovation and sustainability on Sept. 18 at Carleton. He is behind the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) at UBC, a ‘living laboratory’ that reduces carbon emissions for the whole campus. He was speaking as part of the Sustainable Energy Lectures organised by the Carleton Sustainable Energy Research Centre.
Robinson said he hopes to spread UBC’s model of community-focused environmentalism across Canadian campuses.
Speaking to the almost-full room of around 60 students and university community members, Robinson explained the pressing need to redefine environmentalism’s current message of “cutting back, on doing without, on reducing harm, on mitigating, on being less bad generally.”
This idea does not work to motivate people, Robinson said.
“It turns out people don’t just leap to jump on the bandwagon of sacrifice. This is a really serious problem because sustainability is about transformative societal changes. It isn’t just about eco-efficiency and improving at the margins,” he said.
His vision for CIRS, and for the world’s future, is one of regenerative sustainability. Rather than limit human harm on the environment, Robinson wants human activity to improve it and for environmentalism to improve everyday life.
Everyone from engineering to psychology conducts research around the way people are interacting with new green technology within (and around) CIRS’s sustainable-wood built walls. The building uses 100 per cent rainwater and serves as an eco-system for plants and birds, all while housing one of UBC’s largest lecture halls, according to Robinson.
Most universities own their own property and have a mandate for public education and research, which according to Robinson, puts them in a unique position to take a lead on sustainability.
“I think every university in the world should be doing this. I’d like Canadian universities to do it first,” he said.
“I’ve been coming to seminars before I was a masters student here,” first-year applied science in sustainable energy engineering masters student Mike Brown said.
“They generally have sort of a technical slant, but the speakers are quite good and make it approachable to a non-technical audience. This [sustainability] is a popular sort of science thing, so I think that’s part of the success, it engages everyone.”
The next lecture in the Sustainable Energy series of the Fall term is on Oct. 23 and will explore the potential of wind energy.
