Faculty and staff from BCIT presented to sustainable city practitioners from around the world at the Ecocity World Summit in London (UK), June 6-8, 2023. This event brought together two thousand architects, planners, developers, policy makers, academics, non-profit representatives, and youth activists to explore how collaboration and transdisciplinary approaches can create better cities and communities.
Matthew Rockall, BCIT business and technical communication instructor, lead the workshop “Incorporating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into specialized technical programs or training”. Matthew guided participants through an exploration of how to incorporate the Ecocity Standards and environmental literacy into various professional fields.
Christina Olsen of BCIT’s sustainability office and Centre for Ecocities lead the session “Closing the sustainability and equity gap in cities through use of consumption-based sustainability metrics” (image below). Cora Hallsworth, Centre for Ecocities Manager of Municipal Programs, and Glenys Verhulst, Sustainability Planner with the District of Saanich, joined by video to provide information on the key role these metrics have for advancing global sustainability equitably through local action and how municipalities in BC are putting it into practice.
Joey DaBell, Project Leader with BCIT’s multi-discipline Smart Microgrid Applied Research Team (SMART) and Yvette Jones, Project Leader, Human Kinetics, MAKE+ had their abstract on Creating an Equitable and Inclusive Experience for Fully Accessible EV Charging [PDF] featured.
The Ecocity World Summit, an initiative by Ecocity Builders, is held in a different city every two years. In 2019, BCIT hosted the summit in Vancouver from which the Centre for Ecocities was launched as a legacy. This year’s event was organized around the theme of ‘Connecting Communities’ with conference sessions and workshops bolstered by site tours and exhibitions.