BC Ministry of Health – on-going work 2012/2013. To be published upon completion.
CityStudio Vancouver
February 2011 – present
The City of Vancouver organized the Campus-city collaboration (C3) initiative to be the greenest city in 2020. As part of the initiative, CityStudio Vancouver is an energetic hub of learning and leadership where students from Vancouver’s six public post-secondary institutions design and implement Greenest City projects.
Objective: To design and implement Greenest City urban sustainability projects that makes communities better.
Process: The project is a collaboration of the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC), British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Emily Carr University (ECUAD), Langara College, Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver Community College (VCC). Students (3rd year and above) from the six institutions work together on a chosen area of study, in close consultation with City Staff, to address a specific challenge within the Greenest City Action Plan. City staff and relevant private sector experts attend Studio sessions to provide context. In addition, individual professors in the six institutions each create partner courses in subjects aligned with that of the Studio, and work together at the Studio during the semester.
Outcome: Thus, a total of over 300 students are engaged in helping to achieve the City’s objectives each semester.
Climate Smart Business Projects Client Groups
September 2012 – present
Climate Smart works with small to mid-sized businesses, providing training and user-friendly web-based software to measure their carbon emissions and plan emission reductions. As part of the Campus-City Collaboration, students from Sauder d.studio have worked with Climate Smart client groups to introduce design strategies into the businesses’ sustainability initiatives.
Objective: The purpose of this research with Climate Smart business project client groups is to investigate whether the use of design strategies improves innovation in the development of small business sustainability initiatives.
Process: The research will be qualitative and quantitative in nature. The research team will interview members of the client groups about their experience with the design strategies and methodologies. It will consist of four open interviews with each company’s point person to identify strategic actions and plans developed as a result of design work. Additionally, the research team will review existing sustainability audits related to each company’s design project as of December 31, 2011 (before work began with Studio) to determine baseline environmental impact. The research team will also review findings from sustainability audits for each company’s project in January 2013 to compare to baseline from 2011. The research team will then analyze the quantitative differences between audit results and qualitative results from audits and interviews.
Result: This research project is ongoing, and interviews will commence from September 2012 to January 2013.