Pilot project targets corporate customers
The UBC Botanical Garden is embarking on a three-year pilot project to create a sustainability field school, dressed up as a corporate retreat.
The tricky thing about sustainability education is that only people who are interested in sustainability show up, but as the sloganeers of the environmental movement put it: “To change everything, we need everyone.”
“We want to come up with a way to reach the unconverted, the other 80 per cent who mostly don’t care,” said Tara Moreau, the garden’s associate director of sustainability and community programs.
While enjoying a day in the botanical gardens, corporate retreat participants will engage in team-building exercises and learn how their actions as individuals — both in the office and at home — can contribute to positive change in the areas of sustainable food production, waste management and energy conservation.
“We are hoping that if we educate people about best practices in the context of their work environment, that we can motivate them as individuals to realize that they can apply this thinking to their role as commuters, parents and voters,” said Moreau.
Moreau is adapting the model she developed for the Urban Farmer Field School run by the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation by applying it to a broader sustainability curriculum.
“We want to take all that systems thinking that is required for the sustainability of food and apply it to energy and waste,” she said.
“We have been percolating these ideas for a few years now so it was great to have a donor come along and say, ‘This is a great idea.’ ”
The pilot project is made possible by a $250,000 donation from UBC arts alumnus Patricia Wales, who was attracted to the project for its focus on individual action and its unique method for community outreach.
“It supports research that may change people’s practices and attitudes,” she said.
As part of the project, psychology professor Jiaying Zhao will be looking for ways to measure the success of the field school’s programming, so they’ll know whether people’s behaviour changes when they return to their normal lives.
By weighing the amount of compost generated in office buildings and monitoring water and energy consumption of employees in the workplace, Zhao will be able to determine whether the workshops are successful in changing people’s behaviour and whether the effects are long-lasting.