B. C. researchers win prestigious award in Brazil

Two University of B. C. researchers have won the Blue Planet Award for Sustainability at the Rio+ 20 Earth Summit in Brazil.

The award honoured the work of William Rees, a professor emeritus at the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, and his former doctoral student Mathis Wackernagel in developing the “ecological footprint” in the early 1990s.

Using the footprint as a measure, the two researchers concluded that the world is already in a severe state of “ecological overshoot,” UBC says in a release. They estimated that four Earths would be required to sustain humankind if every person used as many resources as the average North American.

“It is deeply gratifying on a personal level to be so acknowledged by one’s peers,” Rees said in the release. “We are honoured to have been included among the august group of scientists who constitute Blue Planet laureates.”

Added Wackernagel: “I think for both of us this prize is a huge recognition of something that started quite modestly, but which by now has become one of the prime metrics in the sustainability field.”

The Blue Planet Award is regarded as one of the world’s premier environmental prizes and is worth almost $ 645,000. It was established in 1992 to recognize research that has helped solve global environmental problems.