Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
Problem Focused.
Curiosity Driven.
WE ARE...
a problem-focused and curiosity-driven interdisciplinary institute for research and learning. Our mission is to cultivate the knowledge, skills, and actions that will accelerate transitions to a sustainable and just world.
Graduate Program
News and Events
Featured Events See all
UBC Micro-certificate in Climate Action Planning | Info session Aug 19 12pm
Learn how this new part-time program provides a basic understanding of climate science, impacts and policies, and helps you identify key stakeholders related to specific aspects and locations that interest you.
Climate Conversations UBC Botanical Garden | May 22, 8:45am to 4:45pm
IRES's Dr. Kai Chan will be one of the expert panelists speaking alongside Keynote Speaker Lisa Brideau, author of Adrift (winner of the 2024 Evergreen Award) and senior sustainability specialist with the City of Vancouver.
News See all
Emily Shilton, IRES alumna, sounds alarm on vaping as Canada’s “addictive e-waste problem”
Shilton's research reveals how nicotine vaping devices—small, battery-powered electronics—are slipping through regulatory cracks, causing serious environmental concerns.
As the World Confronts Climate Change, the US Leaves Our Future Behind
July 2025 was a powerful month for climate justice, responding to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights advisory opinion,
Dr. David Boyd is featured in the Nation for the need for this advisory to include a direct call fora broad fossil fuel phaseout
Seminar Series See all
September 11, 2025: IRES Student Seminar with Victor Cardenas (First Seminar in Term 1)
Exploring how climate change impacts the lending capacity of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to smallholder farmers (SHFs), this talk will analyze global trends in physical climate risk—particularly tropical storms and floods—and their effects on 4,500 MFIs under various climate scenarios.
September 18, 2025: IRES Faculty Seminar with Dr. Kate Harriden and Dr. Katie O’Bryan
Exploring aqua nullius—the systemic exclusion of Indigenous water rights and science—this talk examines how it functions as a critical tool of colonisation, how it impacts Indigenous women's water rights, and how, through this focus, it aims to reassert the possibilities for reforming settler-state legal and governance systems to ensure Indigenous women’s sovereignty, water rights, and obligations.
