Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
Problem Focused.
Curiosity Driven.
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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
John P. Bell Global Indigenous Rights Lecture presents Dr. Dolly Kikon | March 13 5:30pm
The Woman who Became a Deer: Sacrifice and Salvation in the Indigenous World
In this talk, I present the Naga world through stories and focus on the web of connections about sacrifice and salvation. I invite you to meditate on knowledge, culture, and sustainability that are grounded in everyday lives of the Naga world. Far from romanticising Indigenous cultures as timeless, I draw attention to ongoing challenges such as extractive regime, structural violence, and inequality. Drawing from my ongoing engagements on repatriation, reconciliation, and redistribution, I offer some reflections about working together to humanize and care for one another, and dwell on Indigenous values as possible pathways of holding on to hope and healing during uncertain times.
-Dr. Dolly Kikon
Food Systems Sustainability: Understanding the Global Challenge and Taking Local Action | Feb 13 2pm
Short presentations and panel discussion followed by Q&A with Navin Ramankutty (Director, IRES; Professor, IRES and SPPGA), David Speight (UBC Food Services Executive Chef ), and Liska Richer (SEEDS Sustainability Manager).
News See all
$22 million awarded to Indigenous-led and multi-institutional research project for Indigenous and community-based approaches to chemical risk management
The Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) at UBC has partnered with 20 researchers and collaborators from Canada and Aotearoa (New Zealand) on a large international research initiative that puts Indigenous experts as leaders in designing how chemical risk is evaluated and managed.
The age of extinction – Why fear of billion-dollar lawsuits stops countries phasing out fossil fuels
A UN report by Dr. David Boyd has been featured in the Guardian to explain how companies can sue governments for closing oilfields and mines – and this risk of huge damages is already stopping countries from passing green laws!
Seminar Series See all
March 13, 2025: IRES Faculty Seminar with Dr. Jemima Baada
Drawing from migrations within Ghana, this presentation shares the voices of rural dwellers regarding their experiences of ‘adaptive’ climate migration.
March 20, 2025: IRES Student Seminar with Sam Gorle and Verena Rossa-Roccor
Talk 1: Simulating the Impacts of Hedgerow Restoration on Metapopulation Capacity in Southern Ontario.
Talk 2: Academics as activists: exploring and building political knowledge mobilization capacities to influence climate policy
