Congratulations to Dr. Hannah Wittman who has been promoted to Full Professor, effective July 1, 2018!
Dr. Hannah Wittman’s research examines the ways that the rights to produce and consume food are contested and transformed through struggles for agrarian reform, food sovereignty, and agrarian citizenship. Her projects include community-based research on farmland access, transition to organic agriculture, and seed sovereignty in British Columbia, agroecological transition and the role of institutional procurement in the transition to food sovereignty in Ecuador and Brazil, and the role that urban agriculture and farm-to-school nutrition initiatives play in food literacy education.
For more on Dr. Wittman’s current work and publications, see here.
This interview features Arvind Saraswat, a 2016 RMES PhD graduate! He is currently a Project Assessment Director with the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) of the Province of BC and a Visiting Professor at the School of Environmental Science at Simon Fraser University. At the time of this interview (pre-2020), Arvind was working as the Head of Air Quality Section with the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
What is your current position?
I currently work as the Head of Air Quality Section (Assessments) with the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. I lead a provincial team of air quality experts responsible for assessing air discharge applications under the Environmental Management Act and the Environmental Assessment Act. My team is also responsible for leading airshed management activities across the province. My section also provides expert opinion on complex compliance and enforcement files, as well as appeals under the Environmental Management Act. My work involves managing the team budget and hiring new staff as well.
What do you enjoy about your job? What are the challenges?
There are many aspects that I enjoy- I will try to cover a few here. The fact that I am able to use my technical skills to protect the environment keeps me happy. I get to work on a variety of challenging technical problems and the challenges make the work interesting. I also get to work with a team of professionals from many disciplines which allows us to learn from each other.
In what ways did your experience in IRES help prepare you for what you do now?
Well, there is a lot that I got to learn during my time at IRES. Firstly, I got to learn a lot from the faculty. I credit Prof. Milind Kandlikar and Prof. Mike Brauer for encouraging me to see beyond the generally accepted solutions for environmental problems. Secondly, I was able to take courses in many disciplines like civil engineering, chemical and biological engineering, statistics, epidemiology, risk assessment, along with core courses. These just helped me understand environmental problems a lot better. Last but not the least, I got to learn a lot from some of the fellow students at IRES and other departments. This positioned me well for the future.
Why did you choose the RMES program (and UBC)? What was your previous educational background, and how did this influence your choice?
I was interested in learning more about the causes and consequences of air pollution and air quality management. Since air quality management requires a wide range of skills, an interdisciplinary program was an obvious choice. I found Milind’s interdisciplinary work on air quality issues very exciting and luckily I got an opportunity to work with him. I have a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and it had a significant influence on my decision–I wanted to build on the skills that I had and learn many new things. Knowing that Milind has a bachelor’s degree in engineering too, I was confident that I was making the right choice.
What was the most enjoyable or impactful part of your experience in IRES?
All of it–it is hard to pick a few. The opportunity to take the courses that I liked, discussions with faculty and fellow students, social events… I still miss the social space at IRES and the coffee machine.
Do you have any advice for current RES students?
Take as many relevant courses as you can, you will perhaps never have that opportunity again. Try to build skills that your potential employers are interested in, for example, data analysis. Of course, the details will vary but most employers are generally interested in presentations and communications skills. Use all opportunities to improve those skills. If possible, attend relevant conferences/events to connect with other professionals in your area of interest.
Congratulations to Dr. Mark Johnson who has been promoted to full Professor, effective July 1, 2018!
Dr. Johnson is working to understand how land use practices influence interactions between hydrological and ecological processes, and how these ecohydrological processes further affect ecosystem services including carbon sequestration. Unraveling interactions between the water cycle and the carbon cycle is essential for improving the sustainability of land and water management, especially under changing climatic conditions. Dr. Johnson’s research in ecohydrology demonstrates that soil carbon processes are also integrally important to the health of freshwater ecosystems and drinking water supplies. Dr. Johnson and his team are testing carbon and water cycle interactions to address questions such as: How much carbon does water transport from the land into freshwater systems? His research can also help to answer very applied questions related to soil fertility and water use such as: How much food can be produced in urban environments, and how much water would that require? To address these and other related questions, Johnson is developing innovative approaches to ecohydrological research in partnership with communities, natural resource management agencies and organizations, and industry.
The city managed to stave off “Day Zero,” but does that mean Cape Town’s water system is resilient?
We think not.
This may well foreshadow trouble beyond Cape Town. Cities across the Northern Hemisphere, including in Canada, are well into another summer season that has already brought record-setting heat, drought and flooding from increased run-off.
In Cape Town, lower than average rainfall tipped the scales towards a “crisis,” but the situation was worsened by slow and inadequate governance responses. Setting aside debates around whose responsibility it was to act and when, the bigger issue, in our view, was the persistence of outdated ways of thinking about “uncertainty” in the water system.
Second, Cape Town’s water system neared disaster in part because demand management seemed to have reached its limits. Starting late last year, the city imposed a limit on water consumption of 87 litres per person per day. That ceiling thereafter shrunk to 50 litres per person per day.
Cape Town residents queue to fill containers from a spring water source on Feb. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Despite these efforts, Cape Town consistently failed to cut demand below the 500-million-litre-per-day citywide target needed to ensure that the system would function into the next rainy season.
The mayor accused the city’s residents of wasting water, but her reprimanding rhetoric should not be seen as a sign that the citizens were non-compliant. The continuously shrinking water targets were an untenable long-term management strategy.
Buffers are key to water resilience
In the end, “Day Zero” was avoided primarily by relying on unexpected buffers, including temporary agricultural transfers and the private installation of small-scale, residential grey-water systems and boreholes in the city’s wealthier neighbourhoods. The former increased water supply and the latter lowered demand from the municipal system. These buffers are unlikely to be available next year, however, as the water allocations for the agricultural sector will not be renewed and there is uncertainty in the long-term sustainability of groundwater withdrawals.
For more than a decade, Cape Town has levelled demand, reduced leaks and implemented pressure management and water restrictions. This made Cape Town’s water system highly efficient and therefore less resilient because there were fewer reserves to draw from in times of unusual scarcity.
The UN Water 2015 report found that most cities are not very resilient to water risks. As water managers continue to wait for climate change models to become more certain or more specific, they defer action, paralyzing decision-makers.
If we really want our cities to be water-resilient, we must collectively change long-held ideas about water supply and demand. This will require technological and institutional innovation, as well as behavioural change, to create new and more flexible buffers — for example, through water recycling, green infrastructure and other novel measures.
Although Cape Town avoided disaster this year, that does not make it water-resilient. Despite the arrival of the rainy season, Cape Town is still likely to face Day Zero at some point in the future.
The Freda Pagani Awards have been endowed by family and friends for graduate students in the Resources, Environment and Sustainability graduate program. As founder and director of the Sustainability Office at UBC, Freda helped to develop green building guidelines for campus facilities, initiated an energy management program, created the UBC Social, Ecological, Economic, Development Students Program (SEEDS), and developed a community energy and water plan. In addition, Freda led the creation of the University’s first ecologically friendly building, the C.K. Choi Building.
Trained volunteers at large-scale public events and festivals are the most effective way to ensure people recycle correctly, suggests new UBC research. Researchers used data from the annual Apple Festival, held at the UBC Botanical Garden and attended by more than 10,000 people, to compare the effectiveness of different recycling and waste sorting methods.
Ivana Zelenika, a PhD candidate in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, explains why recommendations from the study will be crucial in ensuring recycling efforts are effective at upcoming summer events and festivals.
Ivana Zelenika, RES PhD candidate
How does contamination affect recycling?
For a long time, most recycling efforts have been focused exclusively on galvanizing participation, which is still very important, but if people are contaminating the bins it cancels out the participation effort. Contamination of waste streams makes the whole recycling enterprise costlier because it creates extra work for recycling facilities and reduces the quality and quantity of useful materials for resale. It’s no longer enough just to encourage participation—we need to encourage accurate sorting.
Recently there were a number of news stories about the cost of recycling contamination in cities across Canada. There is a huge financial incentive for event organizers, for institutions and for municipalities to recycle properly.
Why is contamination of recycling such a big issue at large events?
A large amount of waste is produced at events through food, drink and product packaging. When there are many different kinds of products and different vendors, it can be confusing for people to know what can be recycled and what can’t. When they are in social settings and in a hurry to get back to family and friends, this can lead to rushed waste disposal and contamination.
In our study, we found anywhere between 10 and 40 pieces of waste end up in the wrong bins, for example food or recyclable coffee lids being tossed into the garbage.
We tested the effect of having a trained volunteer stand by the bins to provide correct information about how to dispose of waste. The volunteers communicated with attendees so there was a chance to educate them. People like social interaction, so it also makes sense that people would approach someone standing by the bin, someone that they think is an expert that could help them, as opposed to trying to figure out signage on their own.
What were the findings of your study?
We conducted a randomized control trial at the annual Apple Festival at the UBC Botanical Garden to determine the most effective way to reduce waste contamination. We tried four different approaches: trained volunteers, bins with signs illustrating the waste products, bins with pieces of waste like aluminum cans or coffee lids attached to the top to indicate where the waste goes, and regular bins.
We determined that trained volunteers had a significant impact on the contamination levels of all waste streams. Volunteer staff were able to reduce contamination by 96 per cent in the organics bin, 97 per cent in the recyclable containers bin, 97 per cent in the paper bin, and 85 per cent in the garbage bin. The other bins—those with signage and even those with examples of waste sitting on top—had no significant effect on contamination levels.
Our results suggest that recruiting volunteer staff at waste stations is the most effective method to reduce contamination at public events.
What are the implications of this study for event organizers?
Trained volunteers are a huge resource because people need help sorting their waste. People are willing to recycle but providing bins and signage at events is not enough. We now have the data to show that volunteers are the only intervention that made a significant impact on decreasing contamination levels and we were quite surprised how well the volunteers worked to help people sort their waste correctly.
Volunteers make such a big difference, so let’s celebrate them and use them to help better support people and reduce contamination.
The Right to Breathe Clean Air: Catalyst for Change?
The World Health Organization reports that air pollution causes approximately seven million deaths per year, a terrible burden that affects all countries but disproportionately harms low- and middle-income States, mainly in Asia and Africa. These preventable deaths are caused in roughly equal proportions by ambient (outdoor) air pollution, produced by industry and motor vehicles, and household (indoor) air pollution, produced by cooking, heating, and lighting with polluting fuels.
Yet the right to clean air seems to have garnered far less academic, political, and legal attention than the right to water. Could political and legal recognition of the right to breathe clean air serve as a catalyst for improvements in air quality? If so, what types of laws and policies might prove effective in achieving cleaner air for all, and especially the most vulnerable individuals and communities?
Associate Professor of Law, Policy and Sustainability, IRES
Bio
David R. Boyd is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment and an associate professor of law, policy, and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. He has a PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies from UBC, a law degree from the University of Toronto, and a business degree from the University of Alberta. His career has included serving as the executive director of Ecojustice, appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada, and working as a special advisor on sustainability for Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. He has advised many governments on environmental, constitutional, and human rights policy. Along with Mayor Gregor Robertson, he co-chaired Vancouver’s effort to become the world’s greenest city by 2020.
Boyd is also the author of nine books and over 100 reports and articles on environmental law and policy, human rights, and constitutional law. His most recent books include The Rights of Nature (ECW Press, 2017), The Optimistic Environmentalist (ECW Press, 2015), Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription for Stronger Canadian Environmental Laws and Policies (UBC Press, 2015) and The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment (UBC Press, 2012).
There’s a good chance that the city is not alone.
