Thursday, March 28, 2024

UVic business school leads the way by investing in carbon neutrality projects

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The University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business is paving the way when it comes to neutralizing their students’ carbon footprint.

The department is investing in three initiatives that will help offset the carbon footprint left by business students and faculty during their frequent air travel to other countries (90% of Gustavson business school members travel internationally every year, for a well-rounded and globally focused education).

The projects funded will help improve living conditions for people in Uganda, Honduras, and Thailand. They’re also taking on two environmental projects in BC.

“Offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions of our travel is a way that we’re enacting our school’s values of sustainability and broader purpose, while maintaining our focus on international education and experience,” says Gustavson Dean Saul Klein.

“It’s important and timely to demonstrate leadership to our students and to the world; if our actions have a negative impact, we have a duty to do something about it.”

These five initiatives are sure to offset Gustavson’s carbon emissions:

  1. A chlorine dispenser project in Eastern Uganda that provides rural communities with safe drinking water, replacing the need for communities to boil water with wood-burned fire.
  2. A wastewater treatment project in Thailand that reduces fossil fuel use by 4,700 litres a day by capturing methane from wastewater at a starch manufacturing plant and converting it to heat for the starch-drying process.
  3. An affordable, energy-efficient cooking stove distribution project in Honduras that provides communities with stoves that are 50 per cent more efficient than traditional wood-burning open fires.
  4. The Great Bear Forest Carbon Project in BC that helps support the ecosystem-based management model in which coastal First Nations, environmental groups, forest companies and governments co-manage the Great Bear Rainforest to sustain biodiversity and create jobs for Indigenous communities.
  5. The Quadra Island Forestland Conservation Project that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve important site-specific environmental and cultural features and protect the Quadra Island Forestland Conservation area for recreational activities
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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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