Opportunity of the University
From Common Energy UVic
The opportunity to facilitate change presented by universities and colleges is the reason that we have chosen to work with them to achieve our goal of creating a future with a climate that will support a diversity of life and prosperous societies. There are other institutions that can go beyond climate-neutral, indeed it is possible for the individual to do so, however, universities and colleges are unique because of the diversity of effects they can have.
Climate change is best understood as the unintended consequence of the ways we harness and use energy. The complexity of the problem stems from the complexity of our energy system. From the food we eat to the products we consume to the basic design of our cities, a reliance on cheap fossil fuels is deeply interwoven into the fabric of our civilization. There is no single discipline that captures this complexity – it transcends the natural sciences as well as the social sciences and the humanities.
Universities can troubleshoot this complexity through collaborative and interdisciplinary research at a scale where we can wrap our minds around the problems. That scale is the cities and regions where real people live and work. At this level, solutions to climate change look like entrepreneurial opportunities for efficiency, convenient public transit, and liveable cities.
For example, the Transportation Focus Area will begin to answer the following question: what can the University of Victoria do to catalyze the creation of a safe, convenient, and climate friendly transportation system in Victoria? We have scientists to design restorative greenways, business students to create business models for carsharing, engineers to show us new modes of transit, lawyers and people in public administration to design better regulation, individuals in arts and humanities to persuade people to get out of their cars, and planners to create an integrated system – with UVic as a hub in the new transit network
If realistic proposals are created in partnership with the regional community, they will generate the support needed to implement them. The key to the university’s potential to respond to complex challenges like reinventing a city's transit system is the potential of diverse combinations of perspectives from staff, faculty, and students to work with regional partners. The university's ability to respond to this challenge is strengthened by its economic power and the opportunities that from its massive physical presence. In other words, its hard to imagine an institution that could help design a sustainable and integrated transportation system, help fund the use of that system, and then act as a physical hub in the system.
When a university or college begins to seize these opportunities, it begins to move beyond climate-neutral.
