Vancouver Climate Solutions Summit

The Solutions Scholars Program connects graduate students with scholarly research projects on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and/or education. 

In September 2025, several interdisciplinary research cohorts began working together on Solutions Scholars projects.  Supported by faculty from across both the Okanagan and Vancouver campuses, twelve graduate students have contributed to projects related to addressing polarization in climate discourse, developing wildfire preparedness tools, communicating climate impacts, understanding the climate impacts of data centres, and more. 

Join us for this in-person event, where we will hear from three project teams about the progress of their projects, followed by an opportunity to gather in small tables to dive deeper.  

Who should attend?  Anyone interested in learning more about current research initiatives at UBC and who would like to engage with researchers in conversations related to these projects.  Faculty, students, staff, and community members are all welcome and encouraged to attend.

Light refreshments will be provided. 

Projects being profiled:

Online services run in cloud computing environments, and a full, timely, and open accounting of the energy consumption of these services, and associated carbon emissions is not readily available. This is especially challenging because modern distributed applications rely on many interconnected services, which makes thorough, end-to-end emissions tracking crucial. Without comprehensive data, attributing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to specific users or applications remains difficult, limiting accountability and informed decision-making. Our team has built a lightweight, adaptable energy measurement system by extending an existing open-source framework. We have tailored it to assess energy consumed from the individual computational components that make up an end-to-end online service. Combined with the carbon intensity of the energy, a full accounting of carbon emissions will be available to developers, decision-makers, and consumers.

Project Mentors: Mohammad Shahrad, Faculty of Applied Science; Ivan Beschastnikh, Faculty of Science 
Solution Scholars: Hanan Awwad, Faculty of Applied Science; Ted Scott, Faculty of Arts

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The goal of this project is to examine the most effective ways to communicate climate change to mobilize climate mitigation and adaptation actions and policies. The rationale for this project is that there are many ways to communicate facts about climate change that are scientifically and statistically identical but may have different psychological impacts.  A preliminary pilot study showed that people found statements more or less surprising depending on the framing, even though those statements were statistically identical (i.e. based on the exact same change in climate).  Building on this study, we hypothesize that the way climate change information is presented, particularly relating to extremes, may influence the way people engage with climate science information, and their willingness to take adaptive or mitigative behaviours. As solutions scholars, we are undertaking an expanded study to help shed light on how framing of climate change information can shape the response of the public.

Project Mentors: Jiaying Zhao, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Science; Rachel White, Faculty of Science
Solutions Scholars: Adedayo Adeyanju, Faculty of Applied Science; Hayley Simpson, Faculty of Science

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Today’s educators must be knowledgeable about the climate emergency and the inequitable impacts worldwide. Teacher education programs must offer innovative and emerging programs to deliver a multidisciplinary, evidence based, climate justice informed education. This project lays the foundation for the development of a climate justice themed elementary Bachelor of Education cohort for the UBC Faculty of Education. Solutions Scholars have been conducting a review of existing climate justice programs, engaging in curriculum mapping of climate justice programs in other jurisdictions, and creating an open‐source resource of climate justice education theory, research, and practice.  Additionally they will engage directly with UBC teacher candidates and practicing teachers. Our findings will provide an in‐depth understanding of educational needs in climate justice education. 

Project Mentors: Sandra Scott and Douglas Adler, Faculty of Education; Kshamta Hunter, UBC Sustainability
Solutions Scholars: Balraj Rathod and Mahfida Tahniat, Faculty of Education

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Climate engagement must extend beyond progressive environmentalists to build a broad social mandate for action. Smaller rural communities are often overlooked in these efforts, despite their cumulative political impact. Vernon, BC (population 45,000), is home to strong and active support both for and against climate action. The two sides and their respective worldviews present very different narratives and assumptions about the role of institutions and scientific inquiry in society. It is a microcosm of similar intransigence occurring throughout Canada, the US and beyond.  Learning from the UK’s more than 30 Climate Emergency Centres, and building on deep canvassing in the local community, our team is developing the foundation for a Vernon Climate Engagement Centre (CEC).

Project Mentors: Mary Stockdale and Jon Corbett, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences;  
Maged Senbel, Faculty of Applied Science
Solution Scholars: Theresa Dearden, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Blair Visscher, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies

While registration is not required, share your contact information to receive a reminder - and help us plan for refreshments!