Solutions Scholars Research Projects

Project Mentors  

Astrida Neimanis, English and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies; Community, Culture and Global Studies, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Onyx Sloan Morgan, Community, Culture and Global Studies, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Naomi Klein, Geography, Faculty of Arts

Solutions Scholars:

Jamie Stevens, Interdisciplinary Studies (Sustainability), Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies
Estraven Lupino-Smith, Geography, Faculty of Arts

Project Description 

This project was grounded in the conviction that the central promise of climate justice — sustainable and meaningful lives for all current and future generations — is desired by all communities, but action moving towards this is hampered by a lack of opportunities to explore commonalities and hold tensions across differences.  

We scoped the drivers and manifestations of social and cultural polarization, gathering research in Indigenous studies, ecofeminism, political science, public policy, environmental studies, and media studies. We identified story-telling through podcasts as a creative and arts-led approach for meaningful climate justice action in rural BC. 

To share our learnings we hosted skill-sharing workshops, wrote posts (“FEELed Notes”) for the FEELed Lab’s online research blog, and produced a series of short podcasts. To continue the work after this project, we prepared funding applications to host intersectional collaborations for anti-colonial, feminist climate justice and to establish an ongoing FEELed Lab podcast.

“I found that the program and my research project greatly supported my own research .... in ways that are not always as easy to gain through the graduate program alone.”
~ Solutions Scholar

Resources:

• FEELed Notes
  •  The Problem of Polarization
  • Connecting Otherwise
  • Otherwise Polarized Podcast
• Project Art: Addressing Polarization: Arts‐led Social Infrastructures for Anticolonial Climate Justice

Project Mentors

Jiaying Zhao, Psychology, Faculty of Arts;  Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Faculty of Science
Rachel White, Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Faculty of Science

Solutions Scholars:

Project Description

The goal of this project was to examine the most effective ways to communicate about heatwaves to mobilize the public towards climate action and behaviors. The rationale for this project is that there are many ways to communicate
facts about extreme weather events that are scientifically and statistically identical but may have different psychological impacts.

Building on this idea, we conducted an online experiment to compare the effect of different statistical formats on the risk threshold at which people report feeling more concerned about a heatwave. Specifically, we asked all participants to respond to the question “For you to feel more concerned about this heat wave, how much worse would it have to be?” in three formats: likelihood (e.g., “X times more likely”), frequency (e.g., “X times every 10 or 1,000 years”), or temperature (e.g., “X°F higher peak temperature”) for either a moderate or severe heatwave.

We found that participants indicated a lower threshold of increased concern for moderate heatwaves than severe heatwaves, and the lowest threshold for increased concern in the likelihood format, followed by frequency and temperature. We are submitting this paper for consideration in a scholarly journal with anticipated publication in the coming year.

“I’m really hopeful for the different ways that we can continue to explore the intersection between the physical science of climate change and the way we are communicating about it… I am excited to see where this goes”
Rachel White, Mentor

Resources

• The Solutions Scholars have submitted a paper for publication entitled How does communication format impact heatwave concerns? [abstract]  [paper under review]

Project Mentors

Mohammad Shahrad, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science 
Ivan Beschastnikh, Computer Science, Faculty of Science 

Solution Scholars

Modern software systems consume energy, and as they become larger and more distributed, understanding their environmental impact is increasingly important. This project makes software carbon emissions easier to measure accurately, helping researchers and developers build more sustainable systems.

In this project, we developed a tool called Firefly to track carbon emissions from distributed software systems. We have progressed from simulated datasets to capture data from real software benchmarks under high-load scenarios. We implemented and evaluated carbon-tracking instrumentation under realistic processing demands to measure fine-grained energy consumption and operational carbon during system execution.

One of the main outcomes is evidence that our methodology can generate more accurate energy estimates than existing state-of-the-art approaches by dynamically adjusting measurement granularity and better aligning estimates with actual system behavior. Firefly adjusts the frequency of measurement to balance computational overhead with the accuracy of energy estimates.

We are currently validating and optimizing Firefly to minimize its own energy footprint. Next steps include expanding the evaluation to additional processing demands, conducting broader comparisons with baseline tools, and preparing a research paper for submission to a leading conference.

“The system we are building is ultimately intended to be open sourced, so the community can build on it, we can build on it ... I’m very excited to have people use it and give us feedback.”
Mohammad Shahrad, Mentor

Resources

• End‐to‐End GHG Emissions Tracking of Online Services

Project Mentors

Ifeoma Adaji, Computer Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science 
Niyi Asiyanbi, Geography, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences 

Solution Scholars

Jason Xu, Computer Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science
Emon Sarker, Computer Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science

Project Description 

Wildfires are an increasing threat due to climate change, posing significant risks to communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. To improve wildfire preparedness, we completed the development of broader mobile and web versions of WISEC, a wildfire planning tool originally developed for Whistler, British Columbia in collaboration with frontline fire management stakeholders.

The enhanced platform now provides preparedness information, resources, and guidance for communities across Canada, expanding beyond the original local focus. It also includes an optimized retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) chatbot that delivers location-specific, evidence-based wildfire preparedness information and recommendations.

With development complete thanks to the Solutions Scholars program, the next phase of our work will involve comprehensive user testing of both platforms to evaluate usability and preparedness outcomes, followed by a formal stakeholder review to gather feedback, identify refinements, and inform broader deployment and long-term implementation.

“The program gave me a meaningful opportunity to translate climate adaptation research into a practical, public-facing tool ... The experience deepened my understanding of how technology, trusted information, and community needs intersect in climate solutions.” 
~ Solutions Scholar 

Resources 

• Final Report: WISEC: Engineering a Cross-Platform Wildfire Preparedness and Community Resilience Platform

Solution Scholars

Project Description

Climate engagement must extend beyond progressive environmentalists to build a broad social mandate for action. In this project, Solutions Scholars aimed to build the foundation for a Climate Engagement Centre (CEC) in Vernon, BC by combining insights from the UK’s Climate Emergency Center network with on-the-ground deep canvassing in the local community.

Through a desktop review of online materials and demographic data, coupled with semi-structured interviews with prominent UK CEC organizers, Dearden coded themes and identified practical strategies and best practices for developing a CEC in Vernon. Concurrently, Visscher and the research team worked
with several local groups to conduct deep canvassing across nine neighbourhoods.

Prioritizing personal storytelling and emotional resonance, trained canvassers asked open-ended questions about residents’ experiences with climate change and community resilience, focusing on listening rather than debating. Through canvasser debriefs, researchers uncovered issues of trust, agency, identity, and place.

Across the neighborhoods involved in the study, canvassers found a genuine longing for community connection. Researchers found that 52 per cent of people with whom canvassers had a full conversation agreed to join a “Friends of the CEC” newsletter, and 63 per cent rated their support of the CEC at eight out of ten or higher.

“A wonderful program that came around at the right time to make a big difference.” 
Mary Stockdale, Mentor

Resources

• Report: Beyond the Climate Bubble: Practical Insights on Community-Led Climate Action from UK Climate Emergency Centres
• Report: Reflections from Deep Canvassing in Vernon: Strong Local Support Amidst a Multiplicity of Climate Change Attitudes

Transitioning to smaller scale and diversified farming systems has been proposed as a climate solution, but the relationship between farm size, farming practices and greenhouse gas emissions is not well quantified. With the ultimate objective of informing farmers of tools that can support on-farm climate mitigation and sustainability efforts, this team evaluated and compared several emissions models and calculators for use by small farms.  

The Scholars began by working on developing PyHolos, a Python-based agricultural emissions calculator designed to suit small, diversified farms adapted from the Canadian-based calculator Holos. They then contrasted its performance with that of other mainstream emissions calculators (Comet and Cool Farm), and evaluated the challenges and opportunities presented by these calculators. Finally, they compared PyHolos-estimated emissions with on-farm emissions measurements, using data from the UBC Farm and a research farm in Alberta. 

In addition to a final report, the Solutions Scholars produced two research briefs to provide tangible support for on-farm management decisions. The first provides guidance on “Improving the Bottom Line Through Climate Friendly Nitrogen Application” and the second explores “4R Nutrient Stewardship to Reduce Nitrogen Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, While Improving Farm Profitability”.  

“Our goal is to reduce the burden of data entry with 'one entry - many uses' data management, representing a promising step towards inclusive and sustainable agriculture.”  Solutions Scholar, 2024/2025

Resources

Estimating Emissions from Small-Scale Diversified Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities - Final Report Prepared in June 2025
Improving the Bottom Line Through Climate Friendly Nitrogen Application - Research Brief Prepared in June 2025
4R Nutrient Stewardship to Reduce Nitrogen Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, While Improving Farm Profitability - Research Brief Prepared in June 2025
Unravelling Emissions Calculators for Small-Scale, Diversified Farms - Poster Prepared for April 2025 Solutions Summit

While carbon offsets are seen by industry as cost-saving and by governments as flexible regulatory tools, reforms are needed to improve transparency, strengthen benchmarks, and harmonize systems across jurisdictions. In this exploratory research project, the Scholars worked on three interconnected research projects combined to provide critical analysis and insights on the use of carbon offsets in the Canadian context. The ultimate objective was to work with the mentors to develop future research projects and multistakeholder dialogues on the future of carbon offsets, particularly in British Columbia where forest-based projects face criticism over their effectiveness and permanence. 

In addition to kickstarting a wider conversation around carbon offsets within the mentor group, the Solutions Scholars also organized an interactive workshop at the Institute for Society and Natural Resources Conference, a large multidisciplinary conference held in Vancouver. Their session was well attended with high engagement and was mentioned in the Opening Plenary Session. One Solutions Scholar was selected for an internship in carbon markets analysis after a prospective employer saw the presentation at the Solutions Scholars Summit event in April 2025. The team engaged in further knowledge extension through publication of a think piece on Medium discussing some of their findings; another second commentary is under development and will be published in the coming months. 

"Our cross-disciplinary team of faculty and students worked together to uncover the reality behind the controversy on carbon offsets and explored their future in British Columbia and around the world."  Solutions Scholar, 2024/2025

Resources

Canada’s Carbon Offset Projects Probably Don’t Offset Carbon. What Could Replace Them? - Opinion Piece July 2025
Carbon Offsets: A Just Path Toward Climate Action or Sustainability Illusion? - Workshop Presentation June 2025
Carbon Offsets: Climate Action or Sustainability Illusion? - Poster Prepared for April 2025 Solutions Summit