The work of advancing climate justice means embracing JEDI values.
Justice
Equity
Diversity
Inclusion
As climate emergency JEDIs, in our work we practice:
Transparency and Accountability
We understand that building trust in our work and our team means being both transparent and accountable about how our work is progressing, what it has achieved, and how we are making our decisions to prioritize our time and attention.
Listening and Connecting
We prioritize taking the time to listen to each other, to others in our collaborations, and climate knowledge keepers and experts, about what is needed to successfully advance our project work.
Adaptability
As there is so much uncertainty in how to respond effectively to future and current climate crises, we need to be willing to adapt to new or better information and changing situations as they emerge.
Collaborative Approaches
We acknowledge that there is no one person, group, department, institution, government, or Nation that can resolve this crisis on its own. Accordingly, our work must be done through strengthened and effective collaborations.
The Team
The Sustainability Hub convenes and coordinates UBC’s Climate Emergency response and provides university-wide strategic support linking climate action to these functions. Within the Sustainability Hub, several staff members have dedicated roles to support reporting and continued engagement around the response.
The Senior Project Manager reports directly to the Sustainability Hub’s Senior Director. The Senior Director also works in close cooperation with faculties and units across the UBC Vancouver campus.
Linda Nowlan, Senior Director
Linda Nowlan leads the UBC Sustainability Hub as Senior Director. She has over twenty-five years of experience in sustainability as a public interest environmental lawyer and NGO leader. Since joining UBC in 2020, Linda has co-led the development of the Sustainability Hub’s strategic plan, instituted the Climate Justice webinar series, and started a new program to convene and coordinate work on implementing the UBC Climate Emergency Task Force report. Linda is an Adjunct Professor at the Allard School of Law, where she co-teaches an environmental law workshop. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature and the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, and previously served on Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Team and the Boards of the Fraser Basin Council and Smart Growth BC. Her advocacy contributed to many legal reforms, and her publications cover topics ranging from groundwater protection to marine spatial planning to extinction art.
At West Coast Environmental Law, Linda served as Executive Director, Staff Lawyer, and Director of the Marine Program where she led a team to strengthen ocean protection through Canadian and Indigenous law. She also worked at WWF-Canada, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a Vancouver litigation law firm. Linda has degrees in English literature, law and international law.
Zhenyi Tsai, Engagement Project Assistant
Zhenyi Tsai is a third-year student doing a double major in Environment & Sustainability and Political Science. His passion for the environment and climate action stems from his upbringing, encompassing two places; Coquitlam (skʷƛ̓əma:ɬ stál̕əw̓), British Columbia and China. Thus, he was raised with Buddhist and Indigenous values about looking beyond the Anthropocene and valuing humanity’s inseparability from the earth, cosmos, and nature.
He has extensive experience in executive and facilitation for organizations such as the Sustainability Consultant for Climate Justice UBC, UNICEF UofT as Co-Director, and the UofT G20 Research Group as compliance analyst on climate and environmental policy. In his community and research engagements, Zhenyi specializes in sustainable procurement processes, equitable sustainability development and climate policy analytics. Drawing on his experience with the G20 Research Group and Climate Justice UBC, he is well-versed in sustainability and climate justice, accurately translating and engaging in necessary climate mitigation initiatives and sustainable development goals. He aims to inspire greater attention to climate justice, environmental sustainability, and equity by embodying cooperative values, healthy communication, and engaged justice initiatives.
Alexandra Thomas, Homegrown Climate Justice Project Lead
Alexandra Thomas’ traditional name is Naxnagəm (nahg-na-ghem). On her maternal side she is from Tlowitsis First Nation from Kwakwaka’wakw territory, and her paternal side Shishalh First Nation from Coast Salish Territory. Alex is an undergraduate in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC and is studying Forest Resources Management with a minor in Community and Aboriginal Forestry. Her previous work experience has been working with First Nations community’s and the Government on management of Natural Resources, facilitating education on cultural safety and awareness about First Nations history in BC, and aiding in research on red and yellow cedar trees on Northern Vancouver Island. Alex is very passionate about the outdoors, football (also known as soccer), house plants, and coffee.
Check out Alex’s Homegrown Climate Justice project here.
Aloysio Kouzak Campos da Paz, Interdepartmental climate learning assistant
Aloy received the International Major Entrance Scholarship to study engineering at UBC. Now that he is graduating, he will be entering a masters focused in the energy transition.
Aloy is passionate about regenerative work and has aligned his work with sustainability.
With the Sustainability Hub, Aloy has assisted the interdepartmental climate action committee Here, he developed a toolkit for faculty and staff across more than 8 departments at UBC to share lessons on creating climate action at UBC. Previously, Aloy worked with Professor Naoko Ellis to co-design a new PhD program that collaborates across disciplines to tackle climate change.
During co-ops, Aloy designed and built laboratory equipment for the Berlinguette Group, a laboratory which tackles climate change with inventions for decarbonization. He also advised a 1.2 Billion dollar company on environmental due diligence and human rights in their supply chain.
In his first work-learn positions, Aloy coordinated a program to support equity-deserving groups in Applied Sciences, and served as Equity Ambassador, where he co-created educational material delivered to more than 1500 engineering students.
Click below to see the rest of the Sustainability Hub team who are helping to advance the Climate Emergency response.
Team Alumni
Gä̀gala-ƛ̓iƛ̓ətko | Nadia Joe – Co-Senior Project Manager
Bryce Henney – Indigenous Engagement Assistant
Fumika Noguchi – Engagement Project Assistant
Simone Rawal – Project Assistant
Roufan Wang – Project Assistant
Thank you for all of your contributions and dedication to advancing UBC’s climate emergency!
