If you are interested in finding information to help you to live more sustainably in your personal life or are just interested or curious about sustainability topics, check into our Community Courses.
If you are interested in leading the transition to a sustainable society, would like to pursue a career in sustainability fields or need skills to support sustainable work within your professional role, check into our Professional Courses and Programs.
Unsustainable management practices and urban encroachment have left a legacy of ecosystems which are out of balance. Ecological restoration is a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and re-establishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture. In our Restoration programs and courses, we blend sciences and social sciences, theory and practice to provide students with the tools to participate in restoration projects in their own backyard and across the globe.
Society today is faced with critical environmental issues which need to be addressed at the research, policy and governance level. Individuals also play a large role in creating solutions through developing an understanding of the complexity of these issues and through reassessing and adjusting personal lifestyles. Our Environmental Issues courses provide information about these critical issues, update participants on current practices and policies and open the dialogue regarding solutions.
Moving towards a sustainable society does not only involve changes in policy and practice. Underneath these more tangible changes is a shift in cultural understandings, personal ways of being and interpersonal relationships and communication methods. Our Environmental Thinking courses provide participants with the opportunity to understand more deeply the cultural underpinnings of behaviour, to reflect on personal belief systems and to learn alternate ways of organizing to meet societal needs (economic and political).
These courses can be useful to people who:
The shift to sustainability requires changes in the practices in which we engage at a community and individual level. Sustainable design courses help participants to understand and implement sustainable ways of meeting basic needs such as housing, water and wastewater management, energy systems and transportation. We also explore overarching sustainable planning practices such as permaculture design. These courses are of value to both the homeowner and the professional in fields such as architecture and city planning.
Challenging environmental and social issues such as climate change and the global food crisis have combined with grassroots initiatives such as “The 100-Mile Diet” to raise interest in sustainable and local food production. Our Sustainable Food courses have two goals:
The Division of Continuing Studies has a strong commitment to community sustainability. We are involved in a variety of projects to help support Sustainability and Environment work locally.
In order to perform maintenance on the UVic servers, there will be intermittent outages this Thursday, May 24 from 6:00-8:00 am (Pacific Time). You may not be able to log in to your courses during this period.
If you experience any problems after 8:00 am on Thursday, May 24, please contact the Onlinehelp Desk at 250-721-8476 (toll-free 1-888-721-8476 in North America) or by email at dehelp@uvic.ca.