Zoё Soon (left) and Tim Abbott accept certificates for their Green Research Fund proposals.
Making an positive environmental impact on the Okanagan campus
Three applicants from UBC’s Okanagan campus have had their proposals selected to be the 2014 projects supported by the Green Research Fund.
The successful applicants are:
- Laboratory Manager Sandra Mecklenburg from the chemistry department of the Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences. She will be reducing the amount of water used in undergraduate labs by replacing water aspirators with a vacuum pump system.
- Zoё Soon, instructor in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences. Soon’s project involves purchasing models to use in place of anatomical samples which reduces hazardous waste.
- Engineering graduate student Tim Abbott. Abbott will be purchasing equipment to take chemical oxygen demand measurements. The equipment will help reduce the amount of chemicals being used in the measurements process by up to 75 per cent.
Funded by Risk Management Services, Campus and Community Planning and Payment & Procurement Services, the Green Labs Fund is available to researchers from both UBC campuses with creative solutions to UBC-specific sustainability concerns and challenges.
The funded projects and initiatives will have a substantial positive effect on the campus’ consumption of water and production of hazardous waste. A reduction in hazardous chemicals also means a safer workplace due to less interaction with potentially harmful materials.
