By Cheryl Jahn

UNBC students want to share sustainable ideas

Nov 29, 2024 | 3:54 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Every ten years or so, the City of Prince George sets out a new Official Community Plan. It’s a grand scheme of future development; what kind of housing will go into what neighbourhoods, what will be the infrastructure requirements and so on.

And students in UNBC’s Environmental and Sustainable Studies program are the university’s very own version of the Planning Department. They have looked at the city’s future through the lens of environmental sustainability.

“I think really what we’re trying to do here is start with the community,” Riana Smith, one of the Environmental and Sustainable Studies students. “And sustainability looks different for every community. And I think in Prince George it’s pretty unique where we are. And I think that we really have the opportunity here to define what that looks like for Prince George.”

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And there are some very obvious and simplistic to advance development through a lens of sustainability.

“It’s incorporating ways of living that aren’t just person-based, I think. So incorporating green spaces into communities and incorporating transit, which is like available and regular into these communities as well,” says Kiara Mills, also an Environmental and Sustainable Studies student.

And Prince George likes its elbow room. At the end of 2023, the city issued 75 building permits for new single-family dwellings, and only 25 for new multifamily dwellings. Add to that, Prince George has some serious sustainability issues. There are $4.4 billion in civic infrastructure, more than 1,500 kilometres of roadways, and 4,700 streetlights in the city. Just to name a few. All within city boundaries that exceed three hundred square kilometres in size.

And that’s why these students are sending out an invite for tomorrow at the Prince George and District Senior Citizens Activity Centre on Brunswick Street tomorrow.

“We’re helping to facilitate this broader discussion with the community and different kind of these stakeholders in their communities. So we’re looking at like mayor and City Council. We’re looking at the regional district across institutions. So we have you in B.C. and see and see as well as school districts and as well community members,” says Smith.

The focus of the event and the project has been “Greening PG, Greening UNBC.”