Enhancing ESD Through the Master of Clean Energy Engineering Co-op Program: A Canadian Case-Study

Abstract

Like many other universities worldwide, the University of British Columbia in Canada promotes teaching and research on sustainability and has a history of pursuing strong operational sustainability goals. UBC demonstrates innovation by going a step further to integrate efforts with the help of its University Sustainability Initiative (USI). By fostering partnerships and collaborations that extend beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, the initiative intersects two important themes: using the campus as a living laboratory and empowering students as agents of change. In addition to 480 sustainability-related courses, UBC has 41 sustainability-related programs. Our paper will describe one of them—the Master of Engineering in Clean Energy Engineering with a co-op option, offered by the Faculty of Applied Science and the Clean Energy Research Centre. This program is the only one of its kind in Canada. It provides advanced training in energy efficiency and conservation, including technologies that will help to meet the global need for energy while reducing electricity consumption, as well as greenhouse gases and other emissions. The co-op option provides a deeper and richer form of learning by presenting an authentic learning space and adding a significant value to education for sustainable development. Students complete co-op work terms within various industry sectors including consulting, municipal government, and in the pulp and paper industry, in positions focused on demand-side energy efficiency and conservation work. The paper describes the Engineering Co-op Program and two significant partnerships with the BC Hydro Power Smart Initiative and FortisBC, electricity and natural gas corporations in British Columbia, Canada, that support the program by providing expertise and co-funding of co-op work terms. Knowledge of this successful initiative could be valuable for many universities that are engaged in promoting university-industry partnerships within the global engineering curriculum.