Exciting SES updates

Bee-in-yellow-flower

As we emerge from the pandemic, Royal Roads University (RRU) is undergoing some significant changes. You will notice that we have a newly designed website that has greater functionality. I am delighted that the School of Environment and Sustainability has now completed the revisions to the first and second year MA/MSc in Environment and Management (MEM) residency and we will begin redesigning the third residency commencing in September. We continue to have record enrollments in all our programs and will be launching a second MEM on-campus cohort in March 2022, led by Dr. Tony Boydell. Our new Graduate Certificate in Climate Science and Policy program launched earlier this year, led by Dr. Leslie King and we will be re-instating our Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Community Development program in April 2022, led by Dr. Hilary Leighton.

Another major change includes my appointment as Presidential Advisor on Regenerative Sustainability, assisted by an inter-school Advisory Committee. What do we mean by regenerative sustainability—it is not simply about reducing harm or reversing damage, it is a net-positive approach that reconciles ecological, social, economic, and political spheres, contributing positive, mutually reinforcing, enduring benefits to human and ecological systems. It is rooted in the notion of procedural sustainability—sustained dialogue, reflection, feedback, and continual improvement processes and collaboration. 

A big mandate, to explore how to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development goals and implement the climate action plan just being finalized by Dr. Robin Cox, all within the framework of ‘regenerative sustainability’. While it is early days for this bold initiative, we will let the guiding principles at RRU of care, creativity, courage as well as radical collaboration underpin this critical movement toward realizing regenerative sustainability.