Territorial Acknowledgment 

We acknowledge with respect the Lekwungen speaking peoples on whose unceded lands and territories the University of Victoria Sustainability Project (UVSP) works on, and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSÁNEC peoples whose relationships with these lands and waters have existed since time immemorial and continue to this day. We also recognize that our membership consists of a majority of settler individuals who are now occupying these unceded territories. In this, the UVSP centres our work in a conscious and continually renewed commitment to the active decolonization of the spaces and places in which we work and the fields we engage with. We recognize that decolonization requires individual, collective, and systemic actions, thereby involving us all. We additionally acknowledge that the University of Victoria is a colonial institution founded upon the maintenance and enhancement of the ongoing structures of systemic racism and the systematic oppression of marginalized peoples that exist within the walls of the institution, within Canadian borders, and beyond. These harmful and violent systems and practices are still present at the University of Victoria and within its governance structures to this day. In direct recognition of these statements, the we are committed to actively contributing to decolonial action at all scales, dismantling the systems of systemic discrimination, violence, and harm that continue to oppress marginalized peoples within our institutions and this country as a whole. Finally, we acknowledge that action must go far beyond this paragraph and commit to ensuring that these words are not empty, and do not stand in place of tangible action.

Our Definition of Sustainability 

Our definition of sustainability is: A method of reciprocal coexistence with each other and the natural world. Our social systems are currently being run and orchestrated by unsustainable structures and practices, founded on oppression and designed to put profit above the needs of all living beings. We are currently facing a multitude of  sustainability crises, not just environmentally, but socially as well. Allowing systemic racism to continue is not sustainable. The hate and oppression faced by queer, BIPOC, disabled, working-class, and other individuals belonging to marginalized groups is not sustainable. We must work on dismantling the profit-oriented systems that are harming the people, and the other biotic and abiotic components of our planetary systems. Simply put, we believe working towards sustainability means working towards intersectional justice.

Mission

The University of Victoria Sustainability Project (UVSP) strives to re-conceptualize sustainability by uniting environmental initiatives, promoting environmental choices, and formulating and implementing sustainable systems on campus. We believe in pursuing ecological and social health on both local and global scales for the benefit of all organisms and future generations.

Vision​

Our vision as an organization is a socially, ecologically, and economically viable campus community at the University of Victoria. 

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