Welcome to the SMARTer Growth Partnership –

The Sustainable Communities Hub at the School of Engineering on the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia.

The SMARTer Growth Partnership (Previously Sustainable Transport Safety Lab) is working out of UBC Okanagan to create worldwide solutions for a sustainable future through rigorous systems-based engineering and with our beautiful valley communities in Partnership. We believe we can create a high quality of life for people today, in accordance with the 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals, that does not compromise the quality of life for future generations. Through NSERC and Industry grants, a team of student researchers, interns, Masters and PhD students collaborate to work on a wide variety of issues led by associate professor and innovator, Dr. Gordon Lovegrove.

BREAKING NEWS:

The SMARTer Growth Research team is partnering with the National Research Council of Canada and Transport Canada to evaluate the gaps associated with deploying hydrogen locomotives (ie. hydrail and battery-powered locomotives). This project is in alignment with the Government of Canada’s Emission Reduction Plan with aims to identify, assess and mitigate the potential risks of using hydrogen in rail operations, while also supporting the development of best practices, codes and standards to help industry adopt this new technology.

ARTICLE: The Government of Canada, The National Research Council (Aug 15, 2022).  Towards a net zero emission railway system with hydrogen powered trains.

Our Current Research is exploring the following areas:

Affordable Housing & Homelessness – Everyone deserves a roof over their heads, access to jobs and amenities, and a feeling of community connection for a price that they can afford. In Canada, housing prices are high, living is expensive, and many people simply cannot keep up with the bills. – tens of thousands of Canadians are experiencing homelessness right at this moment (see Statistics Canada). We believe we can induce lower costs, more community, and a higher quality of homes through innovative design, research, and outreach.

Safe & Sustainable Transport – explores the burden on communities due to the enormous economic and social costs associated with road collisions.  These costs have been recognized worldwide as a major problem and impact directly on the sustainability of our society (see WHO, 2013). As 96% of collisions are due to driver error, Dr. Lovegrove is pursuing ways to reduce the use of private auto’s as well as evaluate ways to create safer neighbourhoods.

Sustainable Development Patterns – research to develop reliable, predictive, empirical tools that will quantify these patterns enabling community planners, engineers and decision-makers to better understand and address their challenges.

Learn more about the lab’s extensive research in the areas of sustainable communities and transportation by exploring this site, and reach out to Dr. Gordon Lovegrove (Principal Investigator) at gord.lovegrove(no spam at)ubc.ca for any questions or comments.

Interested in working for the STS lab?

Sign into the UBC Okanagan Job Board and look for our postings under the “Work Study” section of the “Jobs” tab.

We acknowledge that the land on which we conduct our work is the unceded territory of the Syilx (Okanagan) Peoples.