UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning, nearing its 75th anniversary, is one of the larger Planning schools in North America and we’re a leader in education and research. We believe Planning is concerned with the well-being of communities, whether rural, metropolitan, or worldwide. We teach planners to undertake work in partnerships with communities and populations affected by the big decisions. This includes regard for Indigenous equity and dignity, and Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Our partnership with Musqueam Indian Band is unlike any Planning School in the world.

What you might expect/course format

While each course varies based on the subject and instructor, our VSP Packages feature:

  • Interactive in person lectures
  • Hands-on labs, fun and practical demonstrations
  • Team-based assignments
  • Fun social activities
  • Tours of industrial facilities (some programs)
  • Experience with industry standard software 

June 2025 Course Packages

Just Sustainability Transitions: Designing Urban Innovations for Justice and Systemic Change

Are you passionate about sustainability and social justice as drivers of transformative change? This course invites you to explore how emerging urban innovations and technological advancements can be designed to facilitate just sustainability transitions. In Just Sustainability Transitions, you will envision sustainable futures and explore practical pathways to achieve them, gaining tools to collaboratively design and drive change across environmental, economic, social, technological, and governance dimensions.

Through hands-on learning, this course blends cutting-edge research and theories with critical reflection and real-world action. You will engage with key topics such as societal change, urban justice, smart cities, social and environmental movements, transition management, and systemic design. Emphasizing diverse perspectives and inclusive collaboration, the course equips you to develop sustainable solutions at both local and systemic levels.

Working in interdisciplinary teams, you will address real-world challenges through peer-based learning, applying design thinking and co-creation strategies to design urban innovation. By the end of the course, you will critically evaluate sustainability processes at multiple scales, reflect on ethical dilemmas, and shape your own vision of just transitions. This course provides a unique opportunity to engage with sustainability transitions across sectors and disciplines, preparing you to influence the future of urban innovation and just transitions.

Cities Experimenting with Sustainability Transformations

This course explores key conceptual and practical aspects of sustainability transformations, focusing on global case studies of urban experimentations. Cities worldwide are grappling with unprecedented challenges as they strive to meet ambitious environmental targets. Managing these transformations requires a holistic understanding that goes beyond the capacities of any single organization, encompassing complex economic, technical, political, and social dimensions.

Urban experimentation and social innovation laboratories (labs) are emerging as crucial tools for addressing these multifaceted challenges. This course provides an in-depth examination of such labs, with a special focus on Vancouver as a real-world laboratory. You will explore how urban labs foster collaborative solutions through innovative approaches to sustainability.

By engaging with case studies from around the globe, you will gain insights into the methods and practices used to facilitate urban sustainability transitions. The course introduces key lab methodologies and offers practical skills applicable to uncovering and implementing sustainability transformations. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to critically assess and contribute to sustainability efforts in urban contexts, preparing you to work across sectors to address global environmental challenges.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Graduate (Master/PhD) Students: Not accepted

Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted

For more information

For VSP SCARP-specific questions, email Karen Gill/Dolores Martin at info.scarp@ubc.ca.

Student testimonials

“On the plane back home, I couldn’t help remembering the wonderful moments that I came across in the campus of UBC. I attended the summer program in the School of Community and Regional Planning. From kind and knowledgeable professors to diverse and cooperative students, from time-honour anthropology museum to elegant botanical gardens, from the GIS project in my laptop to the new perspective of Big Data in my mind, I told myself that it was a month worth more than a month time.”

– Kan Haoyu, VSP SCARP Student

“As an interdisciplinary program, community and regional planning offer me the chance to get to know people from different kinds of majors, including geography, politics, computer science and finance. We shared and discussed different perspectives with various knowledge backgrounds during our group project and after-class team activities. I think it is an invaluable opportunity to gain knowledge in other fields and cooperate with people from diverse knowledge background.”

– Yanjian, VSP SCARP Student