The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions catalyzes and mobilizes research, partnerships, and knowledge that generate climate action in British Columbia and around the world.

What Guides Us

Welcome to a renewed PICS

In 2008, the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) was established to be at the forefront of climate leadership in British Columbia, through transdisciplinary scholarship, partnership, and action.

PICS has a rich history of changemaking that has been made possible through the strengths of our remarkable university network. Yet, climate change has only become more pressing and problematic.

The speed and scale of the climate challenge in B.C. — from wildfires, floods, and heat waves to the complexities of decarbonization and electrification — have required that PICS realign, refocus, and renew. Welcome to our new website that communicates this journey.

We hope to seed and support greater agility, ambition, and action through a strengths-based and solution-focused approach.

Partnering to generate climate solutions remains central to our work.

We have refreshed our organizational values, goals, and strategy. Moving forward, our work will follow principles of justice, equity, decolonization, and intersectionality.

We will continue to create benefits for our university network, governments, civil society, and businesses. As a B.C.-based organization, investing in relationships and support for Indigenous organizations, Nations, and communities is an important part of our renewal and responsibilities.

Through our proven collaborative research model, we will be focused on transdisciplinary partnerships, and opportunities to prioritize collaboration over competition. We seek to translate knowledge into action.

While B.C. is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, we are also at the forefront of developing climate solutions. PICS is here to support our collective capacity to act.

Ian Mauro
PICS Executive Director

Territory Acknowledgments

lək̓ʷəŋən

Hay’sxw’qa lək̓ʷəŋən elth’telnexw, and W̱SÁNEĆ elth’telnexw
‘I’tsun’ult syaas tu lək̓ʷəŋən tunuxw
Hay’sxw’qa siem si’ye’ye

Thanking all Lekwungen peoples and Saanich peoples.
We work on Lekwungen lands.
Thank you, all respected friends.

SENĆOŦEN

JIEĆEȽ ȽTE OL E TŦE W̱SÁNEĆ I, LEQEṈEN EȽTÁLṈEW̱. ĆȺI ȽTE ȻE ÁȽE TIÁ E TŦE ÁLEṈENEȻs EṮ W̱SÁNEĆ I, LEQEṈEN.

HÍSW̱KE SIÁM

We are thankful to the Saanich and Lekwungen people. We work here in the homelands of the Saanich and Lekwungen peoples. Thank you, honourable ones.

U OȽET ȽTE OL E TŦE MEQ EȽTÁLṈEW̱ ÁȽE I, TŦE MEQ XÁXE TEṈEW̱

We respect all the people here and all the sacred land/s.

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At the University of Victoria, where the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) is hosted, we acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

PICS and its university network have campuses across the province known as British Columbia. We respect and acknowledge the many unceded traditional territories and Nations where PICS universities stand including:

xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) • Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) • səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) • q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie)• kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) • Qayqayt• Kwantlen• Semiahmoo• Tsawwassen• Stó:lō • Syilx (Okanagan) • Dakelh (Carrier) territory: Lheidli T’enneh, Lhtako, Nazko, Lhoosk’uz • ?Esdilagh, a Tsilhqot’in Nation • Dane-zaa territory: Doig River, Blueberry River, and Halfway River• Tsimshian territory: Kitsumkalum, Kitselas, Lax Kw’alaams, and Metlakatla • and Gitwinksihlkw, a Nisga’a Village.