University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada Spring 2005, Energy

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1 Inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children s future National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Center Drive Reston, VA University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada Spring 2005, Energy BACKGROUND Campus Profile Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, the University of British Columbia (UBC) is one of the largest and most prestigious universities in Canada. UBC has 28,811 undergraduate and 6,437 graduate students, with an approximate 4:1 student to faculty ratio. We award 6,000 bachelors, 1,300 masters, and 500 PhD degrees each year. Sustainability at UBC. It s been only five years since UBC became Canada s first university to implement a sustainable development policy, and already UBC is Canada s leader in campus sustainability. In academia, UBC has been nurturing world-class scholars for years including Ecological Footprint theorist Bill Rees and green architecture genius Ray Cole. Campus think tanks, ranging from the Sustainable Development Research Institute to the Institute for Health Promotion Research, are conducting cutting-edge work. Faculties such as Agricultural Sciences and the School of Community and Regional Planning have adopted sustainability as a core value. UBC also offers an impressive array of more than 40 courses directly related to sustainability. Contact Jorge Marques Energy Manager UBC Sustainability Office Phone: jorge.marques@ubc.ca GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS Goals Our short-term goal is to reduce energy use in core and ancillary buildings by eight percent from our baseline year of Our long-term goal is to reduce energy use in core and ancillary buildings by 30 percent from our baseline year of Accomplishments Despite a 24 percent increase in students since our baseline year of , UBC has reduced energy use in core and ancillary buildings by 10 percent. That s a 2 percent higher reduction than our goal of 8 percent. We achieved this reduction through the ECOTrek infrastructure upgrade, the Sustainability Coordinator program, and increased energy-efficient practices by students and staff members. Other accomplishments include the following: National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Yearbook 2005

2 We undertook a large condensate pipe replacement project along Lower Mall, which has stopped steam condensate from being wasted by returning the water and heat to the steam plant for reuse. We had ECOTrek install 2,000 fixtures in 200 buildings to save more than one million litres of water from going down the drain annually. Those fixtures included low-flow toilets, occupancy sensors (to stop urinals from continually flushing), and other innovative plumbing technologies. We replaced a 40-year-old chiller, which had been used to cool water for air conditioning in the student union building. Another chiller in the Koerner Library was also replaced. Challenges and Responses The project required an internal university loan of CDN$35 million. The long payback period - about 17 years for the borrowed money - was a barrier to receiving the funding. Convincing the senior administration that the long payback was justifiable proved challenging. Another challenge was the fact that to ensure the project is carried out effectively, the performance contract required a guarantee for the energy savings. This guarantee wouldn t have been possible by using internal staff members for the construction. Because UBC is a unionized institution, we had to find a way to deal with this issue. We addressed both challenges by demonstrating the benefits of the project beyond the financial. UBC has a multimillion dollar deferred maintenance problem, which means a lot of the buildings are in disrepair. It was key that the university s board of governors understand the deferred maintenance problem first. Early in the process, the board received a presentation outlining the gravity of the deferred maintenance issue. Later, we showed how ECOTrek could help address the problem. ENGAGEMENT AND SUPPORT Leaders and Supporters This project was generated and administered by the staff. UBC's sustainable development policy proved helpful in gaining campus support for the project. For more information on the policy go to Funding and Resources The project is budgeted at CDN$35 million, which was secured from an internal loan and incentives from our local utility. The associate vice president of land and building services championed the project, and that help proved instrumental. ECOTrek will save a minimum of CDN$2.5 million per year once the funding is paid back. Community Outreach and Education Employee training, orientations, workshops, and lunches were organized for the campus and local community to outline the progress of the project. Media releases were also crafted and released to highlight progress during the year. Climate Change Thanks to innovative projects like ECOTrek, UBC will reach its Kyoto Protocol targets ahead of time. We are addressing climate change by reducing the university s carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent before Canada s 2012 deadline and are saving money at the same time. National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Yearbook 2005 Page 2

3 In , ECOTrek highlights included the following: We replaced three boiler burners and reduced UBC s nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent. This change also cut the university s natural gas use by 3 percent, enough to heat 650 homes for a year. We replaced all incandescent pathway and road lights with energy-efficient lights on the core campus to improve brightness and safety. We instructed UBC staff members about energy conservation methods at more than 30 training sessions. National Wildlife Federation s Campus Ecology Program NWF s Campus Ecology program offered great support through publications such as State of the Campus Environment, Green Investment, Green Return, Ecodemia, and the Campus Ecology Yearbook, plus other online case studies. Consulting with staff members and receiving the monthly Campus Ecology e-news kept UBC up-to-date about sustainability in the world and future events. CLOSING COMMENT Get on with it! Freda Pagani, director, UBC campus sustainability office. National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Yearbook Page 3

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