British Columbia Institute of Technology

Canada's greenest campuses┬áBritish Columbia Institute of TechnologyÔÇÖs five campuses are becoming ÔÇ£living laboratoriesÔÇØ as it tackles sustainability through a team approach between operations and academics, John OÔÇÖHanlon learns from its sustainability director, Jennie Moore. Back in 2006, John English, dean of British Columbia Institute of TechnologyÔÇÖs School of Construction and the Environment, created the new post of director of sustainable development and environmental stewardship. ┬á The purpose was to demonstrate the SchoolÔÇÖs commitment to a joined-up approach to environmental, social and economic thinking across the boardÔÇöin teaching, in operations and in research.The person appointed to this key job was Jennie Moore, who knows British Columbia well and formerly worked for Metro Vancouver. ÔÇ£My job was created to help move the School toward sustainability in all its activities,ÔÇØ she says. One of the first things done was to draw up a memorandum of understanding between the School and the Administrative Services department. The aim is creating nothing less than a ÔÇ£living laboratory of sustainability on an institutional scaleÔÇØ at BCIT campuses.One of BCITÔÇÖs goals is to become greenhouse gas neutral. To this end, the School is undertaking a comprehensive ecological footprint analysis and sharing its findings with Campus Planning, which is responsible for managing greenhouse gas emissions. BCIT has a student body of more than 47,000, with 15,000 full-time staff members and students on campus at any given time. It faces the same environmental challenges as a small city, so to get a realistic picture it had to consider all consumption, transportation, energy and waste management systems as well as the environmental performance of the buildings. On energy and waste management the Institute performs particularly well. Most campuses have an energy management program and may claim savings of 20 to 30 percent. However, that is usually based on a growth-adjusted value that assumes overall energy consumption increases. BCIT has for the last three years managed to do what others can only dream of: point the graph south. Since 2001 BCIT has actually used less energy, year over year, reducing its total energy consumption by 8 percent, thanks to a comprehensive program implemented by its facilities management. With regard to waste, the footprint analysis found that 187 metric tons of waste goes to the landfill every year, but over 1,200 metric tons is diverted through BCITÔÇÖs recycling and composting programs. These successes will continue if Moore has her way. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre doing all we can with the physical environment; now we need to engage the community and build the concept of stewardship to take us to the next stage.ÔÇØAnother early move was joining the Association for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the inauguration of the Pacific Spirit Project. This is an annual program being led by the School for faculty of the Institute who want to learn how to bring sustainability into their teaching and practical work. The first workshop was held in June of this year, led by John McDonald, BCIT head of industrial wood processing and management, and Geoff Chase, vice president of AASHE. Chase is also the dean of undergraduate studies at San Diego State University and founder of the original ÔÇ£Ponderosa ProjectÔÇØ at Northern Arizona State University, upon which the Pacific Spirit Project is modeled. These and other activities to bring sustainability into the curriculum of the School are funded by a generous gift from the LEDCOR Group of Companies.As early as 1997, before Vancouver adopted a green building policy and too early for LEED certification, BCITÔÇÖs Downtown Campus already showed much of the thinking that developed into the living lab concept. It was well ahead of the game and credited as one of the top ÔÇ£smartÔÇØ buildings in the world. The architectural, mechanical and interior design was overseen by the consulting and project management firm Stantec, which ensured that BCITÔÇÖs requirements for sustainable design were fulfilled. It had to be flexible and meet the different needs of a downtown campus, so there is parking below ground, retail and office space on the main floor, and classrooms and research space above. More important, it has a sophisticated management system that can sense which areas are in use and adjust the heating, ventilation and lighting accordingly; advanced glass that admits more light in the winter, and automatic blinds that actively control the thermal conditioning in the building. In a recent review of energy efficiency, the building was found to outperform comparable buildings in Canada by as much as 70 percent.If the Downtown campus represents the start of the journey, BCITÔÇÖs Aerospace Technology CampusÔÇöthe largest aerospace training facility in Canada, with capacity for 1,000 studentsÔÇöis the latest stop, having been completed in 2007. ItÔÇÖs in an environmentally sensitive location; however, its design takes the green and sustainable principles further than regulations demand. It uses a combination of geoexchange and passive solar systems. ÔÇ£We anticipate that weÔÇÖll be able to avoid a tremendous amount of greenhouse gas emissions by providing heating from these systems instead of relying on fossil fuels,ÔÇØ says Moore.The main BCIT campus is at Burnaby, east of Vancouver. As the sustainability program takes root, a number of projects are springing up here, perhaps the most innovative being AFRESH (Accessible Flexible Resilient Efficient Sustainable Healthy) Home. This is a demonstration project that showcases housing innovations, in particular relating to the advantages of timber construction, in which Canada holds so much expertise. Now it is being used to model sustainable domestic construction methods and systems, says Moore. It has been fitted with a geoexchange system. The drilling for the system was donated by a local firm, GeoTility, and plumbing students are learning about how to install and maintain geoexchange systems at the AFRESH Home. The building is also part of a distributed power connections study undertaken in collaboration with BC Hydro that includes the installation of a residential fuel cell (donated by BC Hydro), as well as an upgrade to existing photovoltaic panels and installation of meters (supplied by Satec Power Solutions) that are capable of measuring electrical parameters and energy flow including power quality. The objective is a real-time assessment of emerging energy technologies and the impact of electricity that is generated on-site, for example by domestic premises that generate their own power, and the impact on BC HydroÔÇÖs grid. BCIT and BC Hydro will be using the distributed power connections study as a launch pad to develop courses that foster technicians specializing in alternative energy. Elsewhere on the Burnaby campus, student electricians can get their hands on new and alternative technologies in the unique Power Tower as part of the electrical trades training program. Similar programs exist for other disciplines. Whatever the field, the aim is for the campus population to be subject to sustainability best practices. This is perhaps best shown by looking at the food service side of things. BCIT catering contractor Chartwells is a member of the Compass Group and has been a very willing partner, says Moore. ÔÇ£Food and food packaging is a major contributor to our ecological footprint, and Chartwells has been working with us to find ways to reduce that.ÔÇØ BCITÔÇÖs living lab approach is demonstrating success through working with industry to advance toward a sustainable future, and is creating some of CanadaÔÇÖs greenest campuses in the process. ┬á