School District No. 46 (SD46) has realized a drastic reduction in overall energy use thanks to gains made through their environmental sustainability policy.
"Our board was one of the first in B.C. to adopt an environmental sustainability policy, in about 2007," said SD46 board chair Silas White. "It was largely inspired by information I'd picked up from provincial Columbia Institute events, and was enthusiastically supported by the board of the day. The need to lessen our impact on the natural environment runs extremely deep in our community."
Since 2007, SD46 has upgraded lighting throughout much of the school district and installed new computer automated heating and ventilating systems.
"Over the last five years, these measures have resulted in a 17.3 per cent decline overall in energy consumption, totalling over 4.4 megawatt hours or enough energy to power 500 homes for a year," said Rob Collison, manager of facilities for SD46. "Besides the obvious benefits to the environment by lowering our carbon footprint, we've been able to inject more dollars into education by avoiding nearly $300,000 in energy costs."
While the board set the policy to make the changes, White credits the "terrific maintenance and custodial staff" for making it happen.
"They've also been quietly taking on some major recycling and other innovative measures through the initiative of very caring, conscientious and wonderful individuals who work in this school district," White said.
More savings may be on the horizon thanks to the carbon neutral capital program (CNCP). The government has set aside $5 million for energy efficiency projects through the CNCP. SD46 can submit up to three projects for capital funding and they plan to do so in the coming weeks.
Potential projects to save energy include retrofitting facilities with more efficient lighting and controls, replacing more boilers and heating systems with high efficiency systems, using more automated controls and investing in staff and student energy awareness and conservation programs.
