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Making Schools 'Carbon Neutral'
School officials scramble to meet BC emissions goal.
Ferris Elementary in cutting-edge Richmond.
Today's test question is sure to give some public school administrators a headache. How do you run a warm, well-lit school while making it "carbon neutral"?
The provincial government has mandated that the entire public sector -- including school districts in B.C. -- become carbon neutral. This means, for every tonne of carbon emitted, one tonne must be eliminated.
As school officials scramble to find the answer, they'd do well to study up on the Richmond school district, which has been honing its energy efficiency before the words "carbon footprint" were part of everyday vernacular.
Eric Thorliefson, the district manager of facilities, had been vocal about the need for more efficient school buildings for years, and after natural gas prices spiked in 1999, senior management decided to follow his lead.
$1 million saved, recycled
In fall of 2000, the district signed a $5.4 million contract with B.C. Hydro for boiler control system upgrades in 50 of its 54 schools.
The system upgrades meant boilers could better respond to occupancy needs instead of running at full tilt all the time, says Thorliefson, reducing the amount of energy needed.
"We completed the project in '03, in two years it was fully paid for, and now the savings are accruing," he says.
In fact, savings started to accrue almost immediately, which allowed the district to take on more extensive lighting and water efficiency upgrades.
Today, Richmond school district saves about $1 million a year in utility costs, money that is funnelled back into the classroom. The savings have funded a district-wide network that promotes sustainability projects and education for students, teachers and parents.
"I do hear people say that you can't do much without more money... you do need money, but we did everything here in Richmond with nothing from the Ministry of Education," says Thorliefson.
"We did not need somebody to tell us what to do here."
Schools buying carbon offsets?
Thorliefson detailed this success story at a recent symposium on schools and climate change.
The symposium, organized by the Columbia Institute's Centre for Civic Governance, was a day of workshops for education leaders across the province that addressed the huge challenge of creating "carbon neutral" schools to satisfy the government's decree.
The two questions from most teachers and administrators at the symposium were "What are we supposed to do?" and "How can we afford it?" There are few details so far from the government.
However, if schools districts can't internally offset carbon they can't avoid emitting (from bussing students, for example), they are required to purchase carbon credits -- essentially shares in a carbon trust which funds projects that do reduce carbon.
"If you can't bring emissions down, you have to purchase offsets. That really worries me," says Susan Barr, a Comox Valley district trustee.
Bus emissions a challenge
Barr estimates two-thirds of the students in that district are bussed in, some of them for an hour each way. Northern schools face similar problems.
"There's no way around it -- we have to bus our students," said Gordon Anderson, board chair for Peace River North school district.
Anderson and Ida Campbell, a trustee in the same district, wanted to attend the symposium to get "whatever information we could" on reducing carbon emissions.
However, both wondered if this kind of travel would be feasible in the future.
"One of the challenges that is always going to be from the north is the fact of travel to come to a program like this," said Campbell.
"If we want the same [professional development], we have to travel, so it's going to be at a huge cost to us," said Anderson.
How to measure a footprint?
The details around calculating the carbon cost of such travel, and everything else that contributes to a school's carbon footprint, are unclear at this point.
The Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services is responsible for helping the public sector achieve the carbon-neutral mandate.
It is currently developing software, called SMARTTool, which will calculate emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, business travel and paper consumption.
Orest Maslany, the ministry's director of corporate initiatives, says it has not been determined whether school districts will be responsible for gathering and reporting this information, or whether the ministry will. He says a decision is also pending on whether school districts will be required to use this government tool at all.
Provincial ministry buildings must report baseline carbon emissions by 2010, but school districts are on a different timeline.
"They, along with crown corporations, health authorities and post-secondary institutions, all have to submit their first report by June of 2011," says Maslany.
Graded on saving energy
He says it's "fairly easy" to determine how a school can reduce carbon emissions.
"Anything that reduces energy consumption... use of electricity or natural gas, water conservation," says Maslany.
He adds that recycling and composting programs, or initiatives like anti-idling or carpool campaigns, do reduce carbon emissions in a "broader sense," but says these sources won't be incorporated in baseline reports right away.
The ministry has identified energy conservation in buildings as the number one way to reduce emissions.
In November, the provincial government promised to invest in capital energy efficiency projects with its public sector energy conservation agreement, in partnership with B.C. Hydro's Power Smart program.
The program provides cash incentives for energy efficiency upgrades, and is already available to schools -- that was partially how Richmond district paid for its first upgrade project.
The Ministry of Education couldn't say how much government funding would be available to schools as part of this partnership, or what criteria schools must meet to obtain it.
A spokesperson for the ministry said more details would be available in three weeks when the next budget is announced, and added the forthcoming announcement would build on what Richmond school district has already done.
Keeping up momentum
Patrick Robertson, a West Vancouver teacher and director of the Environmental Educators of British Columbia, describes what's happening in Richmond and other districts across the province as a "champion's model" of sustainable progress.
These initiatives are ad hoc, he says, and based on the enthusiasm and willingness of individuals in the school system.
"And there's a danger there that when people move on or retire, or in the case of students, graduate, that you can sometimes lose the momentum behind an initiative, and it fades away," says Robertson.
Robertson believes climate change and sustainability should be written into district policies, so programs like recycling, composting and energy efficient upgrades happen in schools district-wide, regardless of whether there is a "champion" behind it.
"Some districts may not have that luxury where they can find a few dollars, and the question to me then is, will the ministry step up?"
Related Tyee stories:
- Global Warming Demands Local Fixes
Half of greenhouse emissions are controlled at municipal level. - Global Warming's Threat to BC: Seeking Solutions
Floods and droughts on the radar. Can we adapt? - Wider Roads Touted as 'Green'
In Campbell's new era, projects promoted as good for planet can surprise.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
- BC snuffs out AirCare test program
- AFN national chief Shawn Atleo to launch re-election bid
- Citizens group releases video to fight undead Bill C-30
- Conservative MP says he might vote against budget, then 'clarifies' his position
- Genetically modified plants won't take root with councillors in Richmond, BC
- Hundreds at Vancouver rally to support Quebec students
- Could Fort Mac become an eco-tourist hotspot?
- Rick Hansen's Man in Motion anniversary tour concludes in Vancouver
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Who Mowed Down the Premier?
- Canada's Economy, Deconstructed (by a 12 year-old)
- Death in Remand: a Tyee Inquiry
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Death In Remand: 'A Gut Feeling'
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- How Our Immune Systems Exaggerate Fear
- BC biotech company seeks approval for GM apple
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Should You Run from that Medical Test?
- 'The Dictator'
- Death in Remand: Stacked Deck
- 'Moonrise Kingdom'
- From Financial Advisor to Occupier
- Seven Goals to Build the Conservative 'Dream'
- Double lung recipient dances on Ellen show
- ISS astronauts grab DragonX space capsule by the tail with Canada Arm
- Metro Vancouver gas prices peak at record levels
- Ottawa posts $9-billion deficit in March despite pledge to avoid spending spree
- BC phases out AirCare to focus on fighting bigger vehicle emissions
- Tsunami senors to be dropped into deep sea off of Vancouver Island
- Student groups file court challenge against Quebec protest law
- ...while on the streets, pirates and ninjas put aside mutual animosity to join student protests
23
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puppyg
4 years ago
turn off the heat
So now the Provincial Government has identified schools as a worthy target and their new SMARTTool software will be used to calculate how much schools must pay as carbon offsets, is that it?
Really!? School buses? School trips? Why not turn off the heat in classrooms and shake down the kids for their lunch money?
Such initiatives are hard to take given that the BC Government supports installing a LNG (liquified natural gas) facilty on Texada Island that will burn hydrocarbons imported from the other side of the planet (and yes, they, too will pay!).
No doubt, the Alberta Government will do something similar with their schools while fast tracking oil sands (soon to be the largest carbon polluter on the Earth).
Gordon Campbell shows, once again, that he is better at putting his fingers on the cash than his thumb on the problem.
dr evil
4 years ago
Shake down
Been done already hasn`t it?
mopled
4 years ago
Nicely put puppyq
Who would have thought that school districts and children would be victims of the AGW/CC scam? Even I couldn't have imagined this one.
Our only hope is to stop buying into the nonsense before everything is shut down or taxed or not allowed.
http://www.aim.org/special-report/will-media-expose-global-warming-con-job/
"While there's consensus that climates change over time, climatologists are sharply divided over the interactions of the many potential causes. As research emerges, CO2 as a primary warming force becomes harder to defend with hard data.
These challenges are starting to fracture the UN's pretext for global governance over carbon emissions-including imposition of carbon taxes and "carbon credit" trading supervised by UN agencies. Giving the UN a legal right to impose a carbon tax- "cap and trade" in UNspeak-would provide an income stream to UN agencies which would greatly increase political power of UN bureaucracies. And their track record with large amounts of money, such as the Iraqi Oil for Food program, is not encouraging.
However, if the scientific case for CO2 as a primary climate pollutant crumbles, so could a global carbon tax."
It will be interesting to see how the scam fares when temperatures fail to rise and actually drop as the sunspot cycle remains quiet.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0927/p13s03-sten.htm
dmurchie
4 years ago
Another Excuse to Close Schools
Like any good idea, "green" is being perverted into another scheme to waste more taxpayer money on unnecessary pet construction projects.
At least one Nanaimo-Ladysmith School Trustee has already been touting "Green" as the reason they want to close schools in neighbourhoods where enrolment and utilization are strong. The Trustee argues that we need to close schools so we can build new "green" schools, the idea being that if we make all our schools overcrowded the provincial government will reward them with money to build new "green" expansions, and new "green" schools.
Since there are only nominal energy savings between schools with well maintained energy systems, the carbon footprint will probably increase as 100s of families now have to drive dozens of km a week to schools they used to be able to walk to. Neighbourhoods will have lost their schools, and taxpayers will be out 10s of millions of dollars, again, but this time in the name of "green".
alexsmith
4 years ago
Severn Suzuki_Cullis speech to educators
Re Making Schools Carbon Neutral - where readers can hear
Severn Cullis-Suzuki speech
Hi there,
I liked Colleen Kimmett's good piece on
making greener schools. She mentioned the recent meeting for school
trustees and "leading educators" in Vancouver to plot how to make
schools energy neutral.
The keynote speaker was Severn Cullis-Suzuki, daughter of David Suzuki,
and a long time spokesperson for youth. Readers may want to listen to
her speech, which is available for free download from the Radio Ecoshock
website:
http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/greens/ES_Severn_Cullis_Suzuki_080124.
mp3
That is 38 megabytes, CD quality for a 41 minute speech, as prepared for
The Ecoshock show on CFRO Co-op Radio, recorded by Alex Smith.
For those without a high speed link up, there is also a "low-fi" (lower
quality) version, only 10 megabytes, at
http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/greens/ES_Severn_Cullis_Suzuki_080124_
_LoFi.mp3
It is really important that
students, who will inherit whatever climate we leave them, should grow
up in the greenest environment possible. Their buildings should teach
them.
Alex Smith
host Radio Ecoshock
www.ecoshock.org
mopled
4 years ago
If pigs could fly
maybe then we will be able to "leave them"
a climate.
In the meantime upgrading existing schools in energy efficiency makes far more sense than tearing them down...even in the lunatic method of counting molecules of CO2 as a guideline.
Whether its money or CO2 you are counting, renovation is less expensive than reconstruction.
pender paul
4 years ago
another 'feel good' go green story
Sure, look at heating, insulation, lighting etc. But what about the principal who says "no, we don't have the budget for a class set of text books, go use the photocopier"--or teachers who photocopy information rather than have the students copy notes from the board, or the students who throw away lunches, new packages of paper, pens, pencils, clothing? Almost without exception the schools I've taught in over 35 years have been garbage tips--and nearly all had an active core of students in various incarnations of 'environmental clubs' and all had staff committed to reducing waste. How is the war on waste going to be won when the children have failed to internalize the fundamentals of conservation? More to the point, what about the parents and the larger community--after all, schools are mirrors of society. Schools 'carbon neutral'?--not anytime soon!
steampunk
4 years ago
More Workers for Fort Mac
If the schools can't become carbon neutral they should be shut down. The students can be shipped up to the tar sands where they need more workers anyway!
Umslopogaas
4 years ago
paper = carbon
Paper is made of carbon.
The incredible amount of paper that the government now wants schools to generate in the name of testing and accountability is incredible. Or is that not counted? If every school refuses to do all that useless paperwork it would go a long way towards helping the environment(and education)out.
How about making the government carbon neutral?
How much does it cost to heat that unused pile of stone in Victoria for example? If they insist on heating it at least let the homeless take shelter there as it is not used for anything else useful.
Stump
4 years ago
idl(ing) gossip
Schools and education won't be carbon-neutral until the fatasses idling outside the school grounds get out of the SUV and walk the future fatasses of Canada to school, the way it should be. Crybabies buy in the burbs and then whinge cuz transit is a hassle. Guess what, no one cares that you made a stupid investment choice (when viewed through the long lens of posterity and accountability to future generations). Buncha big babies gonna ruin the planet for our kids. Disgusting.
doggone
4 years ago
Buying Credit
Gotta love it!
Schools should (find or print) some fakaloo money which early on was supposed to be based on a gold standard and recently was printed on paper (produced from trees) and now simply whips about as EFT (Electronic Funds Tranfer). My question is:
Why Schools?
Should not Emergency wards/I.C.U.s and Police/Fire Departments Not to mention Legislative buildings also "Go Green"?
CrankyGuy
4 years ago
People are missing the point
Most of the posts show that people don’t understand what the issue is here. The commitment by Campbell & Co. to go ‘carbon neutral’ by 2010 also includes health care and services funded by the BC Gov’t. So, let’s say you can get halfway to carbon neutral by saving energy. Then you are left with some sort of offset program. So, let’s say carbon offsets are priced at $25.00 per tonne. Where is the underfunded, cut-to-the-bone public education system going to get this money? Where is the health care system going to get this extra money?
This carbon offset/tax money will go into the BC Carbon Trust, where it will become a pool of investment funds for ‘green’ energy and projects. Recall that the Campbell gov’t considers road and bridge projects ‘green’ (See http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/01/29/WiderRoads/). Consider all the water rights sold or given out for micro hydro and run of river generation, some 350 to 500 given the numbers I have seen. This offset fee, carbon tax, call it what you will, could end up being used to spoil every river in this province. Forget Supernatural BC! There will be a myriad of roads for construction and maintenance and power lines right of ways to clear and maintain.
So, we will get to electricity independence by 2016 at a very heavy cost. This green power will be bought on long-term contracts (say 25 years) for a premium price (13 to 16 cents per kilowatt hour, versus the 6 cents you and I pay now). Some people predict these green power plants will become the targets on USA-based Enron-like companies, who will scoop them up. The former owners, as a result, will become millionaires.
Recall the saying that in every problem, there is an opportunity. Campbell & Co. have crafted a clever scheme to use that problem to create business opportunities. So, get on board or get shafted!
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
model the behaviour
Yes, students learn best when the behaviour requested is modelled. Whe is the provincial government going to model the behaviour of actually supporting initiatives that it dumps on the schools. This is another in a litany of changes that the Provincial government has placed upon schools without providing the support to see them through. In fact, the current school bill to be implemented, Bill 33, is another example of government clawing back funding and reducing support for districts. The districts are having to burn midnight oil trying to further sharpen the nubbins of pencils that they have. They don't have time for new implementations without increasing support.
Further, I have watched our local school district working to reduce its carbon footprint (energy costs) for as long as I can remember. Many energy saving changes require capital investment, i.e. better windows, doors, heating systems, newer buses, insulation, computerized thermostat control, low E' lighting, low E' appliances, more efficient boilers etc. Where do those funds come from?
dave49
4 years ago
Some numbers on this issue
As a parent who has been involved on PAC and school planning council in the Vancouver School District, I know just how tight the budgets are. It was a challenge when natural gas prices spiked in 1999. A carbon levy will be another financial hit. I assume this ‘generous’ Liberal government will not pay this offset.
What about hospitals, child care and other province of BC-funded programs? Where will they get the money?
Consider this example, based on Terasen’s estimate that the average Lower Mainland household with a mid-efficiency furnace (80%) uses 56 GigaJoules (GJ) a year of natural gas for heat and hot water at a current cost of $755. [http://www.terasengas.com/_AboutNaturalGas/FactsandInformation/GasPricing/FuelCostComparison/LowerMainlandSquamish.htm]
Burning a GJ of natural gas creates 62.13 kg of CO². For the year, that household would generate just under 3500 kilos of CO², or 1.75 Tonnes, costing $43.75 to offset at $25 per tonne, or about a 6% increase in the average natural gas bill.
Consider that schools are larger buildings, often with older boilers and a much larger heat distribution system (i.e. hundreds of meters of piping), the standard boiler efficiency of 65% will effectively be lower. Let’s say that the offset cost will be 25% more for an additional cost of 7.5% of the annual bill.
Talk to the principal at your children’s school. Can they afford this increase?
I not against the idea behind the policy, nor am I a climate change denier like some posters. I am tired of ALL the Liberal spin. Greatest place on Earth? Fund your schools if you really want an educated electorate!
DJT
4 years ago
An educated electorate?
An educated electorate? Dave, Dave, that's the last thing the Liberals want.
puppyg
4 years ago
Nicely and precisely
Dear Cranky Guy,
How nicely and precisely you have explained it, nailed it to the wall. Thank you for that.
mopled
4 years ago
When will you get it?
The whole carbon thing is a scam.
The Recovery from the Little Ice Age and Global Warming
By Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu
http://thenewamerican.com/node/6973/print#SlideFrame_1
"A roughly linear global temperature increase of about 0.5°C per 100 years seems to have occurred from about 1800, or even much earlier, to the present. This value may be compared with what the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists consider to be the manmade greenhouse effect of 0.6°C per 100 years. This long-lasting linear warming trend is likely to be a natural change.
One possible cause of the linear increase may be Earth’s continuing recovery from the Little Ice Age. This trend (0.5°C/100 years) should be subtracted from the temperature data during the last 100 years when estimating the manmade contribution to the present global warming trend. Thus, there is a possibility that only a fraction of the present warming trend is attributable to the greenhouse effect resulting from human activities. This conclusion is contrary to the 2007 IPCC Report (p.10), which states that “most” of the present warming is due to the manmade greenhouse effect."
So, if CO2 can warm anything, given that it is only 0.0385% of the atmosphere and water vapor accounts for 95% of the GH effect...why would we be taxed on our production of CO2? Why in heavens name would we consider burdening school districts with this nonsense.
The whole senario is cynical and sinister.
Anybody out there awake yet?
Stump
4 years ago
the Good Doctor
Your boy doesn't strike me as having the expertise to be telling the IPCC where it's wrong.
From wiki:
Not exactly a career dedicated to the study of climate change yeah?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make an appointment with my optometrist to have my tonsils removed!
mopled
4 years ago
Stump, you don't know climate science
Volcanos can cause climate change by the amount of ash going into the air.
Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu, a geophysicist who also is one of the 1000 most cited scientists, is eminently qualified to comment.
The study of climate is multi-diciplinary.
Physics is necessary for studying climate.
Paleogeologists have played a big role in climate studies by discovering that it is the Sun which changes climate.
http://www.physorg.com/news110121579.html
And do remember that the head of the IPCC is an economist (who worked for Big Oil.)
Speaking of economists, Ross McKitrick (one of the Canadians who busted the "Hockey Stick" graph) and P. Michaels have just published:
Quantifying the Influence of Surface Processes and Inhomogeneities On Global Climate Data
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/MM.JGR07-background.pdf
"In a new article just published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, Pat Michaels and I have concluded that the manipulations for the steep post-1980 period are inadequate, and the global temperature graph showing warming is an exaggeration, at least in the past few decades. Along the way I have also found that the UN agency promoting the global temperature graph has made false claims about the quality of their data. The graph comes from data collected in weather stations around the world. Other graphs come from weather satellites and from networks of weather balloons that monitor layers of the atmosphere. These other graphs didn’t show as much warming as the weather station data, even though they measure at heights where there is supposed to be even more greenhouse gas-induced warming than at the surface. The discrepancy is especially clear in the tropics."http://icecap.us/images/uploads/MM.JGR07-background.pdf
The surface-measured data has many well-known problems. Over the post-war era, equipment has changed, station sites have been moved, and the time of day at which the data are collected has changed. Many long-term weather records come from in or near cities, which have gotten warmer as they grow. Many poor countries have sparse weather station records, and few resources to ensure data quality. Fewer than one-third of the weather stations operating in the 1970s remain in operation. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, more than half the world’s weather stations were closed in a four year span, which means that we can’t really compare today’s average to that from the 1980s. Read a background summary here and a technical paper published in the JGR December 2007 here.
McKitrick is an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph. Michaels contributed to this research while a member of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, and while a visiting lecturer at Virginia Tech. He is now with the Cato Institute "
Stump
4 years ago
Auroras not volcanoes
His expertise on auroras relates to climate change how?
Climate change is real. Since we cannot control volcanoes or the Sun and excess energy use has a host of other ills associated with it beyond global warming, we need to address our fossil fuel addiction. And, if oil is so important to our civilization, why do we continue to waste it so profligately.
Sorry Mopled. There's no rational reason to fear dealing with climate change. What's your irrational one?
ME2
4 years ago
Irrational is what irrational does.
Stump, I've come to expect better of you. If every scientific expert's testimony was limited to the subject of his/her PhD thesis, we'd suddenly lose 99% of our scientific expertise. What a dumb argument!
Stump
4 years ago
While I wouldn't expect any
While I wouldn't expect any scientist to stick to just the narrown confines of their thesis, I'd still like to know how the study of auroras gives this scientist the expertise, experience, or education to offer an intelligent rebuttal to what is clearly a position accepted by the majority of the scientific community.
Feel free to educate me on this matter.
dave49
4 years ago
My mistake… an underestimate!
I just realized I made a mistake in my earlier post. Being someone of the age who grew up with Imperial units and lived through the conversion to Metric, I had the wrong conversion for tonnes. 1000 Kilos or (2205 pounds) is a Metric Tonne. 2000 pounds is an Imperial ton. My figures for cost and percentage value of carbon offsets are HALF what they should be.
That typical Terasen household (Lower Mainland; mid-efficiency furnace (80%); using 56 GigaJoules (GJ) a year of natural gas for heat and hot water at a current cost of $755.) would generate just under 3500 kilos of CO², or 3.5 Tonnes, costing $87.50 to offset at $25 per tonne, or about a 12% increase in the average annual natural gas bill.
Again, schools being larger buildings, with older boilers and a much larger heat distribution system, the standard boiler efficiency of 65% will effectively be lower. Let’s say that the offset cost will now be 25% higher than the example above, meaning a 15% increase in the annual bill.
These figures are based on the assumption that the energy efficiency of the household is the same. All carbon dioxide emissions are ‘neutralized’ by purchasing offsets at $25.00 a tonne.
Investing in energy efficiency can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but it is not practical to reduce energy use to zero. Offsets must make up the difference.
The question remains, for schools and health care, where will this extra money come from?