Green Board - Energy and Facilities
Energy & Carbon reduction Targets
In 2010 VSB set a 5 year target for energy and carbon reductions. Relative to the reference year of 2008-09 the target is to reduce electricity consumption by 15%, Natural Gas consumption by 5% and total energy by 8% over a 5 year period.
There's a lot happening around the Vancouver School Board when it comes to Energy and Climate Action. Click on any of the links below to learn more about what we're doing at the VSB.
VSB Ranks in Top-10 amongst BC Hydro Power Smart customers
For the second year in a row VSB receives the Top-10 recognition from BC Hydro for electricity conservation amongst Power Smart Customers across all sectors in BC. Last year alone the energy saved was sufficient to power 170 BC homes and over the last 2 years VSB has conserved enough energy to power over 300 BC homes. For the full story click here.
Provincial Climate Action Commitment
Carbon Neutral Action Report - CNAR
As per the Carbon Neutral commitment with the Province of BC and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act (GGRTA 2007), The Vancouver School Board annually submits a Carbon Neutral Action Report to the Climate Action Secretariat (CAS) of the Ministry of Environment. For the latest CNA-Report click here.
Carbon Footprint & Carbon Neutral Commitment
Using SMARTTool VSB calculates its annual Greenhouse Gas emissions and reports it to the Ministry of Environment, as per the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act. In 2010 the total GHG emissions for the school district in tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) was 16,244 tonnes. Over 90% of the carbon footprint is from the burning of Natural Gas to heat our schools. Paper consumption is responsible for about 5% and fleet fuel about 2% of the school district’s carbon footprint.
The School district is working to lower its energy and carbon footprint through a variety of technological, operational and behavioural approaches.
Student Programs
Co-op Student Internship
VSB Facilities hired a UBC Mechanical Engineering student during the summer of 2010 to explore energy savings and carbon reduction opportunities for the school district. The student’s main task was to suggest improvements to the different heating and ventilation schedules at the schools in an effort to optimize the control systems to minimize electrical energy use and waste heat. Kao also made recommendations on future technological and process options that would help the school district, going forward. The student was supervised by the Manager of Energy & Climate Action and the Manager of Maintenance & Construction. For more information click here.
Energy Ambassadors Program
Vancouver secondary school students are working with BC Hydro to encourage energy conservation and sustainability in their schools through the BC Hydro Energy Ambassadors program. The program focuses on awareness, action and leadership in terms of energy conservation and is offered by BC Hydro to students from grades 8-12, at no cost to the school district. In total, between 40-50 students from five secondary schools, Sir Winston Churchill, Ideal Mini School, Lord Byng, Gladstone and Killarney participated in the program in the 2010-11. At the end of each year the Energy Ambassadors present the results of their work and recommendations to the School Board Trustees. For more information, click here.
VSB Students visit Greenest building in N.A. at UBC
Sixteen VSB students from eight schools participated in the 3 day Green Building Conference at UBC <link to http://cirs.conference.sustain.ubc.ca/> held November 3-5, 2011 as part of the opening of the greenest building in North America – The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS). Students had the opportunity to learn from, and be inspired by experts on sustainability from around the globe (including those from Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). World renowned local experts such as David Suzuki and John Robinson, a professor from the University of British Columbia were also present at the conference. For more information, click here.
Renewable Energy Technologies & Systems
Solar Thermal Energy
With funding from the Province of British Columbia, Solar BC, Fortis BC (formerly Terasen Gas) and Natural Resources Canada, the Vancouver School Board installed 5 solar hot-water (thermal) systems at 5 secondary schools in 2010 – Windermere, David Thompson, Vancouver Technical, Sir Charles Tupper and Lord Byng. The solar energy will be used to complement the domestic hot water requirements.
Solar Photo-Voltaic Energy
Sir Charles Tupper Secondary was one of 11 schools in BC that received $20,000 from the Provincial Government for the installation of Solar-electric (photovoltaic) panels. The 5kW Solar-PV system that will be installed by January 2012 will generate renewable energy sufficient to meet between 1-2 % of the school’s electrical energy requirements. For more information, click here.
Geo-exchange
Geo-exchange systems can help reduce natural gas consumption and carbon-footprint by taking advantage of the latent heat in the ground. Given that thermal conductivity of the soil is critical for the performance of geo-exchange systems, including the price of energy amongst other factors, VSB carefully evaluates the feasibility of geo-exchange systems for our new construction projects.
Charles Dickens elementary is the newest school built with a geo-exchange system. This system has already helped reduce the total energy consumption at this site.
Waste Heat Recovery
VSB is presently exploring the possibility of using a waste source of heat from a neighbouring facility to supply part of the energy requirement of one of its schools. If successful VSB will be able to significantly reduce its fossil fuel consumption and carbon footprint at this school thereby demonstrating its commitment to carbon footprint reduction and sustainability. This project is presently in the pre-feasibility phase. Stay tuned for future developments.
Sustainable School Design & Construction
Charles Dickens Elementary is the first LEED-Silver certified school at VSB and is home to a fully operational geo-exchange system. The school design includes a number of ‘green initiatives’ such as low flow plumbing fixtures, rainwater for toilets and irrigation, material re-use from the previous school, low VOC materials and heat-recovery from classroom exhaust air to pre-heat incoming air. For more information on the Sustainable design features of Charles Dickens Elementary click here.
At present VSB New Construction projects go through an Integrated Energy Modelling process and the schools are being built to LEED Gold equivalency. Going forward we strive to exceed this standard and build high-performance schools that approach ‘Carbon Neutral’ or ‘Net-Zero’ standards.
Energy & Carbon Management Pilot Programs
Refrigerator Energy Conservation Pilot
With support from the school district’s facilities department, four high schools conducted an audit of its refrigerators as part of a pilot project. The audit was conducted to determine the quantity, size, age, and energy consumption of the refrigerators. For each unit removed, the schools received cash equivalent to the electricity the units would have otherwise consumed in one year; these funds were redirected to other energy conservation and sustainability efforts in the schools.
The four schools collectively removed 34 inefficient refrigerator and freezer units, which were recycled in an environmentally responsible manner. As an incentive for reducing the total refrigerator count, the schools qualified for 16 new ENERGY STAR® qualified refrigerators to replace some of the worst-offenders left behind.
This year, the VSB is expanding its refrigeration energy conservation program to include more schools – if all 109 schools in the district followed the example of the 4 pilot schools the energy saved on refrigeration would be equivalent to removing two to three elementary schools from the BC Hydro electricity grid forever. For more information, click here.
Thermal Imaging Pilot
The Thermal Imaging Pilot Program was conducted to assess building envelop energy efficiency and to explore opportunities for improving the performance of existing buildings. A Thermal Imaging Camera (also known as Infra-Red Camera) was used for this purpose which records heat-loss through infra-red radiation. The 10 schools that were thermally imaged as part of this Pilot program were Champlain Heights, Dickens, Dickens Annex, Fleming, Kingsford-Smith, Nelson, Osler, Tecumseh, Hamber and Magee. The data collected from this Pilot has been used to inform window upgrades, improve attic insulation and overall building envelope upgrades. The data collection was performed by the Maintenance Department staff.
The cost of the camera more than paid for itself as the camera was also able to perform the annual electrical inspections which were normally outsourced. VSB staff members from the electrical department have now been trained to use the Thermal Imaging camera for this purpose thereby reducing this annual cost to the Maintenance Department and School District.
Cascadia Energy Pilot
VSB is piloting two innovative technologies that could help reduce natural gas and electricity consumption at existing schools. A special transparent window coating reduces heat loss through single-pane windows and paint that reflects the heat (or infrared energy) back into the room is being tested at 3 Elementary School Annexes. The work was completed during the summer of 2011 and presently the energy consumption at the 3 sites is being monitored for their effectiveness. Preliminary results appear promising and if successful it is expected that the coating and paint could reduce total energy consumption by 10-20% per school.
Operations & Sustainability
Operations ‘Energy Bulletin’
VSB publishes an ‘Energy Bulletin’ annually primarily for the benefit of the Operations Staff who operate and maintain VSB’s energy systems.
‘Spot the Energy Savings’ Training
Over 200 Operations staff have had the benefit of the ‘Spot the Energy Savings’ training program – an energy conservation training program from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). The program provides many practical ideas and recommendations on how to improve the performance and operation of our electrical and heating systems thereby helping reduce our electricity and carbon footprint. The training sessions are run for a full day and conducted during the summer. The sessions have been a success due to the high level of participation and the quality of the training received from experienced instructors.
VSB Shutdown Checklist
In order to minimize waste of valuable resources such as electricity and natural gas during the winter, summer and other break periods during the year, VSB Operations has implemented a detailed checklist of actions to be completed by all schools to ensure a complete shutdown of non-essential systems. The system has been successfully implemented since summer 2010 and has helped the school district use our resources more efficiently and also reduce our energy bills in the process.
Maintenance & Sustainability
Lighting & Heating Plant Upgrades
In addition to the lighting and heating system upgrades that new schools or seismic upgrades receive, VSB also upgrades the lighting systems and heating systems at existing schools with the Annual Facilities Grants (AFG) the School District receives from the Ministry of Education. With the available grants, on average VSB upgrades approximately 2 heating plants per year; between 2-3 schools also receive complete lighting redesign and system upgrades per year.
Information Technology (IT) & Sustainability
PC Power Management
PC Power Management software has been implemented in over virtually all PCs in the school district (10,000+) over the past 2 years. The cost for purchasing the special power management software paid for itself in less than a year from the electricity it helped save the school district. This program alone played a key role in reducing the electricity footprint of the school district over the past 2 years.
