The Burnaby School District takes sustainability seriously. We are currently in our 12th year of energy conservation initiatives and were once again selected as a BC Hydro top ten power smart partner. We continue to aggressively pursue all of our environmental initiatives from recycling programs to energy and water management with the same goal; to make SD#41 the most sustainably operated school district possible.
During 2011 we continued to follow our long term strategic plan to upgrade our facilities. These projects include lighting retrofits, boiler replacements, solar power installations, building automation controls and water conservation efforts.
The new Burnaby Central Secondary opened in September 2011 to a flurry of excitement as our latest LEED Gold targeted building. This amazing new school will join our two other LEED projects, University Highlands and Brantford Elementary, as the standards from which we measure our other facilities.
Emissions Overview
School District 41’s Greenhouse Gas emission in 2011 totalled 6,647.63 tCO2e. The majority of which, 91.2%, came from building heating and electrical consumption, with paper supplies accounting for 5.8% and fleet fuel use making up the remaining 3%.
Highlights from GHG reduction efforts in 2011
- Ranked as the #1 School District in the province by BC Hydro’s Power Smart Program
- Introduction of Green Teams across the majority of schools
- Food scrap bins at schools with hot lunch programs, diverting all food waste away from landfill
- Two Solar Photo Voltaic installations now online
- Water bottle filling stations have been contributed to over 900,000 reusable bottle fill ups
- Third annual ‘Do It Green’ event organised by the Burnaby Youth Sustainability Network was a huge success
Coming in 2012/2013
- Large number of high efficiency boiler up grades will considerably reduce our natural gas consumption and carbon footprint
- Continue to work with our strategic partners on implementing behavioural change initiatives for energy and waste management
- Continue to build student managed food gardens at a number of schools
- Reduce domestic hot water storage with on-demand hot water systems
- Upgrade energy management software to better enable data analysis
- Build on our successful Energy Management program with multiple new energy efficiency upgrades to our facilities
- Explore opportunities to collaborate with other school districts on innovative sustainability initiatives