BC Public Service employee on bicycle
Chosen as one of Canada's Greenest Employers for 2013:
By Richard Yerema and Julien Gagnier, Mediacorp Canada Inc. staff editors
(Apr 21, 2013)
Some of the reasons why BC Public Service was selected as one of Canada's Greenest Employers (2013):
- over 600 employees volunteer for over 100 Green Teams across the province, each developing their own conservation programs as well as managing Service-wide initiatives from green commuting to paper conservation initiatives -- employees from across the Service can also access a new "Being Green" landing page on the corporate intranet to find event notices, links, information and suggestions for environmental changes at work and at home
- is continuing to invest in web-conferencing technologies with over 130 equipped sites available for employees across the province -- resulting in a significant decrease in travel-related emissions as well as costs
- recently introduced an impressive employee "ridesharing" website for employees across the service, employees simply enter when and where they are travelling and the website finds matches from across the Service -- most employees (depending on location) can also take advantage of discounted transit passes
- back in 2007, the BC Public Service set in law its commitment to become a carbon neutral public sector employer by 2010 -- and was the first major political jurisdiction in North America to set such a goal -- recently reaching this milestone through a variety of reduction initiatives and the purchase of carbon offsets through the Pacific Carbon Trust, which is a provincial Crown corporation
- and has set longer term goals to reduce its overall emissions by one-third by 2020, and an 80 percent reduction by 2050, following the legislated targets set out in the province's pioneering 2007 "Greenhouse Reductions Target Act"
- new building construction is required to be built to LEED Gold standards (or equivalent certification) and all building renovations are designed to reduce energy consumption
- as part of its day-to-day focus the service has introduced many initiatives, from putting computers to sleep when not in use to the development of green procurement guidelines for purchases across the province
- has updated its vehicle fleet standards, which account for approximately one-third of the Service's emissions, including a hybrid-first purchasing policy where possible (with over 600 new and leased government fleet vehicles being hybrids), conversion from gas to propane for existing vehicles, retrofitting diesel vehicles to accept bio-diesel, as well as an anti-idling toolkit and online carbon neutral driver training courses for traveling employees
- developed a unique online emissions calculator for traveling employees, called "SMARTTEC", which determines the emission levels of different travel modes as well as a "SmartTool" calculator that aggregates and develops emission reports for all sources, including travel, buildings and paper usage -- and is sharing the calculator for use at schools, universities and health authorities across the province along with discounted transit passes for most employees (depending on location)
Background Information
Major Canadian hiring locations: Victoria BC, Vancouver BC, Kamloops BC, Prince George BC.
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| ©2013 Mediacorp Canada Inc. All rights reserved. Used by Eluta with permission. For comments or questions on this employer review, please contact Mediacorp's editorial team.
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