Chosen as one of Canada's Greenest Employers for 2011:
By Kristina Leung and Richard Yerema, Mediacorp Canada Inc. staff editor
(
Apr 20, 2011)
Some of the reasons why British Columbia Institute of Technology was selected as one of Canada's Greenest Employers (2011):
recently established an "Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Practices Committee" with the stated goal of transforming its campuses into "Living Labs of Sustainability" -- with the first step the drafting of a sustainability plan that is to be incorporated into BCIT's master development plan
as part of this plan the Institute recently completed a comprehensive measurement of its ecological footprint -- the extensive review is one the first of its kind undertaken by an academic institution in Canada and had engaged employees from across the organization
the Institute is currently working towards a number of long term sustainability goals, including to become greenhouse gas neutral, to become a net energy producer, send zero waste to the landfill, aggressive water conservation, and to re-naturalize campus spaces where possible with native plant species
longstanding food composting program was first established at the main campus back in 1998 -- today, over 170,000 red wiggler worms work around the clock to create exceptional compost that is used to fertilize flower beds around the campus
launched its first recycling program in 1994 and today diverts over 70 percent of what was traditionally sent to the landfill, from plastics to batteries to all types of industrial waste
implemented an in-house energy management program at its Burnaby Campus back in 2001, which has already achieved impressive results -- including a 10 percent reduction in electricity use, a 14 percent decrease in natural gas consumption and a 60 percent decrease in water use
is on the frontlines of educating future generations -- the academic institution continues to evolve existing and develop new specialized programs, such as the Photovoltaic Energy Applied Research Lab and the newly developed Sustainable Resource Management Diploma of Technology
employees have their own 20 member volunteer "Green Team" comprised of employees from all departments and schools who work to generate awareness and encourage their fellow employees to become involved in a variety of sustainability initiatives throughout the year
installed smart meters in student residence buildings and challenged the residences to reduce electrical consumption -- the residence with the greatest reductions won great prizes, from free restaurant dinners to snow-tubing passes to Mount Seymour
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