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Ongoing facilities renewal, including GHG reduction

A building with students outside and two trees on each side

I am sharing an update on the Strategic Plan deliverable I’m leading, which falls under our commitment to future-proof applied education and the initiative for augmented and sustainable environments.

The Facilities and Campus Development Team is dedicated to ongoing facilities renewal, including greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. Whether within renovations to our existing facilities or within our plans for new capital projects, the team is constantly looking for innovative and meaningful ways to reach the Institute’s sustainability goals.

We look forward to the completion of the new Health Sciences Centre, which will feature electric vehicle charging for all 60+ parking stalls, and has been designed to perform under the new Well Certificate for operations. Similarly, the new Student Housing Project is planned to be constructed sustainably utilizing mass timber prefabrication and compliance to the BC Energy Code (Step 4).

As we continue to renew our existing facilities and surrounding areas, we look for sustainable measures we can implement to help BCIT achieve its 2023 goal of reducing Institute greenhouse gas emissions by one-third, based on 2007 levels. Some of these include:

  • The conversion of SE30 Warehouse to fully electrically-powered, eliminating natural gas use entirely.
  • The replacement of the NW6 shop area infrared heaters with electrical units and repositioned to better provide heat to students at workstations.
  • The procurement of detailed design services for the SE8 central heating plant is underway. This project will convert our main Burnaby Campus heating plant to primary electric boilers. This particular project is a significant part of our plan to reach our GHG reduction goals.

We are working closely with the respective stakeholders involved in all of these projects. We look forward to continuing the dialogue and pursuing opportunities to ensure our facilities renewal is committed to delivering sustainable environments for BCIT.

Thank you,

Mark Dale
Senior Director, Facilities and Campus Development

Commitment: Future-proof applied education
Initiative: Augmented and sustainable environments
Deliverable: Ongoing facilities renewal, including GHG reduction
Deliverable lead: Mark Dale, Senior Director, Facilities and Campus Development