University of Northern British Columbia's reputation as Canada's Green University has received a major boost as it has been named the co-winner of a prestigious award for its efforts to establish the on-campus bioenergy system.
UNBC president George Iwama was in Denver, Colorado on Monday to accept an award from the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in the "best campus case study" category.
And he was back at UNBC on Tuesday where he entered a noontime celebration at the Wintergarden holding high the plaque - made fittingly out of particle board - and generating a loud round of applause.
"This is yours," Iwama told the onlookers.
AASHE boasts a membership of 1,000 schools and is described as the "premier association of its kind in the world." UNBC is sharing the honour with none other than renowned Ivy League school Harvard University after judges were unable to decide which is best.
Entitled "Integrating Teaching, Research and Operational Sustainability: Utilization of Bio-Energy at UNBC," the case study describes the installation of Canada's first university-owned wood pellet combustion system.
Judges also noted it acts as a demonstration site for teaching and research and that UNBC generated plenty of community buy-in in the process of developing the project. More than 700 people have toured the system, hooked up to the heating system for the neighbouring enhanced forestry lab, since it began operating in June 2009.
The next step is a $15-million wood waste gasification system, now under construction next to the enhanced forestry lab, and is expected to be completed by March.
Once it starts operating the system will reduce UNBC's use of non-renewable fossil fuels by 85 per cent, replacing them with energy produced by gasifying wood waste, a carbon-neutral source. It should be up and running by March.
UNBC is not stopping there - the next step is to generate electricity from the plant.
"We aspire to plant the flag to be the first university to be completely based on renewable energy and be sustainable," Iwama said to further applause.
To finance the project, UNBC was able to attract slightly more than $16 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments. And several local companies - Nexterra, Lakeland Mills, Sinclar Group, Excel Transportation, IDL Projects - are involved in building and supplying the plant.
"We thought all along that we were doing exciting things here in northern British Columbia, but you know, sometimes it's really hard to get the world to pay attention to what we're doing," commented Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond.
Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris said the system is a "shining example" of taking a challenge like the pine beetle and turning it into an opportunity.
