Many colleges and universities in BC are striving to become carbon-neutral by 2010. However, despite high rankings on sustainability report cards, this is proving difficult for UBC and other post-secondary institutions across the province due to the lack of funding.

The desire for post-secondary institutions to become carbon-neutral is a result of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act (GGRTA), which made into law the province’s commitment to become a carbon-neutral public sector by 2010. The move is also

known as the 2010 Initiative, which, after post-secondary funding cuts, will prove more difficult to achieve.

“The simplest answer to the question of why universities are struggling to raise money is that public funding to the post-

secondary sector has been cut in recent years,” said Ashley Webster, a master’s candidate in Urban Studies at SFU and a researcher with the BC Working Group on Sustainability Education.

“This, combined with the new carbon neutral requirements, increasing competition, the demand for new innovative programming, and aging campuses means that the budgets are being stretched in all colleges and universities.”

A recent study called the 2010 College Sustainability Report Card shows that UBC was awarded a B+ in sustainability, the highest grade for a Canadian school. It is shared by other institutions including the University of Alberta, McGill University and York University. Just last week, UBC’s Sustainability Office released a new Climate Action Plan for their Point Grey campus. This includes commitments such as becoming a net positive energy producer by 2050 and using the campus as a living laboratory.

Dr Tom Owen, chair for the BC Climate Action Group for Universities, believes that UBC and the other universities in the province are well-positioned to meet the sustainability requirements and remain ahead of the rest of Canada.

“There are certainly challenges presented with the Act, such as reducing emissions and paying for the carbon tax,” Owen said.

Beginning in 2011, colleges and universities are required to buy offsets for emissions produced in 2010. The liable carbon that UBC is allowed to emit is 62,670 tonnes. Each tonne will cost $25, and expenses could equal up to $215,000 a year—money that cannot be financed again in other sustainability projects. However, UBC is not liable for carbon emissions produced by commuting, solid waste, international student travel or building lifecycles, which total just over 50,000 tonnes of CO_{2 per year.}

_{Owen and Charlene Easton, director of sustainability at UBC, were tight-lipped about the state of funding for the 2010 Initiative at UBC and other BC universities, saying that an estimate of the total cost for the funding needed would be quite difficult. This is because there is a carbon tax that is added onto emissions. What they have said is that UBC is basing its funding for the 2010 Initiative on the university’s ecotrek program, a project focused on energy and water retrofitting that was completed in spring 2006.}

_{ecotrek, the largest project of its kind in Canada, was greatly successful and has saved UBC over $3.8 million per year in energy and water costs. For ecotrek, the university borrowed a significant amount from their endowment fund and leveraged a significant portion of the financing through BC Hydro, one of the largest electric utilities in Canada. Easton said that what is saved in the carbon emissions for the 2010 Initiative will be used to pay down the debt.}

_{Another common source of funding for BC universities is the Public Sector Energy Conservation Agreement (PSECA). PSECA is an arrangement between BC Hydro and the provincial government that funds infrastructure projects based on their ability to establish cost savings and profits.}

_{The BC government has cut funding for sustainability initiatives in many post-secondary institutions in Canada, and savings based on energy conservation have proven to be directly related to financial help from the government. In a new report titled Taking Action: British Columbia’s Universities and Colleges Respond to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, almost all colleges and universities claimed that funding was the primary challenge in applying GGRTA.}

_{While raising funding for the initiative may be a significant challenge for many universities in BC, Owen believes that the research many post-secondary institutions in the province have conducted will only seek to advance our understanding of sustainable resourcefulness.}

_{“BC is ahead at the forefront of sustainability research in Canada,” he said. “We are facing these challenges mainly because there are no models to fall back on. Nobody else has researched and pioneered sustainability to the extent we have.”}