Vision for a Net Positive Energy and Water Campus: Through an Incentive Program for Maximizing Resource Efficiency

Recently submitted my proposal for the UBC Alternative Energy X contest. I am not sure if this is what they are looking, because my plan is pretty boring from a PR perspective, and its implementation would be an administrative nightmare. Nevertheless, I think it’s what UBC and other major institutions need:

Vision for a Net Positive Energy and Water Campus: Through an Incentive Program for Maximizing Resource Efficiency

UBC is in desperate need of an overarching institutional framework that creates incentives for efficient and disincentives for inefficient resource usage. Rather than focusing on ad hoc improvement projects, it is more important to establish a system that generates innovative ideas everyday, not just when there’s a contest.

The problem is the broken chain of accountability. With the cost of fossil fuel, carbon offsets, and carbon taxes piling up, UBC will very soon pick up a sizable tab for its share of environmental responsibility. However, I doubt most students and faculties will make significant changes because neither incentives nor disincentives are in place. The stick and carrot stop at UBC as a collective, not passed down to departments, faculties, and individuals as it should. An incentive program can fix this by distributing the share of responsibility effectively and align interests in every level. The result is an institutional framework that focuses on maximizing resource use efficiency.

How such program could work in UBC:

1. UBC sets its annual targets for a number of resources, which may include natural gas, electricity, water, waste, and etc.
2. Allocate the quotas for each building based on the number of people it serves.
3. Track the building’s heating, electricity, water, and waste generation on weekly basis. Produce reports showing if it is below or exceeding the quota.
4. At the end of the year, buildings or departments that operate below the quota receive a portion of the saved money from fuel, offsets, and taxes. The money could be spent on buildings upgrades, distributed within departments, or even in the form of tuition reduction. On the other hand, those that use resources inefficiently could face budget cuts or tuition increase.
5. Efforts on the reduction of emission and energy consumption by students within or outside of the campus could be counted as credits.

Under this system, departments, faculties, and students are obligated (not just encouraged) to take proactive roles because their efforts are measurable (through weekly usage report), comparable (against the targets and other buildings), and would directly affect them. Since the key indicator is the resource use efficiency (measured in, for example usage / person hour), it takes into account building size and user number, and gives a comparable ratio throughout the campus. While some buildings are built more efficient than others, it is unfair to give them preferential treatments. It should be up to the users to come up with plans for decrease consumption or increase usage. For example, a classroom is twice as efficient when it is used by 20 people instead of 10.

While I believe the incentive program will produce innovative solutions for efficient resource use, there are several specific improvements that could be adopted immediately.

1. Smarter heating control: computerized heating control that allows automatic shutoffs when a classroom or building is not used. It could be determined through motion sensors or course schedule. Alternatively, timers could be installed that automatically shuts off heater.
2. Smarter lighting control: similar to heating, lights from unused sections of a building should be shut off automatically, through motion sensor, course schedule, or timer.
3. Upgrade insulation for windows especially to minimize escape heat.
4. Install two levels flush toilets, collect rainwater for plant operations
5. For campus residences, make utilities non-inclusive and send out usage stats. People will be more aware of their consumptions.
6. Leverage talents within campus for improvement projects.
7. Financial support for paying upgrade costs in installments

With a proper incentive program in place, UBC could foster a culture of active participation in innovation. The program would not only encourage great ideas but more importantly, great results.