Schools should have the same chance as luxury hotels to get carbon credits for innovative projects that reduce greenhouse gases, says Port Coquitlam Trustee Judy Shirra.
This year, School District 43 will pay $232,000 to Pacific Carbon Trust to offset its energy, fuel and paper consumption but will get no money back for innovative projects, such as composting or recycling, that are cutting waste and dealing with climate change.
"We have to pay money out of the classroom to subsidize this, yet schools that are entrepreneurial get no offset," Shirra commented at Tuesday's board of education meeting.
According to provincial regulations, schools and other government agencies are required to be carbon neutral and must pay $25 per tonne of carbon emissions generated from fuel, energy and paper consumption. The funds go to the Pacific Carbon Trust, which then provides offsets to energy saving projects, such as hybrid heating systems for hotels and energy curtains for greenhouses.
The district also has to pay $27,000 to use the province's SMARTtool to calculate offsets and while it will eventually get a rebate on carbon taxes - $124,000 was refunded in 2009 to SD43 - there is uncertainty as to how much will be refunded and when.
But it's payment of offsets to the private sector that has some trustees concerned. Shirra said the district isn't being rewarded for being innovative; she raised the issue after Maple Creek middle school students gave a presentation on a recycling project that cut school waste by 80%.
"Why don't we set up a public trust," asked Shirra. "Why are we subsidizing the private sector?"
Board chair Melissa Hyndes said she would bring up the matter at a meeting today (Friday) of the BC School Trustees Association's provincial council, and energy manager Mark Clay said the issue has been raised among administrators elsewhere in the province. He said that while most administrators support paying offsets to combat climate change, many are baffled why schools can't benefit from offsets, too.
"That's a conversation we should be having," Clay said.
The good news is that the district experienced significant energy savings last year and won't have to purchase as many offsets as originally forecasted. The current value of offsets is $232,000, down from $320,000.
Still, gains will become stagnant unless the district upgrades facilities, which is proving to be a challenge. The district was recently shut out of grants from the Public Sector Energy Conservation Agreement fund when it applied for nine grants for boiler and lighting upgrades. Clay said he was told the applications for money available to school boards, universities, colleges, hospitals and universities was too far back in the queue.
For the district to reduce consumption - and cut its offset payments - more changes in behaviour will be necessary. Clay told trustees that efforts now are turning to reducing paper consumption by 30% over the next three years.
"We need to create procedures and practices to make sure these achievements are sustainable," Clay said.
