UNBC Wins AASHE Award
By 250 News
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 12:16 PM
UNBC President Dr.George Iwama holds Award high for all to see
Prince George, B.C. – UNBC has come out on top.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has presented its first annual Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards at a ceremony in Denver Colorado.
The University of Northern British Columbia, for it's bio-energy system was given the top award. UNBC shares top spot with Harvard.
UNBC President George Iwama says the award is the first step for the University as it moves towards being energy self sufficient. Iwama says the next step will be to create electricity for the University.
The new Bio-Energy plant will produce 85% of the University's heating needs, reducing its dependence on fossil fuels.
The award will also put UNBC "on the map" says Iwama " I was in Alaska recently and I was flabbergasted at how many people from Scandinavian countries and other places know allot about us (UNBC) and then I come to passport control at Vancouver Airport, and the person doesn't even know there is a university in Prince George, I just about fell over. For perspective students, we are a young university, it takes time for our name to get out there, but the fact that people in Scandinavia know us is because we are very active in northern issues."
He says this award "registered a very deep presence" with those from other Canadian Universities who seemed to be caught off guard by UNBC’s accomplishment.
Dr. Iwama says the award is huge for UNBC "Because when you're a young university you want every passport control agent to know there is a darn good university in Prince George. The people, the government the community need to understand there is a knowledge centre here that its playing an important role in diversifying industries here. We want communities to have hope that their young people can learn new skills that can sustain their communities, grow them, but not only in the old traditional ways, but in new ways that will lead the way."
UNBC Vice President Communications Rob Van Adrichem says in keeping with the Olympic spirit of 2010 "UNBC has won gold for being green."
The award caps off $16.5 million dollars in federal and provincial funding which was used to create the bio-energy system.
Previous Story - Next Story
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.usReturn to Home
Posted by: climbchic on October 12 2010 8:45 PM
it truly is amazing how ignorant people really are in populated areas like Vancouver and Victoria.
Their ignorance our gain! We don't want them boneheads up here anyway.