The cover story in the Goldstream Gazette on January 7, 2009, talked about how the Sooke School District planned to lower its energy consumption. BC Hydro has agreed to fund an energy manager for SD 62 to help work with staff and students on lowering the overall carbon footprint of the school district.

Chad Dalrymple was hired in October as SD 62’s energy manager as part of a movement to reduce the amount of energy used by all schools in the region, and to heat and power buildings more efficiently. This move is also driven by the provincial government’s goal of all schools being “carbon neutral” by 2010. Dalrymple plans to inspect and assess each individual building and improve any inefficient technologies, “such as single-pane windows, old lights, old boilers, and poor insulation.” (Goldstream Gazette, 2009) He also plans on working with students and educating them on ways to lower energy use, such as turning off lights that aren’t being used.

The primary result Dalrymple hopes to achieve is behavioral changes throughout SD 62. Through the education of staff and students, he hopes to instill the ideologies of sustainability such as energy conservation and waste minimization. I believe that these changes will not only benefit SD 62, but also improve the staff and students’ behavior at home when it comes to recycling and saving energy. If students are actively involved with these practices at school from a young age, it is likely that they will carry these principles with them to their extracurricular activities. One person alone doing these things may not have a significant effect on the environment, but an entire school district changing its practices could lead to a significant effect on a local scale.

The energy savings that can be achieved through these changes within SD 62 will have a positive effect on the environment, but it will not be enough to eliminate the carbon footprint. The article mentions “the goal is to shrink the carbon footprint to zero, a practical impossibility, at least right now,” (Goldstream Gazette, 2009) and that the school district will have to purchase carbon offsets to balance their energy use. I think this is one flaw with the “carbon neutral by 2010” concept, since schools all need to consume a large amount of energy even if they are doing it efficiently. The important thing, however, is that the schools are starting to take action and educating people so they can move towards a more sustainable community.


Original Article: Hill, E. School district on green path. Goldstream Gazette, January 7, 2009.