2018 drew to a close with nearly 40 departments participating in Seasonal Shutdown, an annual campus-wide campaign at UBC to reduce energy consumption during the winter holiday break.
Staff and faculty joined together to complete energy saving actions and shutdown checklists for their respective departments.
In total, 34 buildings and over 1,200 people participated in the engagement campaign. Three lucky teams won prizes for participating: Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, UBC Botanical Garden, and the Pulp and Paper Centre.
“The Botanical Garden has many different buildings – our team set aside some time on our last day before the holidays to make sure we unplugged, switched off, shut down and closed up the facilities,” said Tara Moreau, Associate Director of Sustainability and Community Programs at UBC Botanical Garden.
“It was a fun way to tuck in the Garden after a busy 2018.”
Across campus, participants took part by engaging their departments to complete additional energy conservation actions, such as unplugging small appliances, turning off lights, eliminating space heaters, closing windows and blinds, and turning off computer and lab equipment. Departments submitted ‘Shutdown Checklists’ with completed actions prior to the break for the chance to win one of three $100 prizes.
“The annual shutdown is a good way to remind us of what we can do at work and home to lower our power consumption; it’s a very effective campus-wide program,” said Mankee Mah, Programmer Analyst at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. “Most staff turned off their personal electronics before they left. The checklist made the shutdown simple.”
Meanwhile, building operators and energy managers collaborated behind the scenes to lower the temperature in buildings across campus during the shutdown period (December 24, 2018 to January 1, 2019), resulting in significant energy and natural gas savings.
Seasonal Shutdown is an annual campaign organized in partnership by UBC Energy & Water Services, Building Operations, and Campus + Community Planning. The campaign contributes to UBC’s Climate Action Plan and energy reduction goals by engaging and educating staff and faculty about best practices in energy conservation. More information can be found online.