Goals

Limiting the District’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and moving towards net zero emissions for buildings is a priority and roadmap for the province. To see the changes expected in the coming years, view here.

As a public sector organization, Langley School District has a role to play in reducing our emissions through projects such as adopting heat pump technology and using zero emission vehicles.

The goals below are set out by the province with 2007 being the baseline:

Zero-carbon new construction by 2027
Public sector building emissions reduction of 59-64% by 2030
Public sector fleet reductions of 40% by 2030

For more information email: GreenTeam35@sd35.bc.ca.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Sources

Langley School District performs an annual GHG inventory to measure and monitor emissions. Through this process we fulfill the requirements of the Province of BC’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act and report our annual progress through the annual Climate Change Accountability Report.

For more information email: GreenTeam35@sd35.bc.ca

The Energy Management Team leads energy conservation and efficiency measures, and greenhouse gas intensity performance by coordinating efforts with the electrical and mechanical departments and capital projects team. This includes benchmarking energy use in buildings across the District, identifying opportunities for savings, developing, and implementing energy projects, and monitoring savings.

Key Projects

LED Lighting Retrofits

The District is continuing to transition and install LED lighting throughout our sites. It’s estimated there are 30,000 florescent lamps and bulbs across the District. If they were all replaced with LEDs it would lead to around 950,000 kWh saved per year.

Heat Pump Adoption

With heating accounting for 80% of our carbon emissions its important for the District to adopt more heat pump technologies to meet our provincial emissions targets.

Heat pump technologies are over 200% more efficient and by using low carbon emission sources, the District will be able to meet our emissions targets while reducing our utility bills. New schools are already utilizing heat pumps while in existing schools they are used when replacing roof top units. There are many challenges in adopting heat pumps on a larger scale at our existing schools, but the District is continuing to explore feasible options when equipment approaches end of life.

For more information email GreenTeam35@sd35.bc.ca

Quickly dwindling landfill space, high financial cost of incineration, global warming contribution from landfills, and declining natural resources highlight the necessity of plans to reduce waste and improve recycling in the region. Metro Vancouver’s Integrated Solid Waste and Resources Management Plan (ISWRMP) outlines a target of 70% landfill diversion by 2015, and 80% by 2020. In order to achieve these goals, Metro Vancouver has developed several strategic priorities to target specific areas in need of improved waste practices. School District 35 will be influenced directly by ISWRMP action strategy 2.6.2.

Metro Vancouver will ban all compostable organics from disposal to landfills.

In light of this coming regulation and constant request from interested students, School District 35 began developing implementation of improved recycling program that includes organic collection and glass, metal, plastic, and paper recycling within the district.

There are three bins in hallways:

1. Blue for Recyclables (Glass, Metal, Certain Plastics, and Papers)
2. Green for Organics
3. Black for Waste

Students are responsible to empty the classroom bins into hallway stations at the end of the day.

What Goes in Each Bin

Recycling Program Education

Education is the most important element of our new recycling program. Without a proper education, materials would end up in the wrong bins and we will not achieve the best result out of this great initiative. So we encourage you to book an education session for staff or student leader teams at your school. Please email us at GreenTeam35@SD35.bc.ca

How to start?
Please check our Staff Education Handout to get some hints.

What else is out there?
Our pilot program showed educating students on what happens to different items after recycling is very important. Here are a couple interesting videos related to the recycling program.

The Cycle

Dirty Green Bin?

Does your classroom Green Bin get dirty too often? See this video for a great solution!

Have questions about the program? Please email us at GreenTeam35@SD35.bc.ca

Building a Sustainable Digital Transformation

How can we reduce waste, and improve our work, service delivery and processes, while building sustainable benefits for our environment and future?

The Langley School District SD35 has embarked on building a plan for success in implementing a “Sustainable Digital Transformation”. Our research has found that our District’s annual paper printing volume was over 50% more than other school districts in a BC benchmark; the difference is the districts that have implemented digital transformation initiatives to reduce paper waste and improve processes.

Our District is making a commitment to:

1. 1. Reduce waste, including elimination of paper and inefficient processes – Target of 35% print reduction within five years.
   2. Dedicate resources to reduce waste by improving processes; improve paper based processes to be digital – Digital-forms; e-Signatures/Authorizations, Workflow Automation; to facilitate training in innovation and technology [e.g. how to leverage Office365/SharePoint; E-forms; paperless workflow; Laserfiche document management].
   3. Engage users in “problem-solving” in process efficiency improvements, and to help in their jobs.
   4. Implement PaperCut Print Management-
      • Visibility of print volume
      • Print policies e.g. double sided default; Budget/quota on impressions; Print Release (avoid wasted abandoned print); color; student and mobile access.
      • Scan/Smart capture workflow;
      • Educate and train on benefits of eliminating waste; environmental/ carbon footprint & energy wins; “Teach Paperless”; redeploy $ savings to innovations for classrooms.
   5. Manage and expand-
      • District Wide Content Management/Laserfiche Electronic Document Management System-EDMS;
      • Collaboration/sharing strategy and repository/Office365/File Management Plan.

The objective is to use the program dollar savings to help fund innovations for the classroom.

We are asking for District educators and staff commitment to support sustainable digital transformation to reduce waste and improve processes. This initiative is a challenge and an opportunity for each of us to make improvements in our work and for our environment.

Paper is a huge burden to the District and our work; with waste of time and resources, and costly processes throughout the lifecycle of paper:

→ to buy and get the paper/print/copies; → to handle and share the paper; → to file/store paper; → to find/recover the filed paper; → to modify the paper [repeats the cycle]; → and eventually to dispose of the paper [paper eventually becomes waste]. Digital processes are inherently “green”, efficient and easier (when designed properly).

We have initiated a program to leverage Ricoh’s work with other BC School Districts and the post secondaries in providing new multifunction(MFP)/printers, print management solutions and document management/process improvement. Ricoh will share their knowledge of “Best Practices” and provide the District with innovative technology with improvements in feature, functionality and performance enhancements.

We encourage all users to assess why they print and how to improve their processes and eliminate waste.

Details for your school or office

Ricoh representatives will be completing a print, copy, fax and scan assessment for schools and offices. You may be asked to provide some specific insight concerning print, copy, fax requirements. The assessment will provide for replacement of MFP/printers with the new technology. The District will also be implementing PaperCut print management software; to reduce waste (e.g. “abandoned print”), to print to any network device, as well as provide added security/confidentiality to all print and copy jobs.

Once the validation and assessment has been completed for your location, the primary contact for each school will be advised of the dates and times of the new technology implementation plan. All efforts will be made to minimize any disruption during the school hours. The new PaperCut software will be rolled-out enterprise wide at the same time. There will be orientation for all new technology placements to also reduce disruption.

Fleet is the second largest carbon emissions emitter accounting for around 10% of District emissions.

Through funding opportunities with the Federal and Provincial Government we were able to accelerate our transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. As of 2022 the District operates two EV buses, seven white fleet EVs and one plug-in hybrid white fleet EV.

We have agreements with BC Hydro and Federal Government to expand charging infrastructure at the District’s maintenance facility to meet our vehicle charging requirements for the next 10 years. This will allow us to continue our adoption of EVs and reduce our carbon emissions to meet our 2030 provincial goals.

For more information email: GreenTeam35@sd35.bc.ca.

Campaigns

Creating behavior changing campaigns is also an important method for reducing our energy consumption and becoming more sustainable.

These are some of the regularly run energy campaigns:

• Lights Out When its Bright Out
• Unplug Before You Unwind
• Earth Day Hour

Do you have more ideas for sustainability campaigns? Email: GreenTeam35@sd35.bc.ca

Student Groups

Students can get involved too! Reach out to the Green Team or Environment Club at your school and find out how you can contribute towards a more sustainable future.