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Quote/Unquote:

"We are at this moment participating in one of the very greatest leaps of the human spirit."
- Joseph Campbell (1904–1987)

Issue 12      May 2008
( Download PDF - 512kB)

A Publication of Sustainable Solutions for all of BC’s Energy Needs

Life in the Year 2020
By Jane Sterk

Jane Sterk is Leader of the BC Green Party

Our journey towards achieving a more sustainable society by the year 2020 required the effort to overcome ‘business as usual’ inertia and chronically expanding emissions. As strategies were implemented, we discovered off-the-shelf solutions, and change wasn’t as hard as predicted. Early successes unleashed such creativity and ingenuity that more was achieved than expected, and progress has created a sense of excitement and community.

In the year 2020, we are at virtual full employment and our society is creating meaningful jobs that use the talent of our highly-educated and competent workforce. We’ve expanded post-secondary programs in engineering, scientific and ecological disciplines. Our technical programs turn out world class renewable energy grads who work holistically with everyone from urban planners to industry representatives. Reflecting renewed community values and priorities, education in the arts, humanities and social services is popular.

The government used its legislative, regulatory, enforcement, taxation and monetary powers to effect change. Land use and resource management decisions were made from a bio-regional and environmental assessment
perspective. This assessment was science, evidence, ecological restorative and community benefit based. It dramatically changed all resource and extractive industries and brought a renaissance in fisheries and forestry as we eliminated industrial practices and moved to small scale, sustainable management. Mining has decreased as the industry was unable to meet the stringent waste elimination requirements of the environmental assessment process, and re-use drove innovation.

The relationship with and funding of municipalities and regional districts has changed so that most climate change mitigation effort comes through local initiatives. Policies for everything from transportation to health care, forestry
to social services, energy to food production, is localized with the intent of achieving distributed, self-sufficient, ecologically and socially sustainable outcomes.

Importantly, the government stopped its ‘consult industry first’ policy. Perverse subsidies to polluting industries
were phased out and incentives put in place to foster innovation and to assist in the transition toward carbon neutral enterprises. Forward thinking companies saw almost immediate financial benefit from eliminating waste (energy, materials, water, and processes) which is funding more difficult to achieve goals. Large emitters that resisted change have not survived.

On the climate change file, the Legislature is working from a collaborative model. Partisan behavior diminished after we adopted BC STV or Single Transferable Vote. MLAs then found they enjoyed working in fluid coalitions that fostered good policy. The civil service is recognized for its professionalism. Government consults with academics and community leaders to ensure policy meets evidence-based criteria and to provide both innovative thinking and nonpolitical oversight.

The people of the province see 2020 as a stage along the way to a primarily car-free, locally and regionally selfsufficient and sustainable society free from waste. New buildings are energy producers and existing buildings are in transition to becoming carbon neutral. A huge investment in public transportation, including rail, is paying off with locally responsive and affordable transportation systems. We’re healthier because we bike and walk, eat locally produced organic food and have eliminated toxins from our environment. BC is a place of hope.

Cover image of Biomes in
Cornwall, England.
www.edenproject.com

Transport in the Year 2020
By Guy Dauncey

Guy Dauncey is President of the BC Sustainable Energy Association.

False Creek

It is a wet morning for cycling, but I’m well protected, and the Trans Canada Trail from False Creek to Burnaby is safe and easy, so I can dictate this into my ISpeak as I ride. At 72, I’m proud still not to be using the electric drive that has made cycling easy for so many. In summer, most e-bikers charge their bikes from their own solar PV, tapping a tiny current from their rooftop systems.

I’m heading to a big international conference on transport. Globally, we’re expecting a million participants, including 300 locally and 5,000 in regional centres around BC. The revolution in real-time holographic image projection that started in 2007 is amazing - I will soon be seeing global sustainability leaders in full dimensional reality, live from Beijing, Bogota and other world centres.

The Trail is busy, but the thousands of bikes roll along smoothly. Whenever we cross a busy road, flashing lights along the Trail indicate the speed needed to catch the lights on green. We’ve already passed the Metro Vancouver goal of 25% of commute trips being made by bike by 2020, and now we’re aiming for 50% by 2030, a level Copenhagen passed five years ago, en route to its city-wide goal of zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The impact on the roads has been really noticeable. As well as cycling, there has been a massive increase in people commuting by bus, SkyTrain, and long-distance luxury coaches. The goal for these modes - 25% by 2020 - has also been passed, thanks partly to Bus Rapid Transit, with its dedicated lanes, comfortable raised-shelter platforms that make for easy loading, and GPS-based electronic timetables. Whenever we ride the bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus or ski-lift, our TravelSmart cards give free travel to all local residents, prepaid on our city taxes for $250 a year.

The other big factor that is weaning people out of their cars is the cost of driving, especially if you drive alone. It’s not just the gas at $5 a litre, including the carbon tax. It’s also the road-pricing. Following the 2015 Global Transport Treaty, every car now carries a transponder that receives signals from the road, and once a month, you get a bill. The busier the road, the higher the bill, except the low carbon electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that are< exempt.

Because of the cost, ridesharing has become very popular. Most neighbourhoods have local ridesharing webpages, and if by chance there’s no match, TravelSmart Plus includes membership in the carshare club. Since the carshare vehicles are all GPS-linked, it’s easy to see where they are from the club’s web-map.

Overall, there has been a noticeable decline in traffic on the roads, making it easier for Metro Vancouver to create
dedicated bus lanes and generous bike lanes, like the one I’ve been using. I’m nearly there now, so I’d better turn off
my I-Speak, and get ready for this big global event!

Letter from the Lighthouse in 2020
by Helen Goodland

Helen Goodland is Executive Director of the
Lighthouse Sustainable Buildings Centre in Vancouver.

Real estate and construction together comprise about a third of the BC’s GDP. It also emits approximately 30% of the

province’s GHG emissions. It is a massive industry that exists on a project-by-project basis, is practical to the core and functions best by visualization.

To capture a builder’s view of how things will have changed over the next 12 years, we have opted to simply pull on our muddy-boots and take a virtual tour of some examples of building projects in 2020. We’ll be dropping in on a design team working on a mixed use residential commercial building in Surrey. We’ll visit a home renovation construction site, and then we’ll head over to a 20 year old downtown condo as they ponder their energy efficiency initiatives. These project examples were selected because we believe they are representative of the issues and challenges facing the industry, and have the greatest impacts in terms of energy consumption.

First up is the mixed-use project in Surrey. It is worth noting that the city now embraces the benefits of eco-industrial networking principles as a means to better manage resource flows. Surrey has recently abolished conventional zoning in favour of a more flexible policy mechanism that encourages the trade-offs between the cooling-dominated commercial with the heating-dominated residential.

The first thing we notice is that the project team is working with sophisticated building information modeling software. Multi-dimensional images are presented that capture realtime envelope thermal imaging, carbon emissions, interior and exterior air-flows, occupant activity patterns and more. The team is discussing the impact of window orientation on the size of the biomass combined heat and power plant. After almost 10 years of negotiations, the region has finally allowed building-scale wood waste to fuel energy systems. This is largely triggered by the glut of biomass created by the pine beetle fall-down that began back in 2014. Carbon neutrality is a requirement for all new construction, and Surrey, now a chartered municipality, has enacted a glazing ratio by-law. No building can exceed 60% window area as a proportion of the total wall surface.

Next, we swing by a home renovation project in New Westminster to check up on the results of the municipal energy inspector’s report. The homeowner is planning to sell her 100 year old heritage home and needs to get the home to EnerGuide 80 before it is allowed to go on the market. For her, it is a relatively simple upgrade of windows, blowing in additional insulation and then hooking up her original hot water heating system to the neighborhood hot water loop. Amazing that 100 year old technology still works! The energy inspector is reviewing the results of a pressure test on her hot water pipes – everything looks good. A successful inspection means she will be able to access the provincial and utility grants. She is lucky - for those homes still heated by forced air, the retrofits have proven messy and expensive.

Last, we’ll take a peek at the battles facing the property manager of a 30-storey concrete high-rise condominium. The building is 20 years old and some of the metal wall studs have started to rust from condensation. Owners have been having a tough time selling. Vancouver’s residential property market has been struggling since 2010 and the condo market has been particularly badly hit. The city’s air-con ban has resulted in an exodus of investor-owners who have had trouble renting their suites - particularly the south-facing ones.

With the shift in demographics, there are fewer renters in downtown Vancouver – the savvy ones are looking for protection against spiraling energy bills. Families, meanwhile, have fled up the Fraser Valley to more affordable housing. Strata councils are faced with the tough decision to completely re-skin their building, the idea being to reduce the proportion of glass from 80% to 60%, insulate the solid wall areas including slab edges and install opening windows. The electric baseboards will be taken out and a new central hydronic system will be installed with capillary tubes adhered to the concrete walls.

OK, so the folks at Light House had fun making this up. Clearly 2020 is a time for change. Even now, new services and new economic imperatives are shaping our region – not always for the better. At Light House we watch these trends closely and report on them regularly though our Market Insights series. We can be found on the web at www. sustainablebuildingcentre.com.

Green Education in 2020
by Rick Kool

Rick Kool is Program Head for the Master of Arts program
in environmental education and communication
at Royal Roads University.

I was talking with my granddad the other night about just how different school is today from when he was a student. One thing was clear... his high school, which sits at the end of a sand-spit in the Atlantic Ocean, is likely to become a future ‘hazard to navigation’ as the slow rise of sea level progresses. Nowadays, we’re so much more aware of the impacts of the past 200 years of fossil fuel use that everything has changed, including even how my school works.

The big change, I guess, is that I only go to school on occasion. That’s not to say that I’m not learning things or being able to hang out with my friends, but the days of thousands of kids using lots of fossil fuels to move long distances to large buildings are in the past. We’ve moved more into our community now, with many more of our classes taking place in our neighborhood. Our teachers live close by and can usually cycle in to join us for seminars and discussions or regular teaching. For subjects that can’t be found in the ‘hood, like physical education or orchestra, we use public transport to get to school… if we can’t use our bikes. Of course, there are zillions of bikes everywhere, much like they have had in places like Amsterdam for a long time already, as kids really understand our obligation to cut back on carbon emissions. Sure, there are still some browns out there, but most kids are green and proud of being able to do their part to let the Earth system heal itself.

We want to be part of the healing, most of us, and so part of our school work is helping this out! A big part of the school grounds, which used to be grass that had to be mowed using a gas-guzzling mower, are now food gardens. There can’t be anything better than going to school and taking care of a garden that you know will feed you someday (soon!). Learning to grow your food and care for the soil that provides it is an important lesson that starts when you’re young, and I, at least, hope that I never stop learning about this. The woodlot is small still, but in a hundred years we’ll have a young forest that should attract all manner of critters. We’ve also turned part of the school roof into a greenhouse where we grow stuff to eat and carry out experiments for our biology classes. The physics nerds get to play on the roof too, with their photovoltaic experiments and the solar hot water heaters that they seem to be endlessly tinkering with (no, the physics nerds do not play with nuclear energy devices!).

We do a lot of environmental monitoring in the community, keeping projects that began in the 1990s going through the ongoing collection of data. But we know that simply collecting data and watching things get worse and worse is like doing a math lesson on the deck of the Titanic, measuring the change of slope as the ship goes down. Interesting math perhaps, but there are more important things to do. In our case, we’ve got to be engaged in helping things right themselves!

We don’t have the opportunity for as much long-distance school travel, like trips to Russia or France, but using the slowly expanding train systems and again taking our bikes with us, we can explore a lot more of our home! How many kids in the year 2000 would have ever peddled from Victoria to Port Hardy learning about the Island we live on? Now, nearly everyone will do this before they finish high school… and many kids take on cycling as a lifetime hobby and means of getting from place A to place B.

We’ve got a lot of work to do… or maybe, we’ve got a lot of work to undo! Learning in schools had better be part of the solution to the problems created over the past centuries if my kids are going to be able to enjoy the wonders of this province and the world around us.

British Columbia Vision 2020
By Britt Karlstrom

Britt Karlstrom has just completed an Entrepreneurial degree from Royal Roads University,
and is currently developing the BCSEA’s “Green Landlords” project.
She lives in Oak Bay with her husband and son,
and is an active member of the Oak Bay Green Committee.

In 2020, British Columbia is transforming from a society dependent on non-renewable energy towards the goal of being a

sustainable post-carbon society, driven by passion, science and technology. Economists allude to the possibility of the oil and gas industry becoming a ‘secondary player’ in the energy industry – helping to move technology forward, and supply manufacturers with the necessary fuel to meet the world’s growing demand for green energy products. A new kind of community has emerged along BC’s landscape: transportation, housing, technology, energy, are all going through a period of change. Technologically complex, yet fundamentally simpler systems, have grown sustainable communities along BC’s coastlines, throughout northern villages and into the hearts of urban centers.

Transportation has become one of the most significant forces shaping sustainable communities. The ambitious transit plan rolled out in 2008 that set provincial, regional, and municipal initiatives for Transportation Demand Management strategies was a significant contributor to reducing emissions

by 4.7 million tonnes by 2020. Energy requirements have been reduced through transport initiatives that assist people to live, work and play through an interconnected web of technologically advanced ‘complete communities’. In 2020 rapid transit takes us through dense urban corridors, wireless technology connects us to regional ride-sharing schemes that offer safe, convenient, and efficient transport, and luxurious hybrid electric coaches provide transport service to universities, airports, hospitals, tourist routes, and high-use roadways.

With the introduction of green transit, sustainable urban form has followed. A new kind of community is being built. British Columbians are moving beyond home energy efficiency as fully sustainable homes constructed to be a net source of energy have become the latest trend in housing. Green building in 2020 BC has gone beyond its growth phase and owns a majority market share. The province’s emission reductions goal of 33% has been met through municipal and provincial legislation requiring all new construction to meet LEED certification standards. National programs provide financial incentives for home owners and landlords to upgrade energy-inefficient buildings.

BC’s transformation to a renewable energy economy has been a powerful catalyst for change. Business headlines
reflect the massive transfer of wealth caused by investment in green technology research, and restructuring of the world’s energy systems. BC is booming with renewed economic spirit thanks to its strong investment in green power projects such as tidal, wind, micro-hydro, and solar. The province’s hydro projects have become a leading example of sustainable resource management by following strong environmental legislation aimed at protecting ecosystems and by integrating the local interests of First Nations communities.

In 2020 there is a new sentiment in the air. What was once uncertainty, fear and caution, has transformed into rational exuberance (In Chris Turner’s book Geography of Hope, rational exuberance is used to describe the Internet revolution and the ensuing technological hype that has propelled us into an information society. Turner comments that we must create this same rational exuberance to move renewable energy technology forward), and total excitement with the knowledge that society can not only move beyond an oil and gas dependent world, but can reach a new level of human potential that benefits from and embraces all the best that technology has to offer. The imagination and dreams of British Columbians have encouraged a new kind of community, and all across the province these new communities are thriving.

In 2020 British Columbians are learning to respect the limitations of the natural world and the delicate nature of the planet’s ecosystems. A new business paradigm has been created that understands how we can have and maintain a vibrant, healthy economy, full of innovation and ingenuity, and do so while respecting the Earth’s limited resources.

Agriculture in the Year 2020
(Super Delicious BC)
by Patti Bauer

Patti Bauer is a Permaculture designer, educator and farmer.
She is a member of the Earth Festival Society and helps to coordinate the Salt Spring Energy Strategy.
She co-owns The Blue Raven Permaculture Farm with her husband and son on Salt Spring Island.

The fig cutting we renegade-planted behind the local gas station in 2008 is bursting with fruit. Over the years we snuck in during closing hours and filled our bellies. Everyone with the desire to climb had the same idea, so the EV solar charger station owner put a sign up – “Leave a fruit, take a cutting, I’m making jam.”

This seems to be the norm now – everyone is growing their own food. Over the years the schools have adopted gardening programs as part of their curriculum, and the community workshops on growing food and landscaping sustainably have been the tool we needed to return to the real basics of life. Permaculture has been wholly embraced, providing our community with plants serving the functions of food, fiber, timber and medicine.

The ornamental trees lining city streets have been grafted to food-producing varieties, fruit and nut trees abound in our parks, and medicine grows on every street corner. The only ‘grass’ we see is a carpet of yarrow, clover, St. John’s Wort and a plethora of wild flowers. Even soccer field turf is made of medicinal ground covers. Children’s playgrounds at schools and in neighborhoods are loaded with grape pagodas, strawberry patches, corn mazes and teepee forts, trellis beans and kiwis. The water for irrigation needs to be pumped by kids on their seesaws. Every window and rooftop is naturally colored with plants serving more than one function – be it food, fiber, medicine, insectiary or beauty.

Urban Garden

With such a local abundance, we no longer have grocery shelves filled with boxes, cans, and strange chemicals.Our community is integrated, and suburbia has ‘regrown’ itself into a permaculture paradise. The cold shelves are now community cold storage units for all the fruit, nuts and winter veggies we grow. The freezers look like a child’s painting as they are packed with local raspberries, loganberries, blueberries and every other colorful berry you could imagine, stored for winter use. Shelves are filled with local jams, honey, nut butters, jars of veggies, meats (we have a local abattoir), juices, you name it, all grown locally by farmers adding value to their products. Lotions and potions made with local organic ingredients radiate the vibrancy of life.

On the rare occasion that an exotic food hits the shelves, it is labeled with the amount of greenhouse gases it took to get there, and rather than have an ‘organic’ sticker, it lists each chemical used in producing it. Thankfully, now that we understand the impact on our planet of consuming food and products grown conventionally and in far away lands, there isn’t much demand. It rots away like in the olden days when organic food was considered ‘old and shriveled.’

Farmers have abandoned monoculture for increased biodiversity. Varieties of fruits, vegetables, nuts and medicine are grown for all and extend throughoutthe season. Urbanites, restaurants, hospitals, and local institutions are now supplied by some of the bigger farms. Together they have coordinated their growing season with demand. The smaller farmers find their local markets at the community food stores, the park on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and farm stands. Most of us now, however, are growing our own food, and we trade yummy varieties with our neighbors. Our community is integrated, and suburbia has ‘regrown’ itself into a permaculture paradise.

Public transit vehicles are running off methane captured from the local composting facility. Because of the need for local communities to utilize their waste resources and biomass sustainably, a simple apparatus called a methane digester has been cost-effectively replicated across the globe. At times, heavy metals and other contaminants can be found in this waste, so the soil by-product of the digester is inoculated with fungi that absorb these burdens, and as a result our public spaces have soil amendments, and the grass is always greener.

Our local community composting facility helps our neighbours living in high rises, as well as the lovely restaurants that use local food and products. They are now composting their food waste, and eager food growers are reaping the benefits of the ‘black gold’... local soil that is.

Thankfully our pharmacies no longer smell like toxic fume bombs waiting to kill us. We have returned to a time when local herbs are available at the apothecary to aide in preventative medicine and a healthy long life provided by our local herbalists. What true wisdom we have!

Fields of grains such as barley and oats, fruit, nut and timber trees galore planted in guilds, veritable food forests, pigs and chickens and sheep, ducks and cows abound. We are wealthy beyond our wildest dreams. And to think, after 100 years, the bounty once again, sustains us all.

Urban Garden

Millijoules
by Guy Dauncey, BCSEA President

Call for a Moratorium on Coal Reverberate Competition Grand Prize Winner

U.S. Activists Put Coal in Gaol

The global coal industry thinks it has the answer to the world’s energy crisis. They’d best think again,however, now that the power of the climate activism has turned its attention to the world’s dirtiest industry. In 2006, US power utilities had 150 coalfired power plants in the pipeline – but in 2007, 45 of them were canceled or put on hold. Wall Street investment bankers have said they will start evaluating the climate risk that coal poses from future carbon taxes and/or cap and trade requirements. If the money dries up, the plants can’t be built. The US Federal government has also suspended its loan program for coal-fired power plants in rural areas (worth $1.3 billion since 2001), and in a non-related move has withdrawn from the planned FutureGen Clean Coal project that was supposed to demonstrate how carbon capture and storage could happen, citing high costs.

This is just the beginning, however. China built 100 GW of new coal-fired power plants in 2006, and the US still has 100 plants in the pipeline. One of the champions in the fight against coal is Architecture2030, which argues that if we plan to make all new and renovated buildings carbon neutral by 2030, we won’t need the power. See www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/stop_coal.php.

Canadian Company Stores Wind in Vanadium

Germany had 22,000 MW of installed wind power in 2006, generating 8% of its electricity, but it doesn’t need to store the power since the European grid can absorb every kWh it delivers.

Not so for Ireland, which has 1,000 MW of wind power and is planning to have 4,300 MW by 2020. It needs a way to store the energy for winter nights when the wind is blowing a storm but everyone is asleep.

Enter the Richmond company, VRB Systems, which is providing a 2 MW flow battery to a 32 MW wind park in Sorne Hill, Donegal, in the far north of Ireland (immediately west of Northern Ireland). The battery, developed in Australia in the 1980s, “generates a current by putting large amounts of positively charged electrolytes in a vanadium sulphate solution in motion between positive and negatively charged electrolytes.” The battery can be deep-cycled 14,000 times, and can make energy from wind 95% constant. See www.vrbpower.com. (Thanks to www.renewableenergyworld.com, a great source of current info.)

PS. In mid-March, the winter storms that blew across Europe increased so much extra power that they drove down the spot price of power by 12%.

German Law Puts Green Heat in Homes

It’s called the Erneuerbare-energienwarmegesetz – the Renewable Energies Warm Act – and starting on January 1st 2009, all new homes in Germany will be required to use renewable energy to meet 14% of their total needs for heat and hot water. And that’s not all: all remodeled houses will have to meet the same standard, and by 2010, all existing houses must get 10% of their heat from renewables. To help with the cost, the German government is allocating $517 million per year in grants for homeowners to buy solar hot water systems, wood pellet stoves, and heat pumps (the equivalent of $27 million a year in BC).

In the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, all new homeowners must get 20% of their heat from renewables starting April 1st 2008. And watch out if you don’t comply – you could be hit with a fine as high as $740,000. At the same time, the German government is launching a program to help homeowners improve their insulation, and is bringing in an energy-rating system for all new homes. (Thanks again to www.renewableenergyworld.com.)

Illinois Tests Plug- In Hybrid EV Impact on the Grid

If all our vehicles were Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), how much extra power would they consume? The Argonne National Laboratory asked this hypothetical question for the grid in Illinois, where night-time power is cheaper than day-time, assuming in Scenario A that 12.5% of the lightduty vehicles were PHEVs and they all charged up at night, and in Scenario B that 25% were PHEVs which charged both night and day. Overall, if 100% of the light-duty vehicles were PHEVs, it would cause a 38.4% increase in power demand. The impact on price was hardly noticeable in Scenario A, but in Scenario B the day-night price differential was leveled, and there were higher prices at particular times of the year.

In Illinois, because most of the additional load would be met by coalfired power, the use of PHEVs would increase CO2 emissions from coal. Other studies have shown that PHEVs cause a net CO2 reduction, since they burn that much less oil.

Marine Turbine

British Company Scores Tidal Goal

In 2003, the British company Marine Current Turbines installed a small experimental tidal flow turbine off the north coast of Devon, England. It operated for three years through big winter storms without any significant technical failures, and proved the feasibility of the technology. In March 2008 the next generation turbine, called SeaGen, four times larger, with a capacity of 1.2 MW, was installed in the waters of Strangford Lough, in Northern Ireland, where the current can exceed 7 knots. If all goes well, the company will move onto its next project, a tidal farm of 7 SeaGen turbines rated at 10.5 MW, off the coast of Anglesey, in North Wales, which it hopes to start operating in the year 2012.

Professor Stephen Salter, from Edinburgh University, who has been working in the field for 30 years, estimates that the Pentland Firth, between the Orkney Islands and the north Scottish mainland, could generate up to a quarter of Britain’s electricity, with 2.5 million cubic metres of water passing at up to 12 knots every second. See www.marineturbines.com. (Thanks to the Independent.)

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