Innovation Anthology #572:
The University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George bills itself as “Canada’s Green University”.
The campus operates on 90 percent biomass from local sawmill waste.
And according to Vice President Rob Van Adrichem, UNBC has started a major off-grid bioenergy project.
ROB VAN ADRICHEM: Our idea is to create between the residences and the day care, our bioenergy plant and a forestry greenhouse, a little network, a little piping system that can show communities how they can do this. So they can use a local energy source that they can then distribute to housing in their community. And ultimately then our plan is to use this energy system to be the backbone for adding potentially year round food production here as well. Because we’ve been hearing a lot from communities that its one thing about energy security. But it’s another thing entirely when they can add food security to the mix as well. Because the same issues that affect their ability to produce energy when they are off grid also reflects in the requirement to import food. So they feel very vulnerable to a single road sometimes that can be very precarious at certain times of the year.
You can listen to the full interview with Rob Van Adrichem at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Program Date: 2013-07-30