By Jessica Wind (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 20, 2013
If reducing energy waste seems as simple as choosing to wear a sweater, that’s because it is. On February 7, UFV turned down the heat by two degrees across the campuses as part of National Sweater Day. The initiative was originally coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as a way to conserve energy and reduce waste. Last year, according to their website, 1.5 million Canadians and 300 organizations, including UFV, turned down their heat.
This year the reach is even bigger.
The site featured a reminder option in which participants could sign up to receive phone call reminders from one of 20 different grannies featured on the website, although UFV campuses chose to focus more on the two degrees and sweaters than the elderly reminders.
SUS VP academic Dan van der Kroon worked with facilities and the Department of Science to organize the day. He explained the goal behind the grannies feature, that it wasn’t simply a marketing gimmick.
“I guess they’re trying to create this intergenerational thing where our elders are working with the youth to encourage them to conserve energy,” he said. “I think it was a neat way to do it.”
A photo shoot was organized in Alumni Hall for anyone wearing a sweater to join in. Three times the number of participants last year’s Sweater Day attended, and many more sweaters could be seen all over Abbotsford campus. Staff were creative with their outfits, losing the traditional sweater in favour of brightly patterned Snuggies and Mexican baha hoodies.
According to van der Kroon, the change in temperature wasn’t noticeable to most people on the campuses.
“People are saying ‘we turned down the heat by two degrees and I didn’t notice a difference’,” he explained. “It’s not like there was consternation in the hallways.”
The WWF reported that if every Canadian reduced their heat by two degrees celsius, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by four megatons. While UFV didn’t take note of their savings, van der Kroon explained that the main goal of the day was awareness.
“It created a lot of awareness around the need to conserve energy … sucking it up and dressing a bit warmer sometimes, and not always relying on essentially fossil fuels to heat our environments,” he said.
The building heat has since returned to the seasonal average, but it seems we won’t have to wait till next February to conserve energy.
“I do want to recognize and highlight that UFV has already turned down the heat,” explained van der Kroon. “Facilities has been working towards finding the optimum temperature that balances comfort with responsible energy usage.”
It is steps like these that will help to brand UFV as an environmentally conscious university. Van der Kroon expressed that he would like to see people go further than one day a year with sustainability initiatives.
“Let’s have turn down the heat year, bike to work year,” he said. “Let’s do these things on a regular basis and incorporate them into our daily lifestyles.”
At the end of the day, turning down the heat on campus is positively reflected in the bottom line of UFV’s budget. Van der Kroon explained that the feel-good sentiment is not the only benefit from these initiatives.
“It is all of these things but it is also saving money at its core,” he said, adding that a permanent reduction in heat would save the university hundreds of dollars. “Those are hundreds of dollars that can be allocated in other ways. They can be allocated to more services for students,” he concluded. “There are many ways that that money can be spent in positive ways if it’s not needed to be spent on heating.”
