The Campus Resident February 2011

Published monthly by the University Neighbourhoods Association

Volume 2, Issue 2 FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Popular Mountie Makes Retirement Move

Kevin Kenna, the popular Mountie who commanded the University detachment of the RCMP on Wesbrook Mall, has re-tired. Staff-Sergeant Kenna spent 38 years with the federal force—the last five at UBC where his firm but friendly manner won him wide appeal. The UBC and University Endowment Lands (UEL) communities turned out in strength to laud the veteran Mountie at a farewell lunch on campus recently. Acco-lades abounded. A son of the Maritimes with lilting ac-cent to prove it, Staff-Sergeant Kenna dealt efficiently and courteously with those he sought to protect at UBC and the

Residents Receive UNA Support In Quest to

Revise Hospice LocationIn UNA motion, UBC is urged to choose site other

than next door to Promontory

MOTION continued on Page 7

President Predicts Hospice Site Debate Likely at April Meet

University is “seeking to understand cultural sensitivities” of would-be neighbours of hospice; only “genuine”

sensitivities will be respected

The much-anticipated discussion by the UBC board of governors about the site of a proposed hospice on campus seems set for early April. UBC president Ste-phen Toope predicted at a recent meeting.The board had expected to discuss the hospice project in February, but the University deferred discussion follow-ing objections to the siting of the pro-posed hospice next door to the Prom-ontory condo building by as many as 200 mostly-Asian residents of campus. Professor Toope told a committee meet-ing of governors on February 1st that UBC considered the current deferment

of formal discussion about the project to be only “a pause, one in which we make sure we understand the cultural sensitivi-ties of residents.” Prof Toope said, how-ever, that in this learning process, UBC will seek to understand only “those (cul-tural sensitivities) which are genuine.” The UBC president dispelled any no-tion that UBC was cancelling its inter-est in building a hospice on campus land due to heated opposition by the residents about the proposed location next door to the Promontory in Hawthorn Place.

UEL. The detachment under his leader-ship takes considerable credit for the low crime rate in the area. Family members attending the farewell lunch included wife Maureen English, daughter, son-in-law and grandchild. An RCMP member dressed in full Red Serge uniform piped him into the dining room. Later, to much applause, St.-Sgt. Kenna and the piper toasted each other with shots of whiskey. St.-Sgt. Kenna arrived at UBC after nu-merous postings back East, not the least of them years spent in the RCMP intel-ligence section in Ottawa. (Please see photo presentation of the farewell lunch on Page 5). PRESIDENT continued on Page 7

Kevin Kenna, veteran of federal force was in command of University detachment for five years

UBC China Partnership Pledges ‘Green’ Demo Centre In Condo Complex

The strategic partnership which has emerged recently between UBC and

one of the largest property developers in China looks forward to building a mixed-use residential complex on cam-pus so devoted to new, green technology it will include a sustainability research and development demonstration centre.The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) at UBC, and

Modern Green Technology Co. Ltd., of China, the partners in this development planned for the Wesbrook Place residen-tial neighbourhood in South Campus, ex-pect construction to begin this summer. A spokesperson in the UBC campus and community planning department said the project is “currently in the design stage.”

CIRS and Modern Green announced the Wesbrook Place residential develop-ment February 4th as part of a “strategic partnership” to advance green build-ing research and development at UBC, thanks to an initial contribution of $3.5 million from the Beijing-based company.

Staff-Sergeant Kevin Kenna enters dining room on recent occasion of farewell din-ner in his honor at UBC. St.-Sgt. Kenna retires after 38 years on force—last five commanding University detachment on Wesbrook Mall. RCMP piper in full red Serge uniform walks ahead of him.

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PARTNERSHIP continued on Page 11

Condos will be built in Wesbrook Place; one of the largest property developers

in China is involved

The mostly-Asian residents of the Prom-ontory condo building who want UBC to relocate the site of a proposed hospice on campus have received the support of the University Neighbourhoods Association.Meeting on February 8th, the UNA board of directors passed the follow-ing motion, “That the UNA Board of Directors, after studying the UNA’s ESL Committee Report on the Promon-tory and the Order of St. John’s Hos-pice, February 2011, urges UBC to re-consider the choice of the Promontory site and consider selecting another site.”

In Chinese, this motion reads, UNA董事会毫无保留地支持社区临终医院，并认识到这是一个学术项目；UNA董事会，在听取了UNA的ESL委员会在 2011年 2月提交的关于Promontory和圣约翰临终医院的报告后，敦促UBC重新考虑位于Prom-ontory的选址并考虑选择其他地址 . The UNA board also approved a sec-ond motion at its meeting. This mo-tion reads, “That the UNA Board of Directors unreservedly supports community hospices and recogniz-es that this is an academic project.”

THE CAMPUS RESIDENT FEBRUARY 22, 2011page 2

Student Says ‘Thank You’ to UNA For

Talent Show Support$10,000 from UNA was used to jump-start recent UBC’s Got Talent production; UBC United Way Fund

was beneficiary of concert.

The immense gratitude of UBC stu-dents to campus residents for finan-cial support in staging a recent talent show whose proceeds went to charity came across at a meeting in February.Bijan Ahmadian, immediate past-presi-dent of the (student) Alma Mater Society, attended the February 8th board meet-ing of directors of the University Neigh-bourhoods Association (UNA) at the Old Barn Community Centre to thank the UNA for providing the $10,000 funding needed to jump-start production of the re-cent UBC’s Got Talent at the Chan Cen-tre for the Performing Arts on campus. “Thank you,” Mr. Ahmadi-an said. “Thank you again.”Mr. Ahmadian had appeared before the board in October to solicit fi-nancing. UNA funds in hand, he and other AMS executives set about rais-ing further funding and preparing the talent show held January 14th.Preparations included marketing the planned event to both the student and neighbourhood communities on campus. As a result, the AMS received video pre-sentations from 124 contestants perform-ing across the entertainment spectrum. Organized by the AMS, a panel of se-

nior members of the Vancouver enter-tainment industry whittled down the number of contestants eligible to per-form at the concert to 16, and these 16 performers took the stage at the splen-did Chan Centre. More than 1,110 peo-ple attended the sold-out talent show. As well as musical and other acts, those attending the successful tal-ent show viewed a video about the UNA prepared specially for the occa-sion. Both UNA representatives and UBC students appeared in the video. Mr. Ahmadian advised UNA board mem-bers the UBC United Way Fund raised “a record $695,000” this year, with UBC’s Got Talent providing “some of that amount.” He called the UNA funding a good investment. “Now, students under-stand what the UNA is about,” he said. The AMS represents over 44,000 UBC students as well as students at affiliated colleges. The AMS operates student ser-vices, student owned businesses, resource groups, and clubs. In addition to offer-ing services to students, the AMS is an advocate of students’ issues and ensures the needs of students are presented to the University administration and the federal, provincial, and municipal governments.

Bijan Ahmadian, past-president of Alma Mater Society, says students are grateful to residents for talent show funding.

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recycleE-Waste Drop O� Day

what household items can be recycled?

small batteriesmobile phonescomputerscomputer monitorslaptopscomputer accessoriesaudio/video equipment

for a full list, please seewww.encorp.ca/acceptableno commercial equipment please

in the parking lot - 5945 Berton Avenue

BBQ with all proceeds going to the

Children’s Hospital

free re-usable shopping bag

to anyone who brings an item

to recycle (while stocks last)

Saturday 5th March 2011, 11am-3pm

UNA Community

THE CAMPUS RESIDENT FEBRUARY 22, 2011 page 3

Editor & Business Manager

University NeighbourhoodsAssociation

#202-5923 Berton Avenue,Vancouver, BC V6S OB3

Published by:

John Tompkins604.827.3502

[email protected]

Published monthly by the University Neighbourhoods Association

Letter to the Editor

Residents Request Same Fair Treatment

as UBC StudentsHospice issue can be easily resolved; correct choice

of location is possible

The challenging question has arisen, should UBC abandon the Promontory site for loca-tion of its proposed 15-bed hospice because of concerns by residents of the Promontory? We believe it should. A little over a year ago, UBC abandoned the idea of a site for the proposed hos-pice on Southwest Marine Drive because of concerns by student-residents of near-by St. John’s College and Vanier Place. The UBC board of governors should ac-cord the same measure of sensitivity to the concerns of Promontory residents as they did to student-residents regard-ing the Southwest Marine Drive site. The UBC students expressed concern the location of a hospice on Marine Drive would constrain student life in that part of campus. The Promontory residents have expressed concern the location of a hospice next door to them would con-strain family life in their part of campus. A simple solution offers itself to this problem. The UBC board of governors should consider it, and get away from the headache and heartache of trying to decide whether Chinese cultural reserva-tions about having a hospice next door to them are inconsistent with—or not con-sistent with—UBC ideals and values. Before the painstaking process of identi-fying options for where the UBC hospice might be located began two or three years ago, the Order of St. John charity—which offers to fund construction of the $4.2 mil-lion facility—expressed its preference for a site adjacent to the parking lot in the UBC Botanical Garden. We understand only one party expressed concern with this choice of location, and this compelled UBC to go searching for alternative sites. Ultimately UBC identified eight pos-sible sites for the hospice. When none of them met the standard required of a first-class hospice site, it turned to the va-cant patch of land on Stadium Road be-side the Promontory at 2688 West Mall. In fact, this site does not meet the standard either for it lies directly across the Stadium Road from the entrance to Thunderbird Sta-dium, hardly the ideal neighbourhood for a hospice. The concerns of mostly Chinese and Korean residents of the Promontory—who say they cannot live with the idea of a hospice next door to them for reasons hav-ing to do with their culture and belief sys-tem—make the site only doubly unsuitable. To solve the dilemma of where to put the hospice, UBC should reconsider the

Botanical Garden site. No doubt some red tape would need to be cut to take a small parcel of ‘green space’ in this tranquil garden setting and convert it into ‘green academic’ (research) space. No doubt also, someone would express concerns about choice of the UBC Bo-tanical garden for the hospice site. But given the concerns of students about the Southwest Marine Drive site and given the concerns of residents about the Prom-ontory site, we think the UBC board could exercise its authority prudently to get this parcel of land properly designated for lo-cation of the Order of St. John Hospice.

Regarding the discussion over the site of the proposed hospice at UBC, one resident of the Promontory is quoted as saying, “In China, we build ‘hos-pices’ very far away. It takes you two to

Where should Hospice Go?three hours to get to the place of death.”The point is where is the preferred loca-tion of the proposed hospice in a university setting---in Canada.Angela McWhirterPoint Grey Resident

Water Meters WouldMake UBC Greener

Public is in favour of water conservation; this is good time to bring REAP water guidelines up to date

The pressing need to conserve water at UBC, not just to reduce the cost of purchasing it, but also to protect this precious resource, suggests an amendment is needed to the building code by which homes at UBC are constructed. This code, made at UBC for property developers to follow when building at UBC, bears the name REAP (Residen-tial Environmental Assessment Program). Currently, developers need install nei-ther hot- nor cold-water meters in market-housing at UBC since installation is only an optional REAP requirement of gain-ing a permit to build there. UBC should consider making both types of water me-ters mandatory for new construction. Developers have built over 3,000 homes at UBC since the first home was built in Hampton Place in 1995-6. In the 15 years since that historic first development, the great wave of sustainability has washed over campus, and UBC views on conserv-ing water have taken an oceanic leap. The time has come for REAP to catch up. The next 3,000 homes to be developed on campus should come with REAP-man-dated water meters—both hot and cold.The presence of a water meter in the home motivates its residents to conserve water. When we see how much we are using,

we tend to use less—that is human nature.Conversely, if suites at UBC are not indi-vidually metered, then campus residents will not have a clear idea of how much hot or cold water they are using. If the popular ‘Green’ movement means anything, it means that people are ready—through the use of meters—to better understand their use of water and consider ways of using less of it. A side benefit also recommends the water-metering of individual suites. Currently, strata corporations buy wa-ter in bulk from UBC and then deliv-er it ‘retail’ to individual residences in their buildings, save that, without being able to read meters in individual suites, they don’t rightly know what to charge. So, they charge according to the size of a suite. This leads to massive unfairness.An older citizen living alone in a larger suite will have larger payments for water via his—or her—maintenance fees than a bois-terous family of four living in a smaller suite. This leads to resentment among neighbours. UBC has started to draft an Water Action Plan to better manage this precious resource of water. What better way to get REAP guide-lines updated than by including in this plan the expressed need for mandatory metering of new homes at UBC instead of optional.

Phone: 604.341.7575 (Wed, Thurs, Fri)

E-mail: [email protected] Old Barn Community

Centre - 6308 Thunderbird Blvd.

Have you considered offering child care in your home? Are you already looking after children other than your own in your home?

The VCCRR Caregiver Outreach Coordinator can

help you set up a registered Licensed Not Required family

child care in your home. An Outreach Coordinator is

now at UBC to help you get started.

For more information contact Shawn Nygren

Vancouver Child Care Resource and Referral (VCCRR)


Sarah Morgan-Silvester Reappointed Chancellor of UBC

Chancellor is ceremonial head of University; terms are for three yearsSarah Morgan-Silvester has been reappointed for a second three-year term as Chancellor of the University of British Columbia.Ms. Morgan-Silvester was first appointed in April 2008; her next term will begin July 1, 2011 and end June 30, 2014. The Chancellor is the ceremonial head of the university. Ms. Morgan-Silvester will confer all degrees and will continue to serve on both the Senate, responsible for the university’s academic governance, and the Board of Governors, respon-sible for managing the property, revenue and business affairs of the university.“Ms. Morgan-Silvester has been an outstanding leader and ambassador for UBC over the past three years,” said UBC President Stephen Toope. “I look forward to working with her during the next three years as the university con-tinues to create an exceptional learning

environment and support outstanding research to serve the people of Brit-ish Columbia, Canada and the world.” As required by the University Act, the university Chancellor is recommended by the UBC Alumni Association and members of the university’s Council of Senates. The UBC Board of Gover-nors must approve the recommendation. “Throughout her first term as Chan-cellor, Ms. Morgan-Silvester has been committed to UBC and has brought fresh perspectives and ideas to the uni-versity,” said Alumni Association Chair Miranda Lam, who also chaired the com-mittee to consider Morgan-Silvester’s reappointment. “There was overwhelm-ing support for her reappointment.” “Ms. Morgan-Silvester’s reappointment is recognition by the UBC community of the excellent job she has done in repre-senting the university,” said Bill Levine,

Chair of the UBC Board of Governors. Ms. Morgan-Silvester graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1982. She has had extensive experience in the financial services and transporta-tion sectors. She is a leading commu-nity volunteer with a background in education, health, environmental and economic organizations. She is current-ly chair of Port Metro Vancouver and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre Foundation, and a director of a number of other corporate and not-for-profit boards. The Chancellor has been recognized for her contributions to society with a number of awards including the As-sociation of Women in Finance Life-time Achievement Award, Influen-tial Women in Business Award, and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award.

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UBC Chancellor Sarah Morgan-Silvester stays on for three more years

Tanker Ban Motion

Moves Up Agenda

Bill to ban oil tankers on northern B.C. coast is set to be debated in March in House of Commons; Liberal

MP for Quadra Joyce Murray is proponent

Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP Joyce Murray has announced that C-606, her private Members’ bill to ban oil tanker traffic off B.C.’s north coast, has been of-ficially approved for debate next month. “We are now one step closer to a legis-lated oil tanker ban on B.C.’s north coast – the only way to protect our oceans and communities from a catastrophic oil spill,” stated Ms. Murray. “If disas-ter were to strike in our northern coastal waters, B.C. – and Canada as a whole – would never be the same.” Bill C-606 legislates a crude oil tank-er ban in the dangerous inland waters around Haida Gwaii known as Dixon En-trance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The bill would not affect current deliveries of diesel and other oil products to local communities. “We’ve witnessed the Gulf of Mexico and Exxon-Valdez oil spills. It’s just not worth the risk,” stated Ms. Murray. “In perfect conditions, industry considers 15 percent recovery of oil a success.” Bill C-606 is expected to be debated toward the end of March. In the time leading up to its debate, Ms. Murray will be meeting with local communities and stakeholders in B.C. to gain further sup-port for the protection of B.C.’s north coast. A 2010 Mustel poll finding indi-cated that eight of ten British Columbi-ans support a tanker ban on B.C.’s north coast. “I am reaching out to all Parties to sup-port Bill C-606 and I urge all Members to support protecting our oceans and our communities,” added Ms. Murray.


UNA CHAIR SHARON WU AND KEVIN KENNA. RCMP works closely with the UNA to ensure residents get best police protection.

RCMP TOAST Celebratory shots of whiskey.

RED SERGE Piper in ceremonial uniform and Kevin Kenna—followed by wife Maureen English—enter UBC dining room.

Day to Remember for Staff-Sergeant KennaPhotos by Don Erhardt


A Particular Problem at the PromontoryThe following excerpt from ‘Report by

ESL Committee on Promontory and Order of St. John Hospice’ is in reference to problems experienced by many Asian residents of the Promontory condo build-ing faced with the proposed development

of a hospice next door to them; author of report is Jim Taylor

It is not unusual amongst recent Chi-nese and Korean immigrants, for one parent, almost always the father, to settle the family (the wife and child or children) in their home in Canada and return to his country of origin. He re-turns to work as he has to earn income sufficient to support the family and the purchased property. Work prospects in Canada for these “returnees” are a chal-lenge. Their professional or business credentials are not readily accepted in Canada. Their facility with the English language is poor. The husbands return to Canada as they can to visit with the family. This arrangement, driven by eco-nomic necessity, may last for some time. The result is that a family comprised of a mother, living alone with her chil-dren, is at present the family structure for at least forty one of the families in the Promontory—almost one half of the families! This number may be larger than elsewhere because the Promontory, alone among all our present UNA resi-dential developments, has a full time se-curity guard which may be a large factor for such families in choosing a residence. Taylor interviewed over 30 of these mothers in the Promontory one on one. The children are enrolled in school. In this way they meet other children and make friends all in the struc-tured context of the school program. It is often not so easy for the mother. Some, too few, meet the challenge of learning English and engaging other ac-tivities so she can begin to integrate into her new community. Many are over-whelmed by their situation. They are alone, in a strange new world, solely re-sponsible for the care of the child or chil-dren. They do not speak the language. They find making their new life a chal-lenge and, not infrequently, depressing. As a result of interviewing them they report that the prospect of the hospice has had these impacts:1. Significant depression, many fear dy-ing on a regular basis (and related feel-ings) and are recently on medication;2. Interruption of sleep and the inability to sleep save with sleeping pills since the recent news of the introduction of the hospice; (one child who had been sleeping on her own for 2 years has re-commenced sleeping with her mother:3. A large number of children now re-fuse to go out at night, or walk to school (whereas they used to) or to walk any-where near the proposed site. Many of the children are now regularly talking to their mothers about their fear of death; and4. Two children refuse to permit there to be any open windows (the practice in the families was to have windows open).

One particularly troubling case is a fam-ily, the mother and daughter reside here the father (husband) is in Mainland Chi-na), who had been living in King Edward Place in Vancouver. The daughter devel-oped a very serious illness and the mother also became ill. The mother hired a Feng Shui master to advise. He advised that their illness was caused by where they were living and that they should move. The mother immediately listed their res-idence. It has not yet sold but she imme-diately located a new home and moved out. The mother knew some people at UBC and two who lived in the Promon-tory who all told her what a quiet, beau-tiful community it was in which to live. Less than a month ago, she bought a suite at the Promontory. Within a few days she first heard of the hospice. This person, because of her deep belief in Chinese cul-tural traditions (and the use of a Feng Shui master) had already dislocated her home to this presumed better place. Because of her beliefs, she is now facing a situa-tion where she will have to move again. Thus the comment of a recent Chinese immigrant ESL student (not connected to the Promontory) that “for Chinese children, Canada is a paradise. For the mother, it is often a beautiful prison.” Jim Taylor is writer of Report by ESL Committee on the Promontory

and Order of St. John Hospice.

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UNITED STANCE These residents of the Promontory and other buildings in Hawthorn Place attended the Open House presented by UBC campus and community planning department to showcase plans for 15-bed hospice to be funded by Order of St. John charitable organization in January. They support the idea of a hospice at UBC but not at the site next door to them.


A Particular Problem at the Promontory

Following the meeting, Jan Fialkowski, UNA executive director, said she will noti-fy the campus and community department at UBC of the motions in a letter. Mean-while, Stephen Toope, UBC president, says he expects the UBC board of gov-ernors to discuss location of the hospice at its next meeting in early April. (Please see Page 1 story ‘President Predicts...’) The ESL committee, whose report the UNA board studied, consists of Don Cho, Florence Luo, Stephanie Nesbitt, Jim Taylor (chair) and Katherine Xu. Mr. Taylor, a Hampton Place resident and se-nior Vancouver lawyer, wrote the report. The 25-page report, containing informa-tion provided by both UBC and the most-ly Asian residents of the Promontory, lists eight sites that UBC has considered as options for location of the proposed 15-bed Order of St. John Hospice, including one at Southwest Marine Drive and Uni-versity Boulevard adjacent to St. John’s

PRESIDENT continued from page 1

College (not to be confused with Order of St. John). In the fall of 2009, the Uni-versity first short-listed this Southwest Marine site and then abandoned it follow-ing—in the words of a senior UBC plan-ner—“concerns from Pacific Spirit Park/Wreck Beach groups and student con-cerns about constraints on campus life.” After abandoning the idea of this South-west Marine site for the hospice, UBC turned to the vacant patch of land beside the Promontory, a condo building of 94 suites largely occupied by new immi-grants from China and Korea. Now, ex-pressions of concern about this choice of site have arisen among these Prom-ontory residents who say this choice of site beside their homes clashes with their beliefs about death and dying. In the ESL committee report, Mr. Tay-lor writes, “If the UBC board of gover-nors, thus fully informed, particularly given the experience with the St. John’s

MOTION continued from Page 1

“We are just delaying discussion by a short time, probably it will come before the next board meeting.”According to the president, the con-troversy over whether UBC had paid enough—or should have paid more—at-tention to how residents of the Promon-tory and other condo and townhouse complexes in Hawthorn Place feel about the proposed Promontory location for the hospice “seems to have died down.”He said comments supportive of the

UNITED STANCE These residents of the Promontory and other buildings in Hawthorn Place attended the Open House presented by UBC campus and community planning department to showcase plans for 15-bed hospice to be funded by Order of St. John charitable organization in January. They support the idea of a hospice at UBC but not at the site next door to them.

THE PROMONTORY The condo building of 94 suites at 2688 West Mall has become focus of intense debate about where to put St. John Hospice. Mostly new immigrants to Canada from China and Korea live in the building. On cultural grounds, they oppose location next door to them.

UBC proposal to go ahead with the hospice next to the Promontory by some prominent members of the Chi-nese community in Vancouver may have had something to do with this.Prof. Toope also said UBC was gratified with supportive edito-rial commentary in both the Van-couver Sun and the Globe and Mail. “UBC is in a relative-ly comfortable place,” he said.

UNA Acts to Bring

Groups of Neighbours

Closer Together

ESL committee is formed; active on many fronts

The new ESL committee of the Univer-sity Neighbourhoods Association began work in late 2010 to ensure the commu-nity of UBC residents does more to ad-dress two issues: • first, what is agreed to be the most im-portant and the most difficult issue—the estrangement or separation of new Ca-nadian neighbours (the large majority being the most recent wave of Chinese immigrants) from the rest of the commu-nity; and • second, ensuring that there are more ESL opportunities for new Canadians. As the committee reports, historically the UNA has offered an impressive num-ber of ESL activities. Many of these are offered for free. These activities include English (ESL) conversation clubs (both beginner and intermediate) where new Canadians learning English have an op-portunity to converse in English; ESL classes (both beginner and intermediate); a newcomers orientation in both Manda-rin and Korean; a Newcomers’ Guide printed in simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and Korean; and a Lunar New Year celebration (which generally at-tracts about 200 participants). Just recently, partly as a result of the work of the ESL committee, the UNA has undertaken a series of new activi-ties. These involve: Mandarin classes for English-speaking Canadians; Newcom-ers’ Lectures (the first lecture was held in January on the topic of the Canadian legal system); an English conversation club for people entirely new to English and ESL (that is, trying to involve new Canadians who have not been participat-ing in any of the ESL programming of-fered by the UNA); Community Centre Program Guide registration guidelines in Chinese and Korean; ESL Resource Sheets on the UNA website; and a New-comers’ Section on the UNA website.

College site (on Southwest Marine), had acceded the same sensitivity to the Promontory residents and their dilemma that it had shown to the St. John’s Col-lege students, would the board of gover-nors have adopted the Promontory site?”


Sustainability Corner

Ralph Wells

In my previous column, I discussed the re-sults of a UBC waste audit that the UNA participated in. Now, in part as a response to that audit, UBC is initiating two major initiatives relevant to UNA residents. Over the coming year, UBC will be de-veloping Waste and Water Action Plans to divert waste and reduce water consump-tion at the Vancouver campus – and the UNA has been invited to participate. So what might this mean for UNA resi-dents? Before examining that question, it’s helpful to understand why is it im-portant for UBC to focus on water and waste at this time. According to Action Plan discussion papers, UBC has institut-ed programs that now result in diversion of more than 2.5 million kilograms (kg) of waste per year from the waste stream (approximately 44%). Much of that was recycled, but also includes nearly 0.5 mil-lion kg of organic waste that was compos-ted locally (more than 10% of which, I’m pleased to say, came from homes in our UNA neighbourhoods). While that diver-sion is laudable, it’s estimated that over 3 million kg of UBC waste still goes to landfill every year. As with waste diversion, UBC has had success with reducing water consump-tion, with total consumption decreasing by 20% between 2000 and 2007, in spite of an increase in floor space and popula-tion. However, UBC still consumes more than 4 billion litres of water annually from our regional water system, with the UNA neighbourhoods responsible for approxi-mately 10% of that total. Water is also expensive – UBC currently pays approxi-mately $2.5 million per year for water consumption. So, in spite of good progress, it’s clear there is still significant opportunity to di-vert waste and reduce water usage at the UBC campus. The waste audit results suggest that for UBC and the UNA, more than 80% of the remaining waste is poten-tially divertible to recycling or compost. Further, nearly all of the water used on campus is potable (safe for human con-sumption), but much of it is used for non-consumptive purposes such as landscape irrigation, equipment cooling and toilet use. The ultimate goal of the Waste and Water Action Plan process is to identify ways to turn these opportunities into reality. The process includes a public visioning and

priority setting phase (including a com-munity Open House) and a planning phase with UNA participation. The final reports are expected to be complete by fall 2011. For UNA residents, this could mean more opportunities for participation in compost-ing and e-waste programs, and for ways to divert rainwater for landscape irrigation, to name a few examples. Regardless of specific outcomes, success will ultimately require residents to consider their partici-pation in recycling, composting and water conservation at home – so UNA participa-tion in the Action Plans will need to focus on ways to support you in making those choices.

To find out more, you can visit the UBC Campus Sustainability web page (sustain.ubc.ca/campus-sustainability), and watch future editions of The Campus Resident. Opportunities for public involvement will be also be posted on myuna announce-ments, our e-newsletter, (visit www.myuna.ca to subscribe if you haven’t already done so).

Ralph WellsSustainability [email protected]

Two new UBC sustainabil-ity initiatives are underway;

residents are afforded opportunities to participate

Planners Prepare to Write ‘Waste Action Plan’

Ideas sought at public workshop on campus; workshop held February 10th

The University of British Columbia has a strong record in the field of waste manage-ment. This said, it wants a stronger one, and to achieve it, UBC has taken the first step towards creating a Waste Action Plan. This first step involved the public in a workshop held February 10th to help establish a long-range vision for solid waste materials at UBC and the types of actions required to achieve this vi-sion. The second step will come in March and April when input received at the February session will be reviewed and considered by Working Groups in preparation of a draft Waste Action Plan. The third step comes in the summer with completion of the draft plan. The fourth—and final—step will see action on the waste management front with the rally-ing cry almost certain to be ‘Zero Waste!’ This might mean zero waste by 2015. It might mean by 2016 or lat-er, but it will certainly mean by a targeted date not far in the future.UBC already has well-established recycling programs which ac-tively turn waste into resources.Blue and grey bins collect paper, cans, bottles and plastics for recycling. UBC Waste Management also recy-cles special items including light bulbs and tubes, batteries, wood and metal. UBC’s desk-side recycling program challenges people to take responsibil-ity for reducing their own office waste. The My Waste, My Responsibil-ity recycling program equips worksta-tions across campus with a personal blue deskside recycling bin with a small black garbage attachment, and empowers people to acknowledge, sort and dispose of their own waste.UBC Waste Management collects and sends Electronic waste (e-waste), one of the fastest growing sources of waste in North America, to be responsibly recycled through the province-wide electronic waste recycling program. Regionally, UBC has been an ear-ly adopter in organics management and has prioritized the develop-ment of onsite composting systems.UBC is set to launch a new reuse pro-gram in early 2011. Reuse It UBC is an online reuse system, similar to Craigslist, which aims to facilitate the reuse of surplus items on campus. A one-year pilot project will pro-

mote reuse of goods (e.g. furniture, audio visual equipment, office sup-plies) between UBC departments. Despite all these accomplishments, UBC seeks to do more, and preparation of a UBC Waste Action Plan comes at a time when such plans have begun to proliferate.For example, as pointed out in a discus-sion paper made available at the Febru-ary public workshop, Metro Vancouver has initiated a Zero Waste Challenge, which includes two goals: 1) minimize waste generation and 2) maximize reuse, recycling and material/energy recovery. A target of the Zero Waste Chal-lenge is to increase the regional di-version rate (i.e. percentage of waste that is recycled or composted) from an average of 55% to 70% by 2015.As the discussion paper also pointed out, local recyclers and composters such as UBC and Metro Vancouver do not have this field to themselves. The ‘zero waste challenge’ has gone global with European countries boasting some of the highest recycling and com-posting rates in the world: Austria at 70%, Germany at 65%, the Netherlands at 60%, Belgium at 59% and Sweden at 48%. Many North American municipali-ties are taking a lead to reduce waste, not the least Vancouver, which re-cently signed onto Metro Vancou-ver’s Zero Waste Challenge. It has an approximate diversion rate of 52%. The City of San Francisco, with a zero waste goal by 2020, diverts approxi-mately 77% of the materials it discards. Many universities in North America are also striving to reduce waste gen-eration and increase waste diversion. The University of Florida (UF), with an annual enrolment of more than 50,000 students, has set a goal of Zero Waste by 2015. Their cur-rent diversion rate is less than 40%.The University of North Carolina (UNC) currently has recycling programs for more than 40 different materials. Since 1992, the campus population at UNC has grown by 27% while the amount of waste sent to the landfill has decreased by 33%.The University of Victoria has a Sus-tainability Action Plan with an ex-pected waste diversion rate of 75% by 2012. For more information, please visit www.sustain.ubc.ca/campuswaste.

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Water Workshop Whets Thirst for Action Plan

Workshop is held to launch drafting of Water Action Plan; draft is due to be completed by summer

The first step towards creation of a Water Action Plan took place at UBC in February, and the University looks forward to a few more steps before the plan is finalized later this year. This first step took place in the form of a public workshop held over six hours on February 8th, and attend-ed by 50-60 people, many of them UBC faculty, staff and students. A combined team of staff from the UBC sustainability office and campus and com-munity planning department organized the event, and staff members began the day by arranging seating of eight tables with about seven people per table. Partic-ipants at every table then engaged enthu-siastically in discussion on such topics as:• How can UBC reduce its reliance on potable (drinking) water for irrigation?• How can UBC reduce its high base flow (water consumed 24 hours per day, everyday, for process cool-ing, research, urinal flows, etc? As the day wore on, and as discus-sion proved productive, numerous sug-gestions and ideas blossomed—no doubt to the delight of UBC sustain-ability people who need this kind of creative environment to get started on the writing of a Water Action Plan. For example, to the aforementioned question about the “unsustainable” use of drinking water to irrigate cam-pus land, suggestions flowed about us-ing rainwater instead of drinking water. And what about using groundwater?This switch alone would reduce the amount of water flowing to UBC from the North Shore reservoirs. This would in turn reduce the amount UBC lays out on the purchase of water. Numerous facts emerged, not the least being that UBC annually spends about $3 million purchasing water from the University Endowment Lands which charges UBC 10% (about $300,000) for letting this water across UEL land. The UEL buys water from Metro Vancouver.

Workshop people also learned that about 8,000 campus residents living in three dozen residential developments on cam-pus consume about 10% of the water purchased by UBC. This boils down to a $300,000 annual water bill for resi-dents—or roughly $10,000 per building. Delegates at most tables seemed to agree there are considerable opportuni-ties for water to be consumed more ef-ficiently at the Point Grey campus. For example, talk turned to “harvesting” rainwater—and using modern tech-nologies to reuse and recycle water. As pointed out in a discussion paper pro-vided to work-shoppers, “There is also potential to work with natural systems, such as the aquifer below the campus to store and exchange clear water. Further-more, there are opportunities to build on UBC’s current water-related research.” The discussion paper also provided a review of what is called ‘best prac-tices’ in the management of water in other municipalities and universities. These best practices elsewhere obvi-ously offer a lesson for UBC to consider.The fact emerged that Australian uni-versities boast some of the lowest water consumption rates in the world among post-secondary institutions. On aver-age Australian universities consume less than one cubic metre of water per square meter of floor space, whereas UBC consumes three times this amount. This said, UBC has its own successes to present to the world. For example, as participants at the workshop heard, the market-housing neighbourhoods on campus have turned out to be—thanks to prudent planning—model communi-ties built to especially-green guidelines. These guidelines, referred to as REAP (Residential Environmental Assess-ment Program), ensure that residential buildings will perform better than simi-lar buildings throughout the region in all environmental categories, including water management. Under REAP guide-lines, low-flow fixtures, efficient irriga-tion (albeit it with potable water) and ecologically sound plantings are manda-tory in market-housing developments. Not the least this day, participants at the workshop learned a little about the

origins of water arriving on campus, a 1,000-acre parcel of land which is embraced on three sides by ocean and river, and bound on the other by a tem-perate forest and which is sitting atop a natural aquifer (a porous, layered bed of sand and gravel that holds water). As with most of Metro Vancouver, UBC’s drinking water comes from creek-fed reservoirs (lakes) in three watersheds: Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam. The majority of water consumed at UBC comes from the

This schematic shows water flows at the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) building, scheduled to open at UBC in the fall. The CIRS building will be water self-sufficient, harvesting rainwater and purifying it to meet 100% of its potable water needs. Wastewater will be treated to tertiary treatment quality and recycled to flush toilets and for irrigation purposes. Storm water runoff will also be redirected into the local aquifer. Schematic by Bushy Perkins + Will (architects)

Seymour and Capilano Reservoirs. Water from the Seymour Reservoir is treated in the newly constructed Sey-mour-Capilano filtration plant, while wa-ter from the Capilano Reservoir is treated via chlorination. By 2013, water from the Capilano Reservoir will also be treated at the Seymour-Capilano Filtration Plant.Fittingly perhaps because of the prox-imity of Vancouver to UBC, the UBC discussion material paid particular compliment to the “best practices” of Vancouver in water management. The discussion paper reads, “As part of their Greenest City initia-tive, the City of Vancouver has recog-nized the need to increase conserva-tion and efficiency, reduce pollution and raise the price of municipal water. To this end, Vancouver has adopted BC’s Living Water Smart target of us-ing water 33% more efficiently by 2020. They have also begun to develop a Water Conservation and Stew-ardship Strategy, which would in-clude the following key elements:• Universal water metering and volume-based pricing;• Strengthening water efficiency require-ments in the Vancouver Building Code including purple pipes (a second set of plumbing that uses rainwater and re-cycles water from dishes, washing and showers) in all new buildings;• Rebates for the purchase of water-effi-cient fixtures;• Increased social marketing and public education;• Greater use of rainwater;• Water efficiency audits, including a pro-active leak detection program; and• Increased enforcement of water con-servation bylaws, including sprinkler re-strictions. Those who were unable to attend the workshop may wish to get up to date with creation of the Water Action Plan at www.sustain.ubc.ca/campuswater


Land Development Drives Student HousingProfits from sale of land leases will be used to finance student housing; special endowment fund will be formed

UBC has announced the forma-tion of a fund it says will dramati-cally increase opportunities for student housing on the Point Grey campus.According to a UBC news release, the new fund will direct a large portion of land lease proceeds from developing the residential community on the Vancouver campus toward student housing projects. The board of governors at their February 8th meeting approved the fund, to be termed the Student Housing Financing Endowment.Responding to student concerns, the Board of Governors has set an eventual goal of 50 per cent of full-time undergraduate students living on campus. This goal was written into the Land Use Plan Amend-ments completed in January following broad community consultations. At pres-ent 29 per cent of full-time undergraduate students live on the Vancouver campus. “We know that students in residence highly value the rich educational and social experiences that come from liv-ing on campus,” UBC President Ste-phen Toope said. “UBC already has the highest number of students in resi-dence of any Canadian university, but we must do better. Given the high cost of living in Vancouver, expanding this

number is a key academic priority.” The UBC news release says the Student Housing Financing Endowment will al-low the University to pursue student housing objectives without incurring the extra cost of market borrowing that is nor-mally required because student housing projects are not funded by government. “What we are announcing today is part of a continuum of sustainability initia-tives at UBC that are contributing to a complete community where people live, work, play, teach and study,” Professor Toope said. “This endowment will be one tool for delivering on the Housing Action Plan for students, faculty and staff that the University is now elaborating.” The endowment structure of the new fund “preserves the land lease proceeds generated from creating a residential community as a long-term source of in-come for student housing,” said UBC Board Chair, Bill Levine. “This ensures that land revenues will continue to ben-efit future generations of UBC students.” A UBC source said the funding of this endowment comes into affect “right away.” In other words, if the sale of land leases to a property developer occurs today, the proceeds—say $20 million—would go into the student housing fund.

Board Backs New ‘Hubs’ as Way to House Students,

Animate CampusStudent residential precincts will be fully serviced;

commuter-students will be brought into mixThe big new concept in student housing on campus called ‘hubs’ has received bless-ing from the UBC board of governors. At their February 8th meeting, the UBC board approved expenditure of the first $750,000 in planning costs for the Ponderosa hub, expect-ed to cost ultimately $136,000,000 and house about 1,100 students—and possibly some faculty and staff. The board based its unanimous vote on the need for UBC to reach two im-portant goals. On the one hand, gov-ernors want to see the waiting list of those students wanting to live on cam-pus while earning their degrees re-duced to zero, while on the other hand they wish to have campus “animated.” Known worldwide as a brilliant research institution and teaching centre, UBC has also become known over the years by students as rather a dull place to live—if you are lucky enough to find a student bed there. The UBC board has decided to counter this in a single stroke by agree-ing in principle to the construction of five hubs, providing about 2,500 students beds, and adding ‘universal’ amenities to the new student homes so that they will come to resemble neighbourhoods in which permanent residents live on campus. Andrew Parr, managing director, stu-dent housing and hospitality services at UBC, explained the difference between a student hub and the more traditional form of student residence on campus called a ‘hall’ to The Campus Resident following the UBC board meeting, “Our current residences, or halls, are student residen-tial communities only with very little connection to commuter students, fac-ulty or staff within our existing facilities. “The hubs are intended to be student hous-ing facilities but also have amenities for the entire campus community as well as academic spaces (labs, classrooms, offic-es, commuter student study lounges etc).” A hub could also include child care space, café, fitness facil-ity, bike storage, end-of-ride facili-ties for ‘commuter students’, he said. “The idea is that it becomes an in-tegrated precinct neighbourhood.”By August, 2013, when the first phase of the Ponderosa hub is built, UBC expects to offer approximately 600 students the opportunity to live in it. Should this first phase of the Ponder-

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osa hub—to be built at West Mall and University Boulevard—succeed, ef-fective two years later, UBC will go ahead and build a second phase adja-cent to it. This will offer another 500 students the opportunity of hub living. The UBC housing hub plan calls for five hubs to be built on campus ultimate-ly, a development whose full build-out would go a long way towards shorten-ing the list of students wanting to live on campus but unable to do so due to shortage of beds. This waiting list runs in the order of 2,500 students currently.In written material for the board meeting, UBC administrators described their hopes as follows: “The Ponderosa hub is one of five proposed hubs that form a key part of the UBC student housing strategy to ani-mate campus to a local level by provid-ing vibrant centres in which students can live, study, socialize and access services to meet their daily needs and enhance their over-all UBC student experience.” John Metras, managing director of in-frastructure development at UBC, told board members, “This increase will raise the number of beds provided by UBC student housing and hospital-ity services as a percentage of full-time student population from 28% to 35%.”The Ponderosa hub will be specifically focused on upper-year students and grad-uate-school students, Mr. Metras said. Phase 1 will include a 15-20-storey tower, a 10-storey tower and a low-rise building (to provide 590 beds). Phase 2 will consist of a 14-storey tower, an 18-storey tower and a low-rise build-ing (to provide 510+ student beds). UBC planners believe that individual buildings will emerge along the lines of residential colleges with strong aca-demic leanings, much as the famous colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in England have emerged over the years. UBC will roll out its develop-ment of new hubs as follows:• Ponderosa;• Brock hub at East Mall and Walter

Gage Road;• Orchard hub at West Mall and

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The contribution, which resulted from discussions that occurred around the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, will both support completion of the new CIRS building elsewhere on campus—ex-pected to be the greenest building in North America when it opens in the fall—and establish a research partner-ship between UBC and Modern Green. This is Modern Green’s first North Amer-ican partnership on green building re-search and development, spokesmen say. The company has developed more than 10 million square feet of green buildings in China and Australia, using geothermal heating, energy-saving technologies and other sustainable building practices. Its best-known project is Grand MOMA, an eight-building, 213,000-square-metre mixed-use residential, school and hotel development in Beijing that received the American Institute of Architects’ Award for Sustainable Development and was named an “architectural miracle” by U.S. magazines Popular Science and Time. “Over the next 20 years, the world’s ur-ban population is projected to increase by two billion people, so it is crucial that we dramatically improve the sustain-ability of the buildings we work and live in,” says UBC President Stephen Toope. “This partnership helps place UBC and Modern Green at the forefront of these efforts, accelerating the develop-ment of sustainable urban infrastruc-ture and green building practices.” With the partnership, UBC and Modern Green will conduct applied research in sustainability policies and processes. The partnership also provides UBC a partner to help test and deploy advanced sustainable building technologies in an effort to provide market-based solu-tions to global sustainability challenges.

Collaborations will take place at CIRS and Modern Green sites worldwide, including the Wesbrook Place one.“Modern Green, a leader in creating highly comfortable and energy-saving housing solutions, is looking forward to working with UBC researchers,” says Zhang Lei, Chairman of Modern Green, adding the partnership will in-clude opportunities for knowledge trans-fer, personnel and student exchanges and experiential learning and research. “In collaboration with CIRS, Mod-ern Green’s mixed-use residential building and demonstration cen-tre at UBC will be a precedent-set-ting sustainable development for comfort and energy performance.” By hosting investment programs dur-ing the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the Shanghai World Expo, Vancou-ver mayor Gregor Robertson says the City has leveraged its relationships with businesses, including Modern Green, to advance investments in the green economy and strengthen Vancouver’s status as a leader in green enterprise. “Bringing companies like Modern Green to Vancouver during the 2010 Games and showing them what we have to of-fer, was something we felt would pay off in the long run,” says Mayor Robertson. “By attracting one of China’s leading green developers to Vancouver, the City has further strengthened its position as a global hub for the green economy. Mod-ern Green’s investments will help stimu-late the local economy and job growth, as they continue to engage a number of local firms and build expertise by implement-ing new greener building technologies.” CIRS and the Modern Green partner-ship is part of UBC’s ongoing trans-formation into a living laboratory for

sustainability research and action. UBC’s Vancouver campus has set ag-gressive carbon reduction targets, in-cluding the elimination of institutional greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Related projects include the UBC Bioenergy Research and Demonstra-tion Project, which will produce clean energy through biomass gasification; and the UBC Sustainability Initiative, which integrates sustainability teach-ing, learning, research and operations. “CIRS will be more than simply the greenest building in North America when it opens,” says John Robinson, executive director of the UBC Sustainability Ini-tiative and professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainabil-ity, who is leading the creation of CIRS. “It will be an important hub for sus-tainability research and action, where

GREEN PARTNERSHIP John Robinson, a UBC professor and director of Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), and Zhang Lei, chairman of Modern Green Development Co. Ltd.

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PARTNERSHIP continued from Page 1

scholars and partners work to find in-novative solutions to the challeng-es of urban development faster and more effectively than ever before.” Modern Green Development Co. Ltd. is an international property de-velopment company and one of the largest green building develop-ers in China. With a special empha-sis on comfort and energy efficiency,Modern Green has invested more than $100 million CAD in supporting green building research and development. In cooperation with the world’s lead-ing architects, builders and scholars, the Beijing-based company has devel-oped more than 10 million square feet of green buildings in China, with annual sales of more than $500 million CAD. Modern Green has green development targets of 6 million square feet per year.


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The Campus Resident February 2011