Hello colleagues,
SFU is way behind on the "flying less" academic agenda. See:
At some point, and it is only a matter of time, we are going to have to ration flying. Two flights per year might still be too many. But I'd be ok with SFU capping the number of flights that will be reimbursed for travel by administrators and faculty. Maybe we could trade teaching one more course for each flight we take above the cap? That would address multiple needs simultaneously.
Anthony
Do a lot of staff and faculty have electric cars? I would think that in itself would put pressure.
I think Covid has taught us a lot about how much of our professional air travel is *really* necessary. I’ve felt guilty about my air travel footprint for a while and am going to seriously cut down on conferences and research trips.
Ronda
Sent by magic
On Nov 1, 2021, at 12:23 PM, Martin Hahn <mhahn@sfu.ca> wrote:
No. It is rather pitiful. There still are a total of 4 level 2 charging stations at SFU. (There are 6 at Capilano U, around 50 at UBC plus 6 level 3). Here, there is also a bunch of 110v outlets available for charging in West Mall.
I was told when I inquired pre-covid that more would be built soon and that SFU was waiting for gov. subsidies. But there have been, and continue to be, such subsidies and nothing seems to be happening.
Overall, a token effort
MH
On 11/1/2021 11:54 AM, Ronda Arab wrote:
Are there very many electrical charging stations for staff, faculty and students who use electric cars to get to work?Ronda
Sent by magic
On Nov 1, 2021, at 11:53 AM, Craig Scratchley <wcs@sfu.ca> wrote:
Here's one of a number of articles on the subject:
They were working on this plant for a couple of years perhaps, but the switchover was just this past summer apparently. If you live in UniverCity, your building might get heating from this plant as well.
Also, I have noticed that facilities services has some electric vehicles, but I couldn't find a fossil/hybrid/electric breakdown in a quick search. Presumably they are trying to lower the fraction of non-electric vehicles as older vehicles go out of service. I once read that because it takes a lot of energy and resources to produce a vehicle, there is apparently some environmental argument to allowing a vehicle to live out its useful life. I never looked into the detailed tradeoffs.
Craig
From: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Sent: November 1, 2021 11:28:31 AM
To: Simon Watkins; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Re: Fossil fuel use at SFUThanks, Simon! Glad to know about the wood scraps.
Nicky
From: Simon Watkins
Sent: November 1, 2021 11:17:46 AM
To: Nicky Didicher; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Re: Fossil fuel use at SFUActually SFU now burns biofuel for its heating, consisting of wood scraps mostly.
They upgraded the heating plant a couple of years ago.
Still true about the cars though
Simon Watkins
Department of Physics
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6
Canada
Tel:778 782 5763
From: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Sent: November 1, 2021 11:05 AM
To: academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Fossil fuel use at SFUWhile I’m pleased to know that SFU is increasing its efforts to remove invested money from the fossil fuel industry, isn’t our main boiler in the basement of the library (I believe the biggest one at a university in Western Canada) run off diesel? And aren’t the majority of SFU vehicles still gasoline powered?
Nicky
Nicky Didicher, English,
Simon Fraser University,
pronouns she/elle
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