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Anthony,
How would your proposal ensure equity across faculty research areas? Some faculty do all their research in a location only accessible by airplane. Other faculty do their research at SFU. And others can work anywhere. All travel is not for conferences.
SFU is, you recall “engagin the world”
Sent from my iPhone
Dr. Stacy Leigh Pigg
Professor of Anthropology
Simon Fraser University
On Nov 1, 2021, at 12:43 PM, Anthony Perl <aperl@sfu.ca> wrote:
Hello colleagues,
SFU is way behind on the "flying less" academic agenda. See:
https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2020/09/17/flying-less-concordia-encourages-academics-to-reduce-their-carbon-footprint.html
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
On 2021-11-01 12:28 p.m., Ronda Arab wrote:
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
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
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:
https://www.bctechnology.com/news/2021/7/8/New-Green-Energy-Biomass-Plant-Powers-up-SFU-Burnaby-&-UniverCity-Drastically-Decreases-Greenhouse-Gas-(GHG)-Emissions.cfm
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New Green Energy Biomass Plant Powers up SFU Burnaby & UniverCity, Drastically Decreases Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. Burnaby, BC, July 8, 2021--A new biomass plant located on Burnaby Mountain is now in full operation, providing heat and hot water to most
of SFU's Burnaby campus and approximately half of the SFU UniverCity community. This plant has drastically decreased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making Simon Fraser University (SFU) a leader in the use of green energy with one of the smallest GHG footprints
of any university in Canada.
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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
Thanks, 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 SFU
Actually 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
While 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,
778-782-4337,
didicher@sfu.ca
pronouns she/elle
Reduce, Organize, Communicate, be Kind!
At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on unceded traditional
territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the Səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
--
Anthony Perl
Professor and Director of Urban Studies
Professor of Political Science
Simon Fraser University
#2111 - 515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3
Tel: 778-782-7887
Fax: 778-782-5297
e-mail: aperl@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University respectfully acknowledges
the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish),
səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie),
kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo
and Tsawwassen peoples on whose unceded traditional
territories our three campuses reside.
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