Royal Roads University has been spending years expanding and modifying the campus to be a more sustainable community. Another step was taken to achieve this goal outlined by RRU associate vice-president and chief information officer, Steve Grundy. He had indicated that RRU has begun plans to potentially capture West Shore’s sewage and build a Waste and Energy Recovery Research Centre on campus. A facility like this can be used to generate heat and electricity from burning dry wood in a gasification system and treating wastewater, or sewage. This in turn can help the campus to go off the grid, and sell excess energy to nearby communities. Not only will this lower Royal Roads carbon footprint, but can also be an inspiration to other potential institutions willingly to go green. The bulk of that funding would be for infrastructure to treat the wastewater, which is estimated at $39 million so it’s still a long ways to go.
What’s also interesting with this research is it can provide students first-hand experience how new technologies work and helps to engage the students. The students then in turn can share the knowledge they gained from their experience and take it with them, and potentially spread it amongst their “network”. Also as mentioned above this plan can be used to inspire other institutes to follow suit, but it also help educate the greater community about sustainable initiatives. With building a wastewater plant amongst a community, this can create some animosities due to the NIMBY (not in my backyard) philosophy, so proper knowledge and training needs to be done in order to help keep the community knowledgeable and ease any of their concerns. As Mr.Grundy said “I am hoping people will see the university as part of the community, not hiding behind the walls that surround this campus,” Universities are amongst communities and working with a community with developing and implementation of ongoing projects can create a sense of pride and confidence in the community one lives in.
Exert from:
Dove, A. (2009, December 18). Royal Roads making bid for sewage treatment . Retrieved January 21, 2009, from http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette/news/36392184.html
What’s also interesting with this research is it can provide students first-hand experience how new technologies work and helps to engage the students. The students then in turn can share the knowledge they gained from their experience and take it with them, and potentially spread it amongst their “network”. Also as mentioned above this plan can be used to inspire other institutes to follow suit, but it also help educate the greater community about sustainable initiatives. With building a wastewater plant amongst a community, this can create some animosities due to the NIMBY (not in my backyard) philosophy, so proper knowledge and training needs to be done in order to help keep the community knowledgeable and ease any of their concerns. As Mr.Grundy said “I am hoping people will see the university as part of the community, not hiding behind the walls that surround this campus,” Universities are amongst communities and working with a community with developing and implementation of ongoing projects can create a sense of pride and confidence in the community one lives in.
Exert from:
Dove, A. (2009, December 18). Royal Roads making bid for sewage treatment . Retrieved January 21, 2009, from http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette/news/36392184.html
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