Schools aim to reduce carbon footprint

Katherine Mortimer - Vernon Morning Star Published: April 24, 2011 1:00 AM 
While the Vernon School District is doing all it can to reduce its carbon footprint, it still ended up paying out more than $70,000 to offset the amount of carbon dioxide it produces.  At Tuesday’s district board meeting, secretary-treasurer Randy Hoffman explained the process to trustees that is ensuring the district is compliant with legislative and regulatory responsibilities, including the Greenhouse Reduction Targets Act, The Carbon Tax Act, the Carbon Neutral Government Regulation and Climate Action Charter. “We do actually receive the carbon tax back for diesel fuel and gasoline that is used in the transportation of students, so even though we have to pay at the pump, we do recover some of it,” he said.  The district filed its claim to recover the carbon tax for the 2010 calendar year of $51,224.54 for 145,489 litres of diesel and 35,474.5 litres of gasoline.  On March 31, a carbon offset purchase order was issued to Pacific Carbon Trust for $73,283.29 including an HST value of $7,851.78, which is the cost to offset 2,617.24 tonnes of carbon dioxide.  Hoffman said this calculation is prepared using the government-mandated Smarttool program, which costs the district 48 cents per student annually. 
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The GCC is pleased to be able to recommend SMARTTool  for carbon emissions inventory and reporting. Available Now: 50% cost reduction for local government users during their 2011/12 on-boarding (start-up) year.
The overwhelming majority of BC local governments have demonstrated local leadership by voluntarily signing onto the BC Climate Action Charter, committing to take action and develop strategies to achieve the following three goals:

• being carbon neutral in their corporate operations by 2012,
• measuring and reporting on their community GHG emissions; and
• creating complete, compact, energy efficient rural and urban communities.

Following a successful evaluation of the pilot, the GCC is pleased to be able to recommend SMARTTool for use by local governments, to assist them in meeting their carbon neutral commitments for the purposes of the Climate Action Charter.

How much will it cost?

Costs for SMARTTool are allocated based on the tonnes of GHGs the user emits annually, according to the following structure:

• Year One (on-boarding/set up): $900 or $1.00 per tonne, whichever is greater
• Year Two: $300 or $0.95 per tonne, whichever is greater

As an incentive, the GCC will provide local governments who sign on
to use SMARTTool before October 14, 2011 with a
50% reduction in their 2011/12 on-boarding (i.e. the first) year costs

How to sign up for SMARTTool

To sign up for SMARTTool or to find out more about how to enter into a service agreement, contact:
Colleen Olague Phone: (250) 952-5411 | Email: Colleen.Olague@gov.bc.ca