Now that things are finally starting to happen, I feel it’s time to commend the University of Guelph and its students (including myself, haha) for embarking on what seems to be a fairly ambitious series of energy retrofit projects. About a year ago, undergraduate students voted 64% in favour of a referendum adding $10 to each semester’s tuition for the next 12 years (around $4.3 million) - money earmarked solely for energy conservation projects and matched dollar for dollar by the University. I am happy to say that both the Graduate Students’ Association and the faculty association have since pledged comparable amounts. Staff and alumni have also already pledged upwards of $1.3 million.

The first big project is just getting underway - switching all of the main library’s lights to electronic ballasts and installing compact fluorescent lights. This project, while costing close to a million bucks, will save 2,077,000 kilowatt hours annually. At the current electricity cost of roughly 6 cents/kwh (and it won’t be here for long), that is a savings of $125,000 a year, allowing the project to pay for itself in around 7.5 years. Overall, around $12 million is going to be spent by 2018 on everything from adding compressed air storage facilities, beefing up insulation, and adding heat exchangers. Even after taking into account projects with a long payoff, the $12 million should be recouped in around 7 years - saving 8,450,000 kwh annually, or cutting back on CO2 emissions by 6900 tonnes a year.

Have I been greenwashed, or should I be proud of this initiative?