UBC has an intimate relationship with water. Nested at the tip of the Point Grey peninsula, the campus is embraced on three sides by ocean and river, and bound on the other by a temperate rain forest. The university also sits on a natural aquifer, a porous, layered bed of sand and gravel that holds water and could contribute to future water self-sufficiency on campus.

Although water has always been abundant on BC’s south coast, winters now bring increased rainfall, higher tides, flooding and severe storms. And in summer, water scarcity causes prolonged droughts.

As we respond to climate change, we rethink our relationship with water. We can no longer view it as a limitless commodity to flush away. Instead, we need to respect it as a precious resource—one that not only quenches our thirst and serves our personal and domestic needs, but that also plays a crucial and complex role in the health of our natural environment.

Our long-term vision at UBC is to achieve a net positive water system for the campus. This means we will find innovative ways to consume water more efficiently, harvest rainwater and use technologies to reuse and recycle water on campus. We will also work with natural systems, such as the aquifer below the campus, to store and exchange clean water.

To create this vision for tomorrow, we work today to convert sewage and wastewater into usable products that can fertilize and irrigate our landscape and heat our buildings. We also manage stormwater to avoid flooding and erosion, and work with water systems to protect and enhance our watershed. For instance, in conjunction with students and curriculum, we are investigating a plan to reintroduce a fish-bearing stream to UBC in the south campus area.

As we dedicate our operational, academic and research minds to rethinking our relationship with water, we share and showcase our work to encourage more people to see water as a precious resource.

WHERE OUR WATER COMES FROM

UBC Utilities, which distributes water throughout the campus, purchases approximately 150 million cubic feet of water from Metro Vancouver a year. It is piped and pumped to UBC from the Capilano Reservoir in the North Shore watershed. Eighty-five per cent of water used on campus leaves as waste via the sanitary sewer, to be piped and then pumped again to the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Richmond. In addition to tapping the municipal supply, this distribution system requires miles of pipes, and significant energy every day to deliver water to and from the campus.

Water Conservation

The first step in water management at UBC is to reduce our consumption. We have already made significant gains through the ECOTrek project, which retrofitted over 300 academic buildings with energy and water efficiencies, including fixing leaks and installing low-flow fixtures. Water systems were also upgraded through UBC Renew projects which renovate, rather than demolish, aging infrastructure. These upgrades included such additions as water-efficient plumbing and roof-water retention systems.

For all new buildings on campus, water efficiency is a built-in feature, since new construction must achieve a minimum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold or equivalent rating. The UTown@UBC neighbourhoods are model green communities built to UBC’s stringent Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP) guidelines. REAP ensures that residential buildings will perform better than similar buildings throughout the region in all environmental impact categories, including water management.

Laboratories at UBC use significantly more water per square foot than standard commercial buildings, primarily to meet their larger cooling and research demands. UBC’s Green Research Program will identify and implement ways to reduce water consumption in labs.

Irrigation

It takes a lot of water to keep UBC’s stunning campuses looking their best. We are challenged to upgrade irrigation systems and reduce the use of potable water in our old infrastructure. However, for all new UTown@UBC residences, efficient irrigation and ecologically sound planting are mandatory under REAP guidelines. At the newer UBC campus in the Okanagan, smart irrigation control systems measure ground moisture content, calculate wind direction and speed, and monitor the weather forecast. As a result, the systems are used only when conditions require it. In addition, the Xeriscape method of landscaping, employed throughout the campus to reduce reliance on irrigation, works with plants that creatively and strategically complement the Okanagan’s natural environment. The Xeriscape concept of appropriate plant selection has the added benefit of reducing fertilizer and pesticide use.

Drinking Water

Our attitudes toward drinking water have swung to extremes in recent years. We abandoned our once-cherished mountain-fed tap water in droves, for water trucked to us in plastic bottles. Now, popular opinion has swung back to tap water, with increased scrutiny of water quality.
 
At UBC Okanagan, students, faculty and staff have alternatives to purchasing bottled water. Each non-residence water fountain on campus is equipped with a granular activated-carbon water filter, to improve the taste of campus water and increase usage of non-bottled drinking water. In addition, a top-of-the-line water-dispensing unit in the main entrance of the Sciences Building improves water quality while preserving its beneficial minerals. UBC Okanagan is the first site in North America to install the ground-breaking system, which is extremely energy efficient.

Water Management Innovation

UBC also seeks new ways to harvest rainwater, reuse water and work more closely with natural systems.

At Wesbrook Place, a UTown@UBC neigbourhood in the south campus area, sustainable land use strategies include stormwater flood control techniques such as rainwater retention, green roofs, rain gardens and sediment control to improve water quality. Rather than whisking stormwater away through underground storm sewers, surface water is captured in attractive pools to provide irrigation for landscaped areas and potential fish habitats for the future. Landscape features at Michael Smith Park demonstrate how stormwater run-off is treated in Wesbrook Place as a resource to be managed, rather than wasted.

New state-of-the-art academic buildings at UBC also demonstrate water management innovations. The C.K. Choi Building, completed in 1996, is not connected to the sewer system. Composting toilets save over 1,000 litres of water per day and provide nutrients for landscaping. Water from hand sinks and liquid from the compost system are pumped into a landscaped trench along the front of the building, and processed by a plant-based greywater recycling system.

The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) building, scheduled to open in 2011, will be ‘water independent’ for irrigation and toilet flushing. It will harvest rainwater and eliminate stormwater run-off from the site. Wastewater at CIRS will be fully-treated in the building by a tertiary stage processing system, then stored in the ground until needed.

CIRS is located on Sustainability Street, a vibrant public space on campus that connects people, ideas and technology. The pedestrian-oriented promenade is a practical demonstration of new approaches to managing waste, energy and water in an urban environment. When completed, Sustainability Street’s stormwater system will collect and treat water in a small space, naturally filtering out water-borne contaminants before stormwater enters the groundwater table and surrounding streams. Sustainability Street will be the world’s first closed-loop system of water recycling and reuse that integrates stormwater management, wastewater treatment and ground-source geo-exchange for heating and cooling of adjacent academic buildings.

Whether we are in campus classrooms, laboratories, offices, parks or neighbourhoods, we all have a responsibility to be stewards of our watershed. Through our water management efforts at UBC, present and future, we seek to reduce pressure on the municipal water supply, save energy, lower the carbon footprint of our water use and revitalize our relationship with this precious natural resource.