At UBC we are building a sustainable community where each of us is committed to innovation and action that keeps the University at the forefront of best practices in sustainability – including water management.

In 2009, we consumed over 4.3 billion litres of water—an average of 137 litres of water every second—at UBC’s Vancouver Campus.  This is equivalent to approximately 1,700 Olympic-sized swimming pools! Water is used for drinking, cleaning, flushing toilets and even irrigation on campus.  And nearly half of our water consumption is attributed to a base flow—processes that demand water constantly (even at night) like equipment cooling and research.

We need to do more to ensure that water is not considered a limitless commodity on campus. If we can lower our consumption of water, we will make better use of a precious resource and save money. We can also defer or avoid capital projects like pipe upgrades. 

The University is therefore developing a Water Action Plan that will help establish a vision for water conservation and management on UBC’s Vancouver campus, and the actions required to achieve this vision.

Initial Consultation

As the first step in the planning process, UBC’s Campus Sustainability office conducted a full-day workshop and an open house in February 2011 to get input from the UBC community for the development of a Water Action Plan.

Approximately 80 staff, faculty, students, residents and others participated in the sessions, providing their visions and priorities for water conservation and management, and actions the University could take to help realize these visions.

Five key priorities were identified for water management, including: rainwater harvesting; more efficient landscape irrigation; reduced water use and wastewater generation; managing water use in building operations; and education and engagement.  Detailed and lengthy lists of potential actions that UBC could take in support of each priority were developed for further exploration.

Next Steps

Input from these sessions is now being considered along with technical analysis by Working Groups of staff, faculty, students, residents and others as they develop the Water Action Plan. The draft plan is anticipated to be complete by fall 2011.

Want More Info?

If you want to receive updates on UBC’s water action planning process, please sign-up for the Campus & Community Planning email list at http://www.planning.ubc.ca/email_signup.php.

To find out more about water management on UBC’s Vancouver campus see the Water Action Plan Discussion Paper.