The Okanagan College has made huge strides in reducing its natural gas use.
When you factor in the expansion that the College has been seeing over the last 10 years, they've reduced their natural gas use by 50 percent since 2008.
This has mainly been because of the use of alternate heat sources, such as the Kelowna campus borrowing heat from the neighbouring wastewater treatment plant in the cooler months.
It's all been going so well, that Rob St. Onge, Manager of Sustainability Services at the College, says they weren't asked by Fortis BC to further limit their gas use after the pipeline explosion near Prince George last week.
"They were certainly hoping that we would be managing it as much as possible," says St. Onge. "But realistically, we use such a small amount relative to some of the other places that they weren't as worried, because they knew that we were rather energy conscious going in."
He says the College is already ahead of the Province's goal of reducing natural gas use by 30 percent by 2020. That same plan also calls for an 80 percent reduction by 2050.
Even with this considerable reduction, the College is still coming up with different ways to keep cutting back on natural gas use.
"We have a new health sciences project just under construction right now," says St. Onge. "That building is designed to be a carbon-zero pilot project for the Canadian Green Building Council. It'll be up and running by the spring of 2020."