A greener getaway takes root

MARK HUME
Globe and Mail
March 30, 2007

VANCOUVER -- This year, Michael Uehara will cut deeply into his company's bottom line as he starts a five-year project aimed at reducing by half the carbon footprint of King Pacific Lodge.

The wilderness resort sits in splendid isolation in the middle of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest, a place where tourists go to embrace nature -- but where generators provide dirty power, outboard engines propel the small vessels used for whale watching and float planes are the main transportation link with the outside world.

In the big scheme of things, King Pacific Lodge has a relatively small carbon footprint, and reducing it will do little to help B.C. in its quest to cut the province's overall greenhouse-gas emissions to 10 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

But Mr. Uehara makes the point that if an operation like his can't do its bit to find solutions, why should anybody?

Michael Uehara, president of King Pacific Lodge,
fly fishes in the Great Bear Rain Forest in B.C.

"I think it's fairly clear we all have to do something about the carbon we are putting into the atmosphere," said Mr. Uehara, whose lodge, owned by Rosewood Resorts, will spend $250,000 on solar-energy panels and installing a micro hydro plant on a nearby river.

King Pacific Lodge is also going to start offsetting guests' air travel to and from the resort and will strive for greater efficiency in the way it moves people by boat during their visits. Mr. Uehara acknowledges having a greener operation will help with marketing for the eco-resort, but besides that, reducing carbon emissions "is just the right thing to do."

Dermot Foley, vice-president of Strategic Analysis for Inhance Investment Management Inc., a Vancouver-based mutual-fund company that considers environmental and social issues as well as economic factors in investing, isn't surprised to hear that another company is making a voluntary shift toward carbon neutrality. He's seeing a lot of that these days -- after years of waiting.

"Sometimes it seems like I've spent half my life talking about climate change without seeing much action," said Mr. Foley, who was an analyst with the Suzuki Foundation before moving to Inhance Investment. "But I have to admit I've been more optimistic in the past six months than I ever have been before. We are finally starting to see the game plan shape up to meet Kyoto targets. I'm glad to see it's on the political agenda here, and in California and Ottawa. And there has been a real paradigm shift in business. It's not everyone. Some businesses still have their heads in the sand. But many do get it and are taking action to reduce carbon emissions."

"They are doing it mostly for economic reasons, because it's good for business, but there is nothing wrong with that."

There was a time, not so long ago, when Mr. Foley might have felt some despair about the situation. Climate change just wasn't a problem that business, or government, wanted to acknowledge. In 2001, he edited an important report for the Suzuki Foundation, Climate Crisis: Energy Solutions for BC, that was widely ignored.

"We had a few meetings with government, but nothing really resulted from it," said Mr. Foley, who since 1993 has watched a series of governments present climate-change action plans that went nowhere.

"Every year they'd repeat the same old things and nothing ever seemed to change," Mr. Foley said.

Actually, something did happen in those years: B.C.'s carbon emissions soared.

This year, the government vowed in the Throne Speech to seriously address the problem -- but critics say that, although some broad goals have been established, a concrete set of solutions has yet to be put forward.

While voluntary compliance by operations like King Pacific Lodge will help, Mr. Foley said it's urgent that government provide leadership now and establish key targets sector by sector.

The solutions set out in his six-year-old report are a good place to start, he said.

"All that stuff should still be done," he said.

"We, as British Columbians, have choices to make," the report states. "We can choose to continue down today's well-worn path to greater social and ecological problems. Or we can . . . become more energy efficient in the way we live and in the way we move goods."

The report keys in on the sectors which produce the most greenhouse-gas emissions: urban land use and transportation; commercial and industrial operations; the oil and gas sector and freight transportation.

The report calls on government to identify areas for high-density development, to establish urban-growth boundaries, invest in public transportation and encourage a shift to more energy-efficient transportation by using mechanisms such as road pricing, distance-based fees, motor-vehicle purchase taxes and rebates for fuel-efficient automobiles.

It recommends a regulated emissions cap for industry, which would allow participants who emit less carbon to trade their surplus allowance. It suggests that the B.C. Utilities Commission monitor all significant emitters of greenhouse-gas emissions, and says provincial taxes should be shifted away from productive activities (employment and investment) and on to environmentally damaging activities, such as pollution.

The report says 40 per cent of freight trucks should be powered by fuel cells and the main rail lines in B.C. should be electrified, with government providing the financial support for the changes.

It also opposes the type of transportation-infrastructure expansion being undertaken by the current government, in its $1.5-billion Gateway project, saying in the long run such development only makes the transportation problem worse.

And it says B.C.'s oil and gas industry -- the third largest in Canada -- should be pushed to upgrade its technology to reduce "fugitive releases" (or leaks) and to change practices to cut back on gas venting and flaring. The government's energy plan calls for the elimination of all routine flaring at oil and gas wells by 2016 -- but the Suzuki report goes beyond that in providing a list of solutions, including giving examples of trial projects that had worked.

The report says that if the government was to put forward a detailed package of solutions, targeting the key problem areas, greenhouse-gas emissions could be cut in half.

"Some sacrifices have to be made, but most of this stuff is just good business," Mr. Foley said.

Last month, Todd Litman, of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, released a report that took a similar approach. Looking primarily at the transportation sector -- which produces 39 per cent of B.C.'s greenhouse gases -- he came up with a set of solutions that he said would reduce emissions by 30 to 50 per cent.

Mr. Litman's report, Win-Win Emission Reduction Strategies, argues that the approach "could meet Kyoto emission-reduction targets while increasing consumer benefits and economic development."

Some of his ideas:

Link vehicle fees (insurance, registration, taxes and leases) to annual mileage. The fixed-fee structure that now exists, he argues, encourages motorists to drive and maximizes use of a vehicle because they are paying a set price anyway. If insurance agents checked a vehicle's odometer when renewing insurance, a fee could be charged that is tied to the distance the vehicle has travelled. Mr. Litman calls this "pay as you drive." He says it encourages motorists to give up marginal trips and opt for public transport whenever convenient, typically reducing a vehicle's annual mileage by 10 to 15 per cent.

Parking cash-out. Companies that provide subsidized parking spaces for employees would offer equivalent cash or other benefits -- such as monthly transit passes -- to those who didn't drive to work. Such a policy, he said, would reduce automobile commuting by 10 to 30 per cent.

Improve the quality and the frequency of public transit. Studies show 5 to 10 per cent of urban automobile trips will shift to high-quality transit if it's available.

Freight Transport Management involves strategies to increase the efficiency of commercial transport and can result in 5- to 20-per-cent reductions in freight traffic.

Mr. Litman said the solutions he has proposed are not new and have been shown to work in Demark, Finland, Sweden and the U.K.

Why not in B.C.?

Mr. Litman said that, so far, his report on emission-reduction strategies hasn't generated a lot of debate, and nobody in government has called him to ask for his input. But, he said, the ideas are good and it's only a matter of time before people start to embrace them.

Getting from here to the Kyoto target is possible, and it needn't disrupt the economy, many experts say. If resorts like King Pacific Lodge can cut their emissions in half by going solar, if the oil and gas industry can reduce its leakage and stop flaring at wells, if cities can become more compact and transit efficient, if 40 per cent of freight trucks can switch to alternative fuels and commuters can get out of their cars and ride public transit 30 per cent of the time, the ambitious goals B.C. has set can be reached.

"The solutions are out there and they've been out there for many years," Mr. Foley said. "What's been missing until now has been the political will to change. I think things look really hopeful -- but we need to see some action from government."

Thinking Small

While there is no single solution to cutting greenhouse gases, the effect of a large number of small actions can quickly add up to a major change in activities such as transportation, the largest source of emissions in B.C. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute, in its middle-of-the-road scenario, estimates that the amount of driving people do could be cut by nearly half through the combined effect of 20 measures.

Total reduction: 44%

Mobility management marketing: 1.6%

Smart urban growth reforms: 4.9%

Walking and cycling improvements: 1.5%

High-occupant vehicle priority: 0.7%*

Transit and Rideshare improvements: 3.1%

Traffic calming: 0.1%

Car sharing: 0.2%

School and campus trip management: 0.4%

Freight transport management: 0.5%

Parking pricing: 4.8%

Parking management: 2.6%

Road/congestion pricing: 1.2%

Pay-as-you-drive pricing: 9.2%

Fuel taxes - tax shifting: 9.5%

Commuter financial incentives : 1.8%

Commute trip reduction: 1.9%

*Giving rides to people without cars

SOURCE: VICTORIA TRANSPORT POLICY INSTITUTE

Globe and Mail's Climate for Change series

1. Can B.C. make U-turn to green?, 26-Mar-2007
B.C.'s uncharted path to a green future. Plus, one Vancouver family goes on a carbon diet to slim its greenhouse-gas emissions, Part 1.

1a. The Globe's Mark Hume on the greening of British Columbia, 26-Mar-2007
Mr. Hume was online Monday to answer questions on his provocative question: Can B.C. make a U-turn to green?

2. The dirty little secret of importing power, 27-Mar-2007
B.C. is a province of green power -- or is it? Plus, the limits to alternative energy and conservation.

3. How urban sprawl goes against the green, 28-Mar-2007
The battle to cut B.C.'s greenhouse gases will be fought on the lawns of suburbia. Plus, economics powers a green revolution in Vancouver's taxi industry.

4. From carbon steam to cash flow, 29-Mar-2007
How B.C. businesses could turn their pollution into profit. Plus, the province's dirtiest dozen.

5. A greener getaway takes root, 30-Mar-2007
The path to green: How B.C. can slash greenhouse gases. Plus, Part 2 of the carbon diet.