Sustainability
Okanagan College Launches Survey to Assess Community Interest in Clean Energy Retrofitting
May 29, 2024
A unique applied research project is underway with the launch of an important community initiative aimed at promoting sustainability in Vernon.Led by OC faculty, the project aims to initiate a comprehensive survey to assess community interest in clean energy retrofitting among homeowners.In collaboration with HomeZero Collective, and with support from a Mobilize research grant funded through NSERC, Okanagan College seeks to gather valuable insights from Vernon residents regarding their attitudes, motivations and barriers related to ...
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OC’s Health Sciences Centre receives LEED gold certification
December 23, 2021
Okanagan College’s leadership as a champion of sustainability continues after receiving another LEED certification for the new Health Sciences Centre (HSC), which officially opened at the Kelowna campus in October. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the most widely used green building rating system that certifies the level of sustainability-related features incorporated in a building’s design. The HSC building joins several other buildings at three Okanagan College campuses that have already received certifica...
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Building the energy efficient home of the future
August 23, 2021
Okanagan College and UBCO collaboration powers up Wilden Living Lab Phase 2 It’s a research partnership that’s about more than bricks and mortar. Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan — together with Wilden’s Blenk Development Corp., AuthenTech Homes and FortisBC — have broken ground on Phase 2 of the Wilden Living Lab research project. Phase one started in 2016 when two homes were built side-by-side in Wilden. One was built to current building codes including a natural gas furnace, standard plumbing fixtures and applianc...
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OC doing its part to reduce emissions
April 22, 2021
As the world’s leaders gather on Earth Day 2021 to discuss steps to battle climate change, Okanagan College is pointing to recent statistics that demonstrate how far its energy savings efforts are advancing B.C.’s sustainability agenda. Calculations completed this week show that OC has reduced its total overall greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 44 per cent since 2007 – this in the face of an overall growth in space of 44 per cent in the same period. The calculations show that OC has managed to decrease its per-square-metre emission...
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Open education efforts continue to enhance access for OC students
February 25, 2021
Thanks to a grant from BCcampus, over the next several months Okanagan College will be adding to its strong track record for promoting and supporting open education practices, including the creation, use and adaptation of open educational resources (OER). The $10,000 grant is empowering project lead Roën Janyk, Web Services Librarian, and a group of OC employees and student union representatives who have been meeting for the past several years, to focus their efforts on honing an open education strategy and action plan for the Col...
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Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence
December 2, 2020
É«É«É«ÇéƬ at the Penticton campus experience education and training in one of the most sustainable educational buildings in Canada: the Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation. They are learning in one of the world's greenest buildings; a structure that is as much a lesson in itself as it is a place to learn. It is a building that incorporates made-in-B.C. innovation as much as it serves to promote it. I...
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Okanagan College joins Mohawk and other institutions across Canada to form Canadian Colleges for a Resilient Recovery
September 24, 2020
Eight colleges, institutions, CEGEPs to support new climate-resistant economy Okanagan College is joining forces with a group of colleges, institutions, polytechnics and CEGEPs from across Canada to educate a post-pandemic workforce to support a new climate-focused economic recovery. The group of eight climate-action leading institutions from all regions of the country have launched an initiative called Canadian Colleges for a Resilient Recovery. The group will champion projects across Canada to support a recovery that delivers go...
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Pushing the green building envelope: builders and educators working together
February 19, 2020
Okanagan College, UBC, City of Kelowna co-host net zero life cycle workshop Workshops often involve questions and answers; this one focused on the real-world queries and solutions that may unlock a greener future for us all. Okanagan College, the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBC Okanagan), the City of Kelowna and a host of industry partners convened in Kelowna at the Innovation Centre on Tuesday. Building Net Zero was a one-day workshop designed to bring together building and energy innovators to tackle an ambitious ...
Read more...College’s Vernon Trades Training Centre earns commercial building award
September 26, 2018
Okanagan College Media Release Okanagan College’s new Trades Training Centre in Vernon, which opened its doors to students last month, is already being recognized for its innovative construction. The centre took home the Institutional Award at the 10th Annual Thompson Okanagan Kootenay Commercial Building Awards held on Thursday, Sept. 20 in Kelowna, presented by MNP LLP, RE/MAX Commercial and the Southern Interior Construction Association (SICA). This year’s event saw a record-tying 37 finalists competing for honours in...
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College powers up new welding building in Penticton
August 20, 2018
Welders training in the South Okanagan now have a state-of-the-art new shop in which to spark their torches and test their metal. Okanagan College officials, students, industry partners and community members gathered at the Penticton campus today to mark the opening of the College’s new $2.2-million, 465-square-metre (5,000 square ft.), welding facility. Among them was a class of 16 Welder Foundation students, who, under the tutelage of instructor Mark Stathers, will be the first to train in the facility. The shop they’ll soon ste...
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College opens new Trades Training Centre in Vernon
August 7, 2018
A class of Plumbing and Piping Foundation trades students were the first to step through the doors of the newly completed Trades Training Centre at Okanagan College’s Vernon campus at 7 a.m. this morning. A few hours later, they helped to officially open the space where they will hone their trade. Stephen Fuhr, Member of Parliament for Kelowna - Lake Country and The Hon. Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training joined Okanagan College President Jim Hamilton and other College officials, donors, industr...
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