Energy efficient housing at UBCO celebrates one year anniversary

Photo: UBCO

UBC Okanagan students are celebrating one year of living in the first-of-its-kind energy efficient housing.

The housing is Canada’s first student residence that requires little energy for space heating and cooling.

The minister of advanced education and skills Anne Kang says the building allows hundreds of new students to experience living on campus in a sustainable way.

“Two hundred and twenty students now have a place to call home, and the building they live in requires only one-third of the energy required by a typical student residence,” she said.

Passive House certification is an internally recognized high-performance building standard that was developed in Germany. It focuses on design, construction and operation of energy-efficiency in buildings.

Minister of environment and climate change strategy George Heyman believes UBC Okanagan is showing leadership and a path forward to address climate change and create a better future for young people with affordable housing that’s built to the highest standard,”

“Through our CleanBC plan, we’re helping B.C. universities accelerate their actions on climate change with significant investments to make sure we have buildings that are energy-efficient, comfortable and ready for future weather events,” said Heyman.

Skeena Residence is one of two new student housing projects at UBCO with this Nechako Residence being completed a year ago in 2021.

Buildings designed and built to Passive House standards use 90 per cent less heat and energy than other buildings.