DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITYHalifax, Nova Scotia, Natural Environment Planning, AASHE 2011Rochelle Owen, Director Office of Sustainability, rjowen@dal.ca

Dalhousie University Campus100+ buildings/houses on 79-acres in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada.

Includes 4.5 million gross square feet of building space.

A campus population of approximately 23,000

Three Campus: Studley, Carleton, Campus

District Heating System that is 2 km+ long

What we aim to do

Biodiversity Energy & emissions

Water & waste

Sustainable Transport Engaged

People

And a bunch of other stuff ….

Energy

Water, Air, Land

Purchasing

Waste & emissions

Transport

Built Environment

Natural Environment

Policy and Planning

Measurement & Monitoring Behaviour Built &Natural

Infrastructure

STARSDalhousie Sustainability Plan________(c02e tonnes)

kWhe/sqf/person/cost

m3/sqf/person/cost

Commuting mode %

Canopy/green cover/biodiversity %

Engagement outputs

•Building meters-integration with Metasys•Dashboard

Sustainability Plan and Policy_____________Climate Change PlanNatural Environment Plan Procurement and waste PlanTransportation Demand Management PlanCampus Utility Master Plan_____________Active Transport GuidelinesGreen Building PolicyNatural Environment Guideline and PolicyPaper Policy Vendor CodeSustainability to Purchasing Policy

Created /Doing 2008 -2011Developing 2012-2014Both doing and developing

Rethink Sustainability On Campus_____________Events and Campaigns

Social marketing tools

EcoOlympics

Green Residence Forum

Sustainability Teams and Challenges

Rethink Energy on Campus

Lighting Retrofits

Full building Sustainability Upgrades

Trigengeration Project

Appliance and equipment upgrades

Bicycle infrastructure

LEED Gold NC__________

Natural areas/garden

More native trees and shrubs

Components

1. Natural Environment Plan & Policy and Guidelines

2. Natural Environment Inventory and Mapping (birds, trees, shrubs, soil, air, water)

3. Planting – tree, shrubs, plants (roofs , land, pots, …); swales, corridors …

Natural Environment: Key values?

Natural Environment Plan and Policy

• Context• Values/objectives/

indicators/targets• Inventory• Implementation• Replacement –

Diameter Breast Height• Planting Guidance • Funding- carbon offset,

memorial, donation

Upper campus in the later 1930s – already cleared

Inventory

• Landscapes – Tree and shrub inventory; classification of outside areas

• Water – archives, maps, stormwater flows• Soil - geology pit studies from building projects• Air - local government air station data• Birds – counts , meetings with birders, linking

birds and campus habitat

Tree and Shrub Inventory

Tree and Shrub Inventory

• Collect Data – Student arborist and team• Training is key • Lidar data for GIS from the city• Create maps and stastical baseline for various

features• Using this and campus master plan to create

tree and shrub master plan for next 10-20 years.

Used to determine LEED EBOM credit – native species by building site

Combined Plant Origin

22%

7%

2%

57%

12%

Indigenous

Native NA

Naturalized

Introduced

Invasive

DBH by Catogory

0

50

100

150

200

250

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

DBH in cm

Studley Carleton Sexton total trees

Series1 1546 142 171 1859

100

300

500

700

900

1100

1300

1500

1700

1900

Total trees on Urban Campus

Axis Title

Immediate Impacts

• Trees coming down for projects, knocked down for construction – policy inacted so projects pay for replacement using diameter breast height

• Transitioning data management and policy action to Grounds manager

• Trees being saved for higher end-use

Next Steps

• Finalize plan and policy drafts• Submit data to I-Tree -

http://www.itreetools.org/ for more analysis• Finalize long-term tree and shrub master plan• Transition process to Facilities completely with

some extra training• Additional training of projects staff• Funding opportunities and plantings –

stormwater management