BCIT Sustainable Energy Management program

BCIT Sustainable energy Management program to train future energy managers and energy specialists remotely

Part-time program is now available online to provide career opportunities all over B.C.

Left to right: SEMAC grad Angeles Fremes, now the energy specialist at CMBC, and SEMAC grad Luisa Mora, now the energy manager for the City of Port Coquitlam, take a thermographic photo of the outdoor components of a dust extraction system.

Left to right: SEMAC grad Luisa Mora with BCIT instructor Alvaro Reyes, Prism Engineering, energy engineer.

March 2013, BURNABY, B.C.: The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Sustainable Energy Management Advanced Certificate (SEMAC) program will be delivered completely online for the next offering, starting in September 2013. The program was developed in partnership with BC Hydro and FortisBC – an initiative originally aimed at helping large B.C. companies identify and implement sustainable energy management strategies.

Now, to help combat the current shortage of energy management professionals across B.C., BCIT has further developed a series of sustainable energy management courses to train future energy managers and energy specialists remotely. These part-time courses will focus on ways to reduce the demand for energy in commercial, industrial, and community facilities. Upon successful completion, SEMAC graduates will meet the education requirements to be hired as energy managers or energy specialists through BC Hydro or FortisBC funding.

The SEMAC program demonstrates BCIT’s ability to quickly adapt and respond to the growing needs of B.C.’s emerging green economy, of which sustainable energy management is proving to be an integral part. The program also offers graduates excellent job prospects in challenging economic times, signifying BCIT’s importance to the economic, social and environmental prosperity of the province.

“B.C. businesses are seeing the value in hiring an energy manager to implement a comprehensive, holistic approach to energy efficiency,” says Simon Vickers, program manager of BC Hydro’s

Commercial Energy Manager program. “Energy managers champion conservation within their organizations and can make a real difference.”

“BC Hydro’s Commercial Energy Manager Program values BCIT’s partnership, educating students to become future energy managers. The BCIT SEMAC course continues to offer a good balance between technical and business skills and has added modules which are pertinent for the energy management profession. Graduates will continue to be well-positioned for a career in energy management,” says Annika Reinhardt, BC Hydro program manager, Business Development and Partnerships.

“Providing energy solutions for every customer is something FortisBC strives to do,” says Colin Norman, program manager for FortisBC’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation program. “The Sustainable Energy Management Advanced Certificate (SEMAC) program will train the energy managers and energy specialists of tomorrow, and we are proud to be a part of this innovative educational opportunity.”

BCIT has its own energy and sustainability manager: Alexandre Hebert. Funded through the Energy Manager program, Hebert is exploring how sustainability can further the energy savings for BCIT typically achieved through traditional approaches to energy management. Alexandre assisted BCIT in saving $300,000 in electricity costs for the year ending December 31, 2011 and more savings are on the way.

“As we know, over the next 20 years, B.C.’s energy demand could increase by up to 40 per cent,” says Hebert. “Meanwhile, the provincial government has set a goal of fulfilling two-thirds of the new energy demand through conservation by 2020, and to be a carbon-neutral public sector as of 2010. These legislated changes create significant opportunities for BCIT to reduce its ecological footprint.”

BCIT’s School of Construction and the Environment, which offers the SEMAC program, is a leader in sustainability education, being concerned with the natural environment, the built environment and the relationship between them.

Left to right: SEMAC grads Alexandre Hebert and Andrea Linsky. Hebert is BCIT’s energy manager. Linsky is now acting director, Strategic Energy Management, at the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association.

For further information, media can contact: Kelly Friday, Manager, Media Relations British Columbia Institute of Technology Tel: 604.432.8773 | Cell: 604.836.6700 | Kelly_Friday@bcit.ca

For further information on Sustainable Energy Management courses, please contact: Steve Finn, Program Head Tel: 604.432.8857 | Steve_Finn@bcit.ca | bcit.ca/semac b

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