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An investigation into ECO-TEK's Solar Aquatics System (SAS) for the UBC Farm centre building

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

The University of British Columba Farm (UBC Farm) has always been known to practice and promote the concept of sustainability. Currently, it plans to construct a new farm centre building to be used for food production operations and educational purposes. This building is exploiting the use of an appropriate wastewater treatment system to help reduce water costs and consumption. This report looks at the ECO-TEK Solar Aquatics System (SAS) as a potential solution and conducts a triple bottom line (TBL) assessment on this system, and analyzes the quality of such a solution. Using past research, an in-person interview with the Kimron Rink, the president of ECO-TEK and the designer of the SAS, and a short social survey, it can be seen that the SAS is an existing quality solution with high potential to scale and adapt into the new UBC farm building. Environmentally, the SAS is a good technological solution to treat wastewater, reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gases, and other resources needed. Economically, the SAS is not currently viable with the amount of water the farm requires, although it will reduce its annual water consumption expenditure. Socially, the SAS provides great opportunities for research development, promoting sustainable engineering design, and potential work and volunteer jobs and positions for the community. As a result, the SAS is recommended as an acceptable solution for meeting most of the UBC Farm’s goals. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. APSC 262; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108579

Applied Science, Faculty of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/