UBC Building Operations : client project brief
Creators: name: Amin, Khaled
name: Bergeron, Madison
name: Blair, Stephanie
name: Boon, Olivia
name: Zhang, Jessica
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2017

description: The purpose of this report is to advise UBC Building Operations in how to create a more efficient and cost effective fleet of vehicles, while simultaneously dramatically reducing fleet vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. Building Operations have made significant efforts in addressing the new Climate Action Plan 2020, which identifies a range of actions to reduce GHG emissions from UBC’s operations. In 2015, they achieved close to 40% reduction in GHG emissions from the 2007 baseline. In this report, we have consulted both primary resources from Building Operations, and secondary resources regarding technological solutions to existing problems. Our situation analysis consists of a S.W.O.T analysis that examines Building Operations’ internal strengths and external barriers, and a PESTEL analysis that looks at political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal external factors that indirectly affect our recommendations and Building Operations operations. Key findings in this regard include the limited availability of cost-efficient technologies, and the lack of centralized decision making regarding vehicle usage at UBC. Our recommendations aim to address some of these issues and create an opportunity for change and improvements in areas that are important to Building Operations. The first recommendation addresses the issue of existing vehicles and how replacement of those vehicles will improve efficiency. It includes a BYD program that replaces existing vehicles with a BYD refuse truck that reduces CO₂ emissions by 80,000lbs/year. Secondly, it includes the replacement of vehicles with the Nissan e-NV200, which reduces CO₂ emissions by 2,000lbs/year. Finally, we recommend the addition of a Wrightspeed generation that transforms refuse trucks into hybrid electric trucks. The second recommendation involves an integrated business intelligence system. This system involves an online dashboard and database which addresses the issue of decentralized systems regarding fleet information. The system displays Building Operations’ information graphically to enhance management of fleet model numbers, and provides summary statistics on each unit to enable users quick identification on certain vehicles. Finally, it involves other information such as location of vehicle, GHG emissions, and valuable data that can help Building Operations analyze and optimize their fleet usage. Our third recommendation looks at building a Central Fleet-Share Committee that aims to centralize decision making regarding GHG emissions from vehicles. Our report ends with a schedule and timeline for the implementation of our changes, financial analysis, performance measurements, and risk mitigation strategies to address challenges we may face in our recommendations. In conclusion, we believe that our recommendations can be implemented with success through Kotter’s 8-Step Model, and Building Operations can achieve its 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.”