President Alastair Summerlee recently called on members of the University community to suggest ideas for budget savings for the 2005/2006 fiscal year. As students, we commend the president on opening this process to public consultation, but we have already provided him with a viable solution that could immediately save U of G more than $400,000 a year — a campus-wide energy retrofit.
From our perspective, the choice is clear. On one hand, we can retrofit, decide to take a one-time loan of $10 million to stabilize skyrocketing energy prices and save millions over the long term. On the other hand, without a campus-wide energy retrofit, we will have to take a $4-million loan for plant expansion, cut costs in other departments to pay for higher energy costs and continue to resort to piecemeal solutions to an inefficient energy infrastructure.
Guelph Students for Environmental Change — Renewable Energy Group
