DC is a practical, student-driven, activity-based program that brings environmental education alive in schools. A cooperative team of students, teachers, principals, custodians and parents work together with DC partners in this multi-year program. DC is designed to increase sustainability by helping schools conserve energy and water, reduce waste and protect the environment while at the same time saving money!

Groups of 10 to 15 schools in each district send teams of adults and students to attend two half-day training workshops each year. During workshops, students guided by adult mentors learn about conservation topics and develop the skills required to identify conservation challenges and design strategies to address them. Students develop conservation campaigns with support from the adult members of their team using a planning framework that includes tools to measure results and develop a communications plan.  Students share what they learn back at their school and with their teams launch projects that engage students and staff in their school to reduce their environmental impact.

At the end of each year, teams come together one last time to share with the other schools, members of the school district administration and the larger community what they have accomplished. They share best practices, pitfalls to avoid and are recognized for the special achievements within each team. See some of last years submissions posted in the DC Green Gallery.

The first three years of the program are themed energy, water and waste avoidance. The advanced program for years 4 to 6 includes in the home, food and sustainability, our community, transportation, the global village and the future of energy. All the resources from these workshops are available to DC schools through the school login section of this web site.

A second element to the program is the Building Operator Training program (BOTP), which provides technical workshops that help custodial staff to operate their buildings efficiently. During each workshop, custodial staff will have an opportunity to discuss ideas and concerns with facilities department representatives, providing valuable information on building operations to both parties.

DC means real results. Since 2003, the Destination Conservation Program has been offered in 335 schools in 17 school districts. In 2009/10 alone there are 151 schools in 11 school districts involved in the program. In an independent energy study schools saved an average of 12% on electricity consumption, 7% on demand and 7% on natural gas equaling $2800 per school per year. Each school saves roughly 24 500 kWh in electricity every year. That translates into almost 3.7 million kilowatt hours of electricity savings in 2009/10 for participating schools; enough to power over 325 average North American homes for one year.

The Destination Conservation Program is operated by the Pacific Resource Conservation Society in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. We would like to thank our sponsors Terasen Gas (BC), FortisBC and ConocoPhillips Canada (AB) for all their support.

To find out more about becoming a DC school, please contact our office.