By Healthcare Facilities Today

Hospitals and post-secondary institutions in British Columbia can now access up to $9.5 million in government funding for projects that cut energy costs and carbon emissions, according to an article on the CFRA website.

Hospitals, universities and colleges can join public schools in the government's Carbon Neutral Capital Program, which is expanding to $14.5 million from $5 million. The money can be used to plan and complete energy-saving and pollution-fighting projects.

According to the article, the funding comes from a seven-year-old program designed to make the government's operations carbon neutral. Public-sector institutions have been paying $25 per ton for greenhouse-gas emissions in an effort to encourage energy savings and emission reductions.

Public, post-secondary and health authorities have been paying into carbon offsets in order to be carbon neutral. "To date, they have not received money in the same way the (kindergarten to Grade 12) sector has," Environment Minister Mary Polak said in the article.

Health and post-secondary institutions will now receive capital-project dollars that equal what they contribute annually to the carbon-neutral program, Polak said.

Read the article.