Learn how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency retrofit programs
Reach reduction targets with this easy-to-use toolkit
COMMUNITY EFFICIENCY FINANCING
Climate change is significantly impacting communities across Canada. Recognizing that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are driving these climate disruptions, municipalities are leading the way in developing ambitious plans to reduce emissions.
Unfortunately, reducing the GHGs emitted from homes is not only difficult and expensive, but also requires the participation of many homeowners to complete energy efficiency retrofit projects. To help municipalities reach emissions reduction targets, Clean Air Partnership, with funding from FCM’s Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program’s Transition 2050 initiative, developed the Local Improvement Charge Financing for Retrofits Toolkit with support from participating municipalities. This toolkit will help municipalities design residential energy efficiency retrofit programs, like local improvement charge (LIC) financing, also known as property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing.
About the Local Improvement Charge Financing for Retrofits Toolkit
To create the toolkit, CAP hosted monthly webinars and worked with a group of nine municipalities in Ontario:
- Burlington
- Guelph
- Halton Hills
- London
- Newmarket
- Peterborough
- Toronto
- Vaughan
- Whitby
This toolkit focuses on single-family home residential buildings, which includes townhouses, condominiums, and single detached homes. This toolkit aims to help municipalities reach their climate goals though local improvement charge (LIC) financing, also known as property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing.
"The high upfront cost of home energy efficiency retrofits is often a significant barrier to implementation. With LIC/PACE programs, these costs are covered by the loans and repaid over 5-20 years. This can make whole home retrofits affordable to a larger population of homeowners."
– Vanessa Cipriani, Program Manager, Clean Air Partnership
Reduce GHG emissions in your community
Use the toolkit to:
- Design residential energy efficiency retrofit programs in your community to achieve deep GHG reductions from homes
- Learn how retrofits programs can benefit homeowners, the environment and the economy
- Understand the benefits and potential challenges of these programs
- Discover key program design elements and internal operational process flows
- Access templates for LIC bylaws and sample marketing materials for home energy retrofit programs.
Use the toolkit to learn how to get started on creating meaningful residential energy efficiency retrofit programs for your citizens.
Who is this toolkit for?
Municipal practitioners working in your community’s climate change, environment, energy and sustainability departments will find the toolkit most useful.
Measuring the success of an LIC/PACE program
An accompanying monitoring and evaluation framework was created to support municipalities in understanding the success and improving the delivery of their single family home LIC pilot programs. The framework can also aid in reporting results to Council and program funders.
Contact
Vanessa Cipriani
Project Coordinator
vcipriani@cleanairpartnership.org
Kevin Behan
Deputy Director
kbehan@cleanairpartnership.org
Want to explore all GMF-funded projects? Check out the Projects Database for a complete overview of funded projects and get inspired by municipalities of all sizes, across Canada.
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