Summary

Metro Vancouver is turning an overlooked resource—waste heat from sources including sewage and solid waste—into a powerful solution for sustainable energy. By developing an innovative policy and implementation guide, the region is paving the way for the creation of district energy facilities that convert this waste heat into usable energy, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Recognized with a 2024 Sustainable Communities Award in the community energy category, this innovative initiative is already sparking the development of several district energy projects, all of which hold significant potential for cutting emissions.

“When we set up these kinds of projects, they run for a long time. We’re looking at extracting heat from both of these sources for many, many decades.” 

– Jeff Carmichael, Division Manager, Business Development, Liquid Waste Services, Metro Vancouver

Background

Metro Vancouver is a regional district whose responsibilities include waste reduction and recycling planning as well as operating a series of facilities that provide wastewater collection and treatment services and solid waste recycling and disposal services for residents and businesses in the region. As a region, Metro Vancouver is North American leader with a 65 percent solid waste recycling rate, more than twice the Canadian average. As part of Metro Vancouver’s aim to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and to promote a circular economy, the organization has been exploring ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels and make better use of available materials. One key to success is building district energy systems—centralized infrastructure for heating or cooling—that transform sewage and solid waste combustion waste heat into usable energy. These facilities have the potential to heat 300,000 homes in the region in the long term and to significantly lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  

The challenge

Metro Vancouver wanted to develop a framework that would make it easier for member municipalities to use regionally available sewer waste heat to develop district energy systems to help lower their emissions and reach their climate goals, while offering financial support to help projects get off the ground and navigate local constraints.

In addition, the organization’s existing Waste-to-Energy Facility in Burnaby, B.C., processes approximately one-quarter of the region’s garbage and already generates enough electricity for 16,000 homes. With the addition of district energy, this facility could triple its energy efficiency and be able to provide heat and hot water for up to 50,000 homes and reduce emissions by 70,000 tonnes of CO2e per year.

The approach

The Sewage and Waste: Heat Recovery Policy went through numerous iterations starting in 2014 before its most recent version was finalized and approved in 2022. The policy’s purpose is to enable and encourage heat recovery from the region’s liquid and solid waste systems. It provides practical guidelines for enabling, funding and implementing energy recovery projects to support climate action and addresses a number of topics including:

• who owns and is responsible for what
• how the value of carbon reduction can be integrated into the business case for district energy projects
• how to cost district energy systems over their life cycle

New energy projects are expensive to build, and significant capital is required to get them off the ground. To help enable development, Metro Vancouver is committing funds, investing in heat recovery infrastructure and setting up contracts to help offset initial costs.

“Once we got everyone to agree to the policy, then it was much easier to move the individual projects forward.” 

– Jeff Carmichael, Division Manager, Business Development, Liquid Waste Services, Metro Vancouver

Current and potential results

Two sewer (or effluent heat) recovery projects have been approved so far, and the Board has approved capital contributions for three different district heating projects that will use heat from municipal sewer systems. Several more sewer heat recovery projects are under development or assessment. Some specific current and future results include:

Environmental:

• Adding a district energy system to Burnaby’s existing Waste-to-Energy Facility has the potential to triple its energy recovery efficiency and reduce annual GHG emissions by up to 70,000 tCO2e.
• Six sewer heat recovery projects currently underway across Greater Vancouver have the potential to reduce annual emissions by 45,000 tCO2e.
• In all, there is the potential in Metro Vancouver to use sewage to heat 100,000 homes and reduce annual emissions by 250,000 tCO2e.  

Economic:

• The projects are creating jobs in the clean energy sector.
• District energy systems insulate users from future increases in energy prices, and reduce reliance on natural gas and electricity.  

Social:

• The projects will be providing energy to a diverse set of communities. The Sen̓áḵw district energy project, for instance, is in part a First Nations–led initiative that will provide low-carbon, sustainable energy for more than 6,000 rental units in the City of Vancouver.  

Lessons learned

There is low awareness and understanding of district energy systems. Metro Vancouver is undertaking a variety of educational and outreach activities to address this, including public consultation and engagement with municipalities.

It’s important to be adaptive: the policy has been revised and expanded three times to meet evolving needs. For example, it is thanks to policy expansion that Metro Vancouver can now take part in projects as a funding partner. The implementation guide the team created has undergone a similar process, with new and updated information added as required by project partners.

Next steps

Construction on a district energy facility using waste heat from the Waste-to-Energy Facility in Burnaby is slated to begin in early 2025. As for sewer heat recovery projects, capital commitments are currently in place for four projects, with detailed contracts on two of them expected to be signed in 2025.

Quotes

“Engage with your potential partners early on. The people who might be building these district energy systems need to understand what those ground rules might look like.” 

– Jeff Carmichael, Division Manager, Business Development, Liquid Waste Services, Metro Vancouver

“By providing heating through a district energy system, you’re better utilizing a resource that's currently going to waste.” 

– Sarah Wellman, Senior Engineer, Solid Waste Services, Metro Vancouver

Summary

The City of Surrey knew the risk of flooding and erosion on its coastline was growing and wanted to explore long-term solutions using natural assets to protect critical coastal infrastructure and increase biodiversity, too. Its living dyke pilot testing project on Mud Bay, in collaboration with Semiahmoo First Nation and the City of Delta, is a 2024 Sustainable Communities Awards winner in the natural asset management category thanks to an innovative approach to developing and testing techniques that support both nature and people while boosting climate resilience.

Background

On the southern end of Metro Vancouver, the Cities of Surrey and Delta and the Semiahmoo First Nation share a shoreline that is at increasing risk of flooding and erosion due to impacts of climate change and rising sea levels. Surrey’s Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy, adopted in 2019, outlines the flooding-related challenges the municipality faces—some 20 percent of its land can be classified as coastal floodplain—and various actions it will undertake to mitigate risk.

The challenge

Infrastructure near Mud Bay includes an international highway, a nationally significant railway and regional power and sewer lines. These assets as well as nearby farms and other properties needed protecting from the increasing risk of flooding. Potential solutions would need to:  

• dissipate wave energy
• enrich the intertidal zone with sediment
• support a nutrient-rich environment for coastal species
• meet flood safety standards  

Other challenges to address included:

• Decreased ability of existing hard structures to cope with increased risk of flooding and erosion. For instance, the Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy predicts that future floods will breach or overtop Surrey’s extensive network of earth dykes with increased frequency.
• Reduced wildlife habitat and biodiversity, in part due to the presence of human-built flood barriers.

The approach

Natural asset management is a strategy that implements natural elements to achieve a project goal, for example delivering low-cost, sustainable services such as water purification, air quality maintenance and, in this case, flood regulation.

With this project, Surrey created a living dyke—a gradual, elevated slope of land—to help natural marshes cope with rising sea levels.

The City began with a pilot to test a variety of flood resilience strategies on a 500-metre stretch of coastline, including:

• spaced and group planting
• four different sediment types and depths
• five different edge treatments such as oyster shells in biodegradable polymer netting

The City developed these strategies with partners including the City of Delta, Semiahmoo First Nation and the National Research Council in order to ensure a diversity of ideas and approaches. Close collaboration with Semiahmoo First Nation ensured that this project included traditional knowledge and cultural heritage development process and that rights holders were able to help shape the final plan. For example, Semiahmoo First Nation worked closely with scientists and researchers to share traditional knowledge and critique their work.  

This inclusion of scientists is another key component of this project. Researchers have participated by doing field work, setting up instrumentation and developing models to evaluate effectiveness. In addition, numerous graduate students completed their theses on the project. Not only does this contribute toward evidence-based decision-making, but it provides learning opportunities beyond the scope of the project itself and has offered the ability to take an approach that incorporates both ecology and engineering.

“What’s satisfying is that it’s been a bottom-up approach that’s led to this novel way of protecting the shoreline using natural infrastructure, and it’s something the community really wanted.” 

– Matt Osler, Senior Project Engineer, City of Surrey

Current and anticipated results

This project has helped to change national guidelines for coastal flood and erosion risk management and provided an example for other local governments to follow. Some current and anticipated results include:

Environmental:

• Increased storage of atmospheric carbon due to restoring salt marshes, which are significant carbon sinks.
• Increased shoreline resilience to flooding.
• Enhanced biodiversity through restoring habitat for birds, seals, salmon and other marine life.
• Improved circularity and reducing waste through the use of biodegradable waste products such as oyster shells in shoreline barrier creation.
• Data on the effectiveness of various techniques to provide long-term benefits as part of the region’s overall strategy to adapt to sea level rise to the year 2100, which is estimated to have a total cost of $9.5 billion.

Economic:

• Creation of quality jobs and stable employment.
• Active partnerships with Indigenous communities designed to foster long-term economic resilience and empowerment.  
• Increased community equity due to the use of social procurement and support of local businesses.
• Reduced risk of future flooding-related costs.

Social:

• Enhanced public access to green space and accompanying recreation activities.
• Increased public safety from flooding events.
• Improved relationships between Indigenous and neighbouring communities due to collaborative project approach.

Lessons learned

This project has highlighted the importance of flexibility in design and implementation. As natural assets are monitored, opportunities arise to adjust and adapt to boost their effectiveness and they must be managed accordingly.

It has also demonstrated the value of inclusive collaboration. Working with a diverse range of partners led to a wider variety of perspectives and ideas, which resulted in solutions that are more robust and resilient with stronger stakeholder support and ownership.

Next steps

Mud Bay’s Living Dyke project is currently in an adaptive management phase during which staff are evaluating test site effectiveness. For example, the team is assessing test areas for plant survival rates, erosion control effectiveness and vegetation density and health. The team is also developing contingency plans and enhancing design robustness to prepare for future extreme weather events, and seeking additional funding sources to ensure project longevity. This project’s success will inform forthcoming initiatives with similar goals.

Quotes

“The nice thing about investing in a natural asset is that it can better adapt to change over time.”

– Matt Osler, Senior Project Engineer, City of Surrey

“Ultimately, what we need to do is accelerate adaptation. By bringing multiple organizations into one project, it accelerates everyone because it increases the capacity to do these projects.” 

– Matt Osler, Senior Project Engineer, City of Surrey

Summary

A 2024 Sustainable Communities Awards winner in the waste category, Strathcona County’s HodgePodge Lodge is a circular economy-focused community hub designed to divert waste from landfill by offering opportunities for reuse. Residents can both donate items and take things they need for free. The Lodge also provides opportunities for volunteerism and community partnerships as well as work experience for youth.

Background

Strathcona County is a specialized municipality–incorporating both urban and rural areas–to the east of Edmonton. One of its services is a heavily used recycling station where residents and businesses can bring waste items. In 2021 the County adopted a waste roadmap for the next 10 years that includes diverting more waste from landfill and moving toward a circular economy, which aims to keep materials and products in use as long as possible.  

Recycling station staff recognized a need for a reuse component of their operations, where discarded items that were still usable or useful could be cycled within the community to extend their life. They started with a small “take or leave” shack at the station, but it quickly became so popular that more space was needed. So the County set the goal of creating a separate, permanent reuse facility that would also support social needs in the community.

The approach

The County decided to build a facility to not only divert waste, but also to empower residents to live an environmentally conscious, creative and community-minded lifestyle. One important aspect of the project was incorporating circularity into the entire process–including the building, which was constructed using numerous preloved and salvaged items. Achieving this required creativity in design, construction and procurement.

“The idea is that we collect items that a traditional thrift store would not profit from but that still have life in them. Our list of what we don’t accept is much shorter than what we do accept.” 

– Erin Wildeboer, Supervisor, Waste Diversion Outreach Programs, Strathcona County

Results

Strathcona County’s HodgePodge Lodge has been immensely popular since its opening in February 2023. It collects a wide range of items: everything from small appliances and light fixtures to toys and sports equipment to plant pots and lawn chairs. Donated items are screened and organized by a team of more than 85 volunteers and community members can come and browse them at designated times.

While waste diversion is the Lodge's primary reason for being, its contributions to community-building have been hugely beneficial as well. For example, it works with 12 different community groups including the Strathcona Food Bank and Goodwill to offer volunteering opportunities and to receive or give donations.  

Some specific results include:

Environmental:

• more than 556,973 kg of items diverted from landfill
• reduced need within the community for new items created from new materials

Economic:

• reduced cost of living for residents able to find needed items for free
• reduced landfill expenses for municipality

Social:

• creation of a hub for partnerships with local social enterprises, developing opportunities for community-building and education
• education of more than 850 local students on reuse and circularity through facility tours
• opportunities for volunteers, especially young people and people living with disabilities, to gain valuable work experience and foster a sense of belonging by connecting with community members
• ability to gather donations for community groups

“Working with volunteers restores your faith in humankind. The social give-back of this building is far more than we ever expected, in the best way possible. I wish we had the budget to build it bigger!” 

– Erin Wildeboer, Supervisor, Waste Diversion Outreach Programs, Strathcona County

Lessons learned

While the project’s overwhelming popularity has been gratifying, it has also required making changes to keep programming and services running smoothly. For example, staff have adjusted operating hours to allow volunteers more time for organizing and have refined policies to improve equitable access. They have also tweaked logistics, such as by expanding available parking and improving drop-off and pick-up procedures.  

Good management has been a key factor in the success of HodgePodge Lodge. This includes:  

• hiring a paid staff member to oversee the facility
• knowing how to manage a large group of volunteers
• building in enough capacity for increased future need

New procurement requirements and methods can also affect project timelines. The County wanted to incorporate circularity into the building itself, which created challenges during procurement, as these requirements were difficult to fit into traditional processes. Some iterations led to extended timelines but ultimately resulted in finding a vendor who was aligned with the vision and able to use salvaged and recycled materials during construction.

Next steps

Staff continue to log and track incoming and outgoing items to measure the impact of HodgePodge Lodge on the community and its waste reduction efforts. They are exploring ways to quantify the number of visitors they receive and continue to make adjustments to improve the Lodge experience for users, partners and volunteers. One key plan is to add even more parking to better meet demand.

Quotes

“The number of people that have been able to outfit their first apartment, fix an appliance or bike or use something like a tool or a book then bring it back to the Lodge for someone else to use is endless.”  

– Erin Wildeboer, Supervisor, Waste Diversion Outreach Programs, Strathcona County

“The concept of reuse is never going to go away—it’s not a fad. We will be able to continue helping our community for as long as we can keep the building open.” 

– Erin Wildeboer, Supervisor, Waste Diversion Outreach Programs, Strathcona County