Read the transcript

Summary

In an effort to reduce GHG emissions from transportation and provide more equitable transport options, a group of municipalities in the Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine region together with transit organization RÉGÎM have teamed up to create TCiTé. This shared mobility project is aimed at reducing the need for private vehicles by using Mobility as a Service (MaaS) technology to offer electric car and bike sharing, taxi services and other transport options, and includes municipal purchase of EVs. Thus far, the project has shown promise as a means of reducing emissions and fuel costs while promoting electrification and more communal means of transportation.

Background

Located in Atlantic Quebec, the Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands make up a single administrative region that has a relatively small population of about 90,000 spread out across more than 20,000 square kilometres. The majority of residents live more than three kilometres from essential services such as grocery stores and health care providers. This region, Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, is served by the transportation organization RÉGÎM, which operates a number of public transit routes as well as accessible transport options.

The challenge

Despite the prevalence of private vehicles in the region, there is still demand for transportation alternatives, not only to lower greenhouse gas emissions but also to offer options to people who cannot or prefer not to get around with their own car: think youth, seniors, lower-income residents and people who are unable to drive. 

To help serve this population and reduce the region’s carbon footprint, RÉGÎM and a group of local municipalities —Gaspé, Carleton-sur-Mer, Chandler, Grande-Rivière, Maria, and Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine — were looking for innovative solutions to expand their sustainable transportation offerings and reduce the need for private vehicles while also strengthening the community.

Approach

In 2019, the group launched the transportation project TCiTé. The goal was to find ways to make the region’s transportation options more sustainable. One major aspect of this was the intention to lower the region’s GHG emissions from transportation, but they also had in mind energizing and revitalizing communities and town centres. An additional hope is that reducing the need for and use of individual vehicles will help increase disposable incomes and, therefore, enrich communities.

After performing feasibility studies, the group decided to launch a pilot quickly to increase transportation availability within the region. Finding ways to use technology to make the whole system smarter was a high priority, as was a focus on the sharing economy and electrification. The plan included:

•  Adding EVs to municipal fleets;
• Optimizing and electrifying public transit;
•  Installing EV charging and other necessary infrastructure;
•  Developing digital tools (Mobility as a Service, or MaaS) to help residents and staff use, optimize and coordinate various means of transport; and
•  Developing and promoting car sharing, carpooling, taxi and Uber-style services, and active means of transportation such as electric bikes.

Municipalities purchased 10 EVs as well as related infrastructure in 2019. This was a key part of the plan for a number of reasons: 

•  Having municipal staff and elected officials use an EV when possible rather than a gas-powered truck would directly lower employees’ GHG emissions.
•  These vehicles would serve as a model for community members curious about EVs, and showcase their suitability for the region and municipalities’ readiness to support them.
•  Municipal EVs would be made available during off hours (generally, during evenings and weekends) to community members as part of the TCiTé car-sharing service at a cost of $7 per hour.

The EVs were equipped with an information module to track things like battery level, charging status and current location, and to allow for access via RFID cards rather than keys. Each participating municipality also built its own version of an electric service station, a hub that offers EV charging as well as other amenities such as bus shelters, bicycle racks and community-owned electric bikes.

The municipal-RÉGÎM collaboration allowed for shared responsibility in a way that preempted potential challenges. For instance, while municipal offices tend to be closed on evenings and weekends, the transportation organization was already operating during those times. This made them the natural fit to oversee relationships with EV users from the community at large.

Barriers

One major challenge in implementation was persuading employees accustomed to using pick-up trucks for everything, or to using their own vehicles for work-related trips, that they should use EVs instead when appropriate. Education about using “the right vehicle for the right job” was helpful to encourage staff to make the switch.

An additional barrier was related to vehicle insurance. Municipalities had to convince insurers to extend coverage on the EVs so that it would encompass car sharing. 

Results

The 10 EVs purchased have had a direct impact on communities’ environmental impact: using an EVs rather than a gas-powered vehicle reduces emissions of a single vehicle by an estimated 95 percent. Participating municipalities have seen lower fuel consumption and vehicle wear and tear: estimates show that replacing gas-powered vehicles with EVs could result in savings of up to 84 percent in fuel costs.   

Between June 2021 and March 2022, 175 users made a total of 300 reservations; these users were both internal (employees and elected officials) and external (community members).

Benefits

The car sharing program offers a number of benefits:

•  Fleet usage by external users during evenings and weekends is a revenue opportunity for municipalities.
•  Letting community members rent vehicles on an hourly basis gives them the chance to try out an EV and might increase their motivation to buy one themselves when it comes time to replace their current vehicle.
•  The management and reservation system that was developed to handle the car sharing program can be used by other organizations.

In addition, the TCiTé program overall has had and will have numerous benefits for the community, including:

• Reducing personal vehicle use and maintenance.
• Promoting safe travel for all, keeping equity in mind.
• Energizing and reviving regional communities.
• Providing communities with affordable public transit.
• Implementing electric charging stations that will serve as “rest stops” and tourist attractions.
• Connecting cities and smaller municipalities by creating EV travel routes.
• Reducing transportation costs and helping workers who don’t own a vehicle.

Lessons learned

An important part of this project has been communication and raising awareness. Partners have learned that there is no such thing as too much training and information. One aspect of this, for instance, is that users who sign up for car sharing are given an information package with everything they need to know, and the team created an FAQ to help customer service staff provide answers to common questions.

The group has realized that elected officials and municipal employees are highly visible members of the community and, as such, the ways they choose to get around are influential. Encouraging these groups to be active participants in transportation projects such as TCiTé both sets an example and helps reinforce a sense of community ownership.

Another key aspect of this project was experimentation and agility. Partners weren’t sure out of the gate how staff and community members would use the EVs, and made sure to be open to different modes as usage took off. For instance, they began with an hourly rental rate but quickly realized that some users wanted to borrow a vehicle for an entire day, so they adapted by also offering a daily rate.

Next steps

Project partners are pleased with the results thus far and sustainable transportation continues to be part of decision-makers’ long-term vision. Future goals include:

• Increasing the number and variety of available vehicles.
•  Working with more interested municipalities to include EV purchases for car-sharing in their budgets.
•  Continuing to promote the sharing economy within the public sector.

When it comes to electrification in particular, RÉGÎM has decided it would like to switch its entire transportation network to electric not only for environmental reasons, but for economic and social ones as well.

Read the transcript

Summary

While natural assets such as wetlands are known to provide both tangible and intangible benefits for communities, their value can be hard to put a number on. The Alberta municipality of Parkland County has been experiencing both extreme weather events and degradation of natural infrastructure, and they wanted to evaluate the costs and benefits of maintaining and restoring wetlands and other ecosystems. By partnering at the watershed level with local NGOs and academia, they were able to complete a project involving mapping, modelling and analysis to better understand the value of these ecosystems and build a quantifiable business case for preserving and restoring them not only within their own borders, but across municipal boundaries as well.

Background

Parkland County is a municipality with a diversity of landscapes. Its eastern areas experience a lot of pressure from urban development, while the western side is more agricultural, with plenty of farm and ranch land. From an ecological perspective, the county encompasses a number of ecosystems including wetlands, rivers and small lakes, thereby hosting a great deal of potential habitat and biodiversity. However, the municipality has seen a 56 percent loss of wetland area between 1950 and 2013, and only 53 percent of its riparian areas remain intact.  

The county overlaps with the Modeste watershed, an area of about 4,800 square kilometres upstream of Edmonton that drains into the North Saskatchewan River and influences the drinking water of more than 1.6 million people.

In recent years, Parkland County and the surrounding region have experienced a number of extreme weather events, including:

•  Large-scale wildfires in disturbed peatlands and forests,
• Flooding of roadways, private properties and agricultural land,
•  Disruptions to water treatment from high volumes of contaminated run-off due to large storms, and
•  Drought conditions resulting in major agricultural losses.

Not only do such events affect residents’ quality of life, but they impact service delivery and increase costs. 

Given these challenges and the rising threat of climate change, the municipality and its partners posed the question: To what degree do natural assets such as wetlands help mitigate the effects of extreme weather events and landscape changes over time? And how might municipalities improve this natural infrastructure to support climate resilience and reduce servicing costs? 

The challenge

Too often, natural spaces such as wetlands are seen as unproductive land that’s ripe for development. However, evidence suggests that beyond their intrinsic value, these ecosystems provide quantifiable social, economic and structural value to the local and global community, including: 

• Water filtration and retention
•  Increased water storage capacity for droughts
•  Lower risk of flooding
•  Carbon sequestration
•  Increased wildlife habitat and biodiversity

Parkland Country and its partners wanted to do the math on this value and to evaluate the costs and benefits of preserving and improving wetlands and other natural infrastructure on agricultural land as they relate to municipal servicing, agricultural production and the community as a whole. 

The goal was to quantify related cost savings, efficiency and other metrics in terms that would make decision-making easier for municipal stakeholders, and to stress the potential negative impacts should further ecosystem losses occur.

Approach

The project was based on a recognition that in order to successfully achieve environmental goals, environmental considerations must be integrated into all aspects of land use and service delivery provided by a municipality. In addition, as many municipal decisions are made through the budgeting process, it is important to demonstrate cost savings or cost efficiency when highlighting the value of natural infrastructure to improve service delivery and climate resilience. 

The fact that natural ecosystems do not coincide with municipal boundaries was a factor as well. Changes to the land in one municipality will ultimately affect others within that watershed, which means such projects benefit from being conducted at a regional or collaborative level.

The importance of natural assets is expected to increase under a changing climate, and therefore climate data and related considerations were incorporated into the analysis.

The plan consisted of two phases. The first was to understand ecosystem value and the costs of restoration. The second was to build a quantifiable business case for using natural infrastructure solutions to help solve ongoing drainage issues. The two phases included:

• Mapping and modelling current natural assets and the impact of a range of scenarios — previously implemented restoration projects, further natural asset restoration and further natural asset loss — on water quality and quantity;
•  Quantifying the actual costs of natural asset restoration on the ground;
•  Analyzing the potential cost versus benefit of natural asset restoration on municipal servicing for road maintenance and water treatment, agricultural insurance and public recreation;
•  Identifying priority assets for restoration to meet municipal water quality goals in the most cost- and land-effective manner; and
•  Mapping drainage issue hotspots and quantifying the potential costs and benefits of restoring natural assets upstream to improve service levels, reduce road maintenance costs and adapt to climate change.

Barriers

The project revealed a range of barriers to natural asset management for the county, such as: 

•  A lack of standardization for developing natural asset inventories, valuation and financial reporting;
• Limited staff capacity and resources, a common issue in smaller municipalities in Alberta;
•  Conflicting policies and regulations that could indirectly encourage the elimination of natural assets such as wetlands; and
•  The existence of large data gaps for rural asset systems, both natural and traditional.

Natural infrastructure is a new challenge for many municipalities. Incorporating it into planning, operations and financing is not a simple task and doing so will require new data collection and analysis as well as building relationships with private landowners and other stakeholders.

Results

Overall, the project demonstrated that municipalities can and should consider the value of natural assets in their everyday decision-making. Parkland County now has a stronger understanding of the value of natural assets to their community, especially in terms of their road and drainage network, and an improved understanding of the financial costs of climate change. For instance, modelling shows that natural assets are feasible tools to use for climate adaptation of road infrastructure.

Council, management and staff are now all better equipped to make decisions regarding natural assets. They are using results and recommendations from this project to better understand the value of natural infrastructure as well as the potential impact of its loss on the community, and to incorporate a consideration of natural assets into the decision-making process. For example, planning and development staff can now make a better case to retain a wetland during land development for its water management potential.

The project has also helped staff estimate the cost of meeting certain water quality and quantity goals through natural asset restoration so that they can prioritize budgets accordingly. 

For instance, one goal is to reduce the quantity of total suspended solids (TSS) in waterways. These particles — think sediment, bacteria and algae — float in water without dissolving, and cause increased water temperatures and decreased oxygen, resulting in lower water quality. The municipality has estimated that it will cost $170,303 annually to reduce TSS in waterways by 5 percent (3,000 tonnes) each year through building wetlands and riparian buffers. Their modelling also shows them where to install these natural assets to get the most impact for the lowest cost.

Benefits

The initiative has had a number of additional benefits, including:

• An increase in useful data about the region’s natural infrastructure, such as the creation of new asset maps showing agricultural land management and land use, and an improved asset management system.
• An increase in momentum to integrate natural asset management across the organization.
•  Valuable recommendations to improve the municipality’s drainage issues database and record keeping, so that staff can better manage and improve these assets and find ways in which natural assets can relieve pressure on traditional infrastructure.
•  Stronger community partnerships, such as with farmers and ranchers, and improved incentives for these community members to participate in restoring natural assets.
•  Improved water and ecosystem health, including increased wildlife and pollinator habitat, better water quality and carbon sequestration.
• Improved understanding of the cost of climate change.

Lessons learned

First and foremost, the team concluded that engaging staff at every level was key to the project’s success. For example, staff were able to give input on how their day-to-day realities relate to big-picture thinking on natural infrastructure.

This project also highlighted the importance of partnering with agricultural producers in cases such as this where the natural assets in question are on agricultural land. To this end, they administer the ALUS program whereby farmers and ranchers receive financial support to conserve and restore natural assets on their land. The results of this project are now being used to prioritize funding for ALUS projects as well as to direct communications to areas where asset improvements can have the most impact. 

Another important realization was that natural infrastructure analyses are very site specific and local modelling is required. 

Next steps

Parkland County’s intention is to increase the integration of natural asset management and climate change adaptation into existing policies and planning documents. For example, staff are incorporating project results into the new Stormwater Master Plan to prioritize natural infrastructure that has a high impact on drainage. 

Staff are also hoping that the project can lead to a more robust and format asset management plan that includes inventoried natural assets with quantifiable financial value to the county. This will help with the transition to natural assets being recorded on municipal balance sheets. 

In addition, project partners intend to expand their assessment to a watershed level. This will mean sharing their approach with neighbouring municipalities through regional watershed planning alliances. 

Since the project was completed, Parkland County has completed and embarked on a number of related initiatives:

•  They are including policy in their Municipal Development Plan update to require land developers to identify and mitigate negative impacts to natural assets during the land development process.
•  They have applied for funding to complete a natural asset inventory for the entire county as well as to update their Engineering Design Standards to include natural infrastructure options or requirements along with grey infrastructure in stormwater management and landscaping.
•  They have implemented a four-hectare wetland construction project and a shoreline bioengineering project, both of which have been connected to the road and drainage system to mitigate erosion and flooding issues.

Quote

“In Parkland County our goal is not just to integrate sustainability considerations into the asset management process, but to embed the asset management process into our environmental and sustainability programs.”

– Krista Quesnel, Manager, Community Sustainability

Read the transcript

Summary

Household energy use is a significant contributor to Canada’s carbon emissions. In the Maritimes, where fuel oil and fossil fuels are common sources of heat and electricity, this effect is especially pronounced. Improving home energy efficiency and installing clean energy sources can make a difference, but the upfront costs are often a barrier. In three municipalities in P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, a new program is offering financing to homeowners to help them retrofit their houses for better efficiency — and to save money on energy costs, too.

Background

Household energy use makes a significant contribution to Canada’s carbon footprint. Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador in particular stand out among all the provinces and territories as having the highest household GHG emissions per capita. One key reason for this is that it is common in the region to use fuel oil to heat homes. In Nova Scotia, as well, electricity predominantly comes from burning fossil fuels, contributing greatly to the province’s emissions. Households in Atlantic Canada spend more on energy than in any other province.

All this means that there is a huge opportunity in the Maritimes to make substantial reductions in GHG emissions by helping households reduce their energy usage and shift toward cleaner energy sources. 

The challenge

While rebates are available for energy-efficient home upgrades such as improving insulation and installing solar and heat pump systems, upfront costs are still high and not accessible to all Canadians.

One way to bridge this gap is through a PACE (property assessed clean energy) program. Common in the U.S. and spreading into Canada, PACE is a means to finance building retrofits on private property to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.

In 2020, a group of three small municipalities — Charlottetown and Stratford in P.E.I. and Wolfville, N.S. — teamed up with community interest corporation PACE Atlantic to design and launch a regional PACE program. The goal: to empower homeowners to take action on climate change by upgrading their homes — and to save them money at the same time.

Approach

The three municipalities launched their PACE program, branded as Switch, in July 2021. Thanks to funding from FCM’s Community Efficiency Financing initiative, they were able to start offering homeowners interest-free loans with no upfront costs on up to 20-year terms for energy-efficient retrofits. Residential property owners can apply for project loans including:

•  Solar panel installation
•  Heat pump installation
•  EV charger installation
•  Improving insulation
• Replacing windows and doors

To cover administration expenses, loan amounts include a fee of 5 percent of the total project cost. Program administration is part of the appeal for homeowners: Switch staff don’t just guide them through paperwork and the process of finding and hiring a contractor, but also help them access federally funded free home energy assessments and rebates from provincial efficiency organizations. In addition, each participant is assigned an energy concierge, who oversees the project from start to finish.

One goal of these partner municipalities was to have participation from a wide range of demographics. With this in mind, they set a target that 15 percent of participants should be low-income qualified (with an annual household income of up to $55,000).

All projects are designed to be cash flow positive, meaning that homeowners should see monthly savings on their utility bills that exceed the cost of loan repayments. 

Results

Together, Switch Charlottetown, Switch Wolfville and Switch Stratford have become the fastest-growing PACE programs ever in Canada. As of mid-June 2022, Switch Charlottetown and Switch Stratford had: 

•  Provided almost $2 million in financing for 131 completed projects
•  Signed another 177 project agreements
•  Reached 1.4 percent of all eligible dwellings in Charlottetown and 3.5 percent in Stratford

Of these homes reached, around 30 percent sign more than one agreement — that is, complete more than one project to achieve deep energy retrofits in their homes.

In its first year of programming, Switch achieved a total of:

•  332 homes committed to be retrofitted
•  $6.2 million in committed capital to be distributed and invested by homeowners
•  $565,000 in annual energy cost savings
•  1,062 tonnes of annual CO2e reduction

The Switch programs continue to grow in impact and as of November 1, 2022, they have a total of 586 projects underway or completed, including:

• 148 solar panel installations
• 238 heat pump installations
• 73 insulation installations
• 127 other installations (e.g., EV chargers, HRV systems, doors and windows)

Benefits

One additional benefit of reducing fuel oil usage in a community is lessening the likelihood of environmental damage due to accidental spills. In Wolfville, the two main water sources are drilled wells in a dense urban setting. One of the goals of Switch Wolfville is to protect these assets.

The Switch program is also developing employment opportunities in the region. One year in and the program has created more than 130 jobs, and there are projections for that number to grow to more than 210 by early 2025.

In addition, social equity and accessibility were built into the program. Participants in each community are from a wide range of demographics and neighbourhoods, and an estimated 15 to 20 percent of homeowners taking part in the program are from a low- to middle-income bracket. The value of retrofitted homes in the program ranges from $90,000 to $470,000.

One advantage of Switch over similar programs is that there is no minimum project cost, and in fact, about one-quarter of jobs completed have had a cost of under $5,000. Lower-income homeowners who install solar panels in darker times of the year — when there is less sun to provide power to their new system — have access to a layaway program, whereby loan payments are deferred until spring.

Lessons learned

The value of working together has been a major component of the Switch program’s success. Participating municipalities and PACE Atlantic CIC had complementary capabilities and neither could have run the programs without the other. 

One factor in getting elected officials and communities on board has been the multiple benefits offered by the program: not only does it have positive environmental effects, but it saves participants money and provides work for local businesses. Emphasizing all of these benefits helps to get buy-in from stakeholders with a wide range of priorities.

Next steps

Switch is currently transitioning from a pilot funded by municipalities to a sustainable, long-term program funded by private capital, though PACE Atlantic CIC will continue to administer it. This will allow them to continue to offer the program and to scale up the number of home retrofits in these communities. While this means that financing will no longer be 0% interest, the ROI for homeowners on their projects has typically been between 20 and 40 percent, meaning that there is room in budgets for participants to pay interest on loans while still saving money overall.

Read the transcript

Summary

A challenge facing many municipalities is how to divert more waste from landfill, both to lower GHG emissions and to reduce their need for landfill space. In Quebec’s Lac-Saint-Jean region, communities and waste management have teamed up to create Réemploi+, an organization that is creating a system for waste diversion and reuse while also developing skills training opportunities. Residents’ donations are sorted and prepared to be sold in special hardware stores that hire local workers and bring in revenue to help fund the program. The result: a more circular economy and a local culture that values lower-waste living.

Background

The Régie des matières résiduelles du Lac-Saint-Jean (RMR), or Waste Management Corporation of Lac Saint-Jean, is an intermunicipal organization that serves Lac Saint-Jean and Mashteuiatsh, Quebec. The region includes a population of 108,629 spread across 36 different municipalities. 

As in many regions, the RMR has been facing the challenge of limited landfill capacity. For this reason, as well as to reduce GHG emissions from landfills and waste management as part of the fight against climate change, the organization was looking for innovative ways to reduce waste and the overconsumption of disposable goods. It was also hoped for these initiatives to have a social component, to benefit the community at multiple levels.

The challenge

There are many ways to divert waste from landfill. One of these is reuse: finding a second life for materials that would otherwise be thrown out. It’s with this goal in mind that the RMR created a new social economy organization called Réemploi+, which translates to “reuse plus” in English. The idea is to encourage residents to donate usable items rather than sending them to landfill, and then sort these items for resale. The environmental benefits are twofold: not only can the quantity of waste be reduced, but the number of new goods coming into the community can be reduced as well. 

Of course, this kind of program requires staff, which is where the secondary focus of the Réemploi+ concept lies: creating work, training and integration opportunities for residents isolated from the labour market. In addition, the RMR believed that Réemploi+ would help strengthen the community by empowering citizens to participate in a local project that’s making a difference. 

Approach

The RMR launched Réemploi+ in 2021 with four pillars of action:

1. Create reuse sorting stations in all seven regional ecocentres.
2. Create three reuse hardware stores to sell refurbished goods and generate $3 million in annual sales.
3. Develop reuse workshops where high-potential goods can be fixed, mended and repurposed.
4. Create training and opportunities to help people boost their employability and job skills.

Sorting stations accept a wide range of goods, from nails and screws to large items such as fences and gazebos. Wood is anticipated to make up 70 percent of materials received; its reuse will make a large dent in GHG emissions. Shoppers at Réemploi+ hardware stores can expect to find a wide range of items — think toilets and sinks, hardwood and vinyl flooring, and electrical goods — at a lower cost than buying new.

Barriers

The team has overcome a number of challenges:

•  Due to the pandemic, the implementation of deposits and donations was slower than anticipated, which delayed revenue-generating opportunities.
•  It was difficult to project the specific kinds of materials residents would donate and thus what the project’s storage and transportation requirements would be. Once donations were underway, the team was able to adjust expectations and needs accordingly.
•  Because of a lack of available space and difficulties with the procurement process, the first store didn’t open until November 2021, which was later than anticipated.
•  Human resources have been an ongoing challenge. It has been difficult to find the right candidates to manage the development of this new organization and its operational activities, while sustaining employee commitment. Two general directors were hired in one year.

Results

As of November 2022, Réemploi+ has achieved the following:

•  Established sorting stations in six ecocentres
•  Set up a primary 9,000-square-foot warehouse and a secondary smaller warehouse for storing donations
•  Set up repair and repurposing processes for collected items
•  Run a series of work programs to help people develop employability skills
•  Filled 33 staff positions, with additional openings available
•  Opened two hardware stores, with plans for a third to open in spring 2023

When complete, the project will:

• Divert 5,000 tons per year of waste from landfill and recycling
•  Reduce GHG emissions by 20 percent within three years
•  Increase the landfill diversion rate from 64 to 67 percent

Benefits

One key focus of Réemploi+ is on developing jobs and skilled workers. When the project is up to full speed, revenue from sales of diverted materials will fully fund 35 jobs. As part of this, it has the potential to train 200 people per year.

In addition, while the project has strong direct environmental benefits, it also has the potential to shift the local culture toward one that values reuse, a circular economy, buying local, and collective entrepreneurship. This is helped by the fact that residents can purchase goods from the Réemploi+ hardware stores at a lower cost than buying new.

Lessons learned

The biggest lesson the team has learned is that this kind of project needs to be flexible, so that staff can try different things and learn from what works. Consumer interest in the local community is what will influence the direction future reuse and repurposing programs go in.

Next steps

The Réemploi+ team continues to implement its original strategy with modifications made as needed. Future goals include:

• Open all three hardware stores
•  Integrate electrified transportation of donations and reused goods to further reduce GHGs
•  Fully ramp up the training and employment component

Quote

“The Réemploi+ project is more than just a financial commitment. It’s a moral commitment to a collective and innovative solution for waste reuse that leverages the skills of the people of Lac-Saint-Jean.”

Read the transcript

View all case studies for the 2022 Sustainable Communities Award winners. 

Summary

Food waste is a contributor to climate change not only because of the associated unnecessary energy use, but because organic materials decomposing in landfill produce greenhouse gases. When food is discarded, it is a missed opportunity to redistribute that food to people who can eat or otherwise use it. In order to find the most impactful ways to reduce food waste, Guelph-Wellington conducted a study that examined the local food system from production to export and consumption. It found a number of solutions to the food waste problem that have the potential to both address economic inequality and reduce the community’s carbon footprint. 

Background

Guelph-Wellington encompasses the City of Guelph and Wellington County. This region in southern Ontario has a population of about 223,000, almost 60 percent of whom live in the city. The county is largely rural with strong ties to food and agriculture. Predominant products include corn, wheat and soybeans as well as beef, swine and poultry. 

The community identified food waste as an opportunity to address both inequality and the climate crisis. A great deal of food waste is avoidable, meaning that with improved organization and distribution, the so-called waste could be saved for consumption. In addition, both avoidable (e.g., rotten fruit, stale bread) and unavoidable (e.g., egg shells, vegetable peels) food waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions along the entire chain, from the resources used to produce discarded food to the methane created should organics end up in landfill. 

The challenge

Guelph-Wellington wanted to turn food waste into a valuable resource by creating a circular food economy in the region and reimagining how the community produces, distributes, sells and consumes food. The goal: to reduce the quantity of food sent to composting or disposal facilities in favour of either consuming it or using it for higher-value purposes.

In order to take on this challenge, Our Food Future was established. The group’s vision includes three pillars:

• Increase access to affordable, nutritious food by 50 percent, where “waste” becomes a resource;
• Create 50 new circular businesses and collaboration opportunities; and
• Produce a 50 percent increase in circular economic benefit by unlocking the value of waste.

Approach

In order to achieve this vision, the team needed to better understand the local food landscape so that they could find opportunities to make positive change. With this in mind, Our Food Future launched a project that consisted of three stages:

1. Gathering and analyzing data on food and food waste in the region.
2. Engaging with local stakeholders to build a roadmap and identify the best specific interventions to undertake in order to find higher-value uses for food waste.
3. Piloting three of these potential interventions.

A key factor in the project was engaging the expertise and insight of multiple partners — not just the city and the country but also subject matter experts, non-profits, private sector companies and governmental organizations, both in and outside the region — who had valuable perspectives to share. One way this group participated was in defining the ways success would be measured, including:

• Value recovery of edible food,
•  Total organic waste diverted,
•  Reduction of environmental footprint, and
•  Incremental economic value of outputs.

Barriers

Data collection and creating a standard data set was one of the major challenges in this project due to:

•  The multiple sources needed,
•  The absence of certain sets of data, and
•  The time required to convert received data into standard units, to match food commodity categories and to analyze the quality of data to ensure a quality final output.

After the initial material flow analysis (MFA) was completed, the team purchased additional data sets for comparison and to verify results. They found that the more relevant of the two sets confirmed their initial analysis and concluded that freely available data is adequate for this kind of study, which is useful knowledge for other municipalities looking to replicate this project.

Another challenge was having to pivot from in-person to virtual engagement sessions, which was originally seen as a negative outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they were able to create useful and engaging virtual sessions by using digital collaboration platforms including Miro and Mural, which they found were a good way to collect a large amount of useful feedback efficiently. There have since been requests to continue with virtual sessions because many participants find them a more convenient way to participate. 

Results

Most importantly, the community gained a solid understanding of the food system in the region and of where waste occurs. They obtained an MFA in the form of a Sankey diagram, which is a visual representation of the flow of resources through the food system, including both production and consumption patterns. 

The data gathered shows the environmental impacts of consumption patterns, such as greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater withdrawals and land use per kilogram.

The team identified five “hotspots” where food waste is high-impact or causes a high loss of economic value. These included storage and packing areas of the supply chain as well as households, hotels and businesses. They then chose three of these hotspots as business cases to be piloted, based on three factors: feasibility, potential effectiveness and community enthusiasm.

Benefits

Thanks to this completed MFA and roadmap, the Guelph-Wellington community has discovered opportunities not only to decrease waste, but to increase access to affordable and nutritious food. The team is assessing potential projects on their economical and social impact as well as environmental. One proposed pilot project in particular will focus on how best to use food redirection platforms so that usable food can be rescued and consumed or upcycled rather than wasted.

Lessons learned

One major lesson learned from this project that it is immensely valuable to find effective ways to communicate complex data sets. The infographic the team created to illustrate the MFA has garnered “awe and excitement” from stakeholders for how clearly it depicts the local food system and potential solutions to waste. 

While it takes rigorous data collection and analysis and extra effort to produce this kind of graphic, the end result makes it easier for stakeholders to quickly understand the information being communicated and to identify priorities and work toward actionable change.

Next steps

The Our Food Future team is currently working with FCM on a proposal to launch the three interrelated pilot projects identified during the analysis:

•  Expand Industrial, Commercial & Institutional (ICI) Food and Food Waste Collection;
•  Enhance Existing Food and Food Waste Redirection Platforms; and
•  Harness Energy Potential of Food Waste.

These include the food redirection project mentioned above as well as an investigation of how to turn unavoidable food waste into electricity through anaerobic digestion, with a potential reduction of up to 1,800 tons of CO2e annually. They are also creating a workbook for the sake of replicability, to help other communities perform similar analyses.

Quote

“By creating a more circular food system, we're strengthening our community, ensuring greater access to good nutrition and taking action to address the climate crisis.”

– David Messer, Executive Director, Smart Cities Office, City of Guelph

Read the transcript

Summary

Many Canadian municipalities have declared a climate emergency and are seeking ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. One major contributor to these emissions is ice rinks, which make up about one-quarter of energy usage from municipal buildings. In order to find cost-effective ways to reduce the carbon footprint of these facilities, a group of municipalities teamed up to analyze the issue and create net zero road maps for themselves, as well as a pathway for other rinks to follow. Results found a potential average savings per rink of 243.3 tons of CO2e by 2050, and show that not only are net zero retrofits cost-effective when planned well, but also have social, environmental and economic benefits beyond emissions reduction.

Background

When communities in Canada look at their greenhouse gas emissions from municipal buildings, ice rinks stand out. The math alone makes them an important emissions reduction target, as they typically make up 20 to 30 percent of energy use within the municipal building portfolio. But they are significant from the point of view of communications as well, as these well-used community hubs can showcase climate action by serving as an example of how to retrofit buildings and improve operations to meet efficiency and climate goals. 

The challenge

Despite a desire to make change, many municipalities lack the resources to conduct a thorough plan for these kinds of capital upgrades. For this reason, a group of seven southern Ontario municipalities teamed up with the non-profit Climate Challenge Network to conduct a pilot project with two primary goals:

1. Figure out how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal ice rinks and, ultimately, get them to net zero.
2. Develop a pathway for other rinks to follow.

Approach

The seven municipalities — Toronto, Brampton, Markham, Barrie, Caledon, Halton Hills and King — submitted a total of nine rinks to the study. 

This cohort approach had the value not only of sharing effort, risk and learnings, but of garnering a broad range of useful data. The rinks submitted were of various types, from older to more state-of-the-art, including one that hosted an Ontario Hockey League team and had its own requirements.

The project also incorporated a “zero-over-time” approach, meaning that roadmaps were created for minimal waste and maximum equipment life span by aligning capital improvements with required equipment renewal, and prioritized improvements in operations to achieve reductions as early as possible. 

The team conducted three phases of work:

1. Reviewed energy and building data, key drawings, capital plans and any previous energy audits or building condition assessments, plus conducted site visits to verify and gather further information.
2. Ran integrated design workshops and capital review workshops with building managers, technical experts and other stakeholders to create and assess solutions and plans.
3. Created a feasibility study for each rink, providing a summary of the building’s current status and emissions targets, a timeline of how to achieve reductions incrementally, a list of potential measures and a lifecycle financial analysis.

Barriers

The primary barrier was the difficulty in finding relevant building and trend data. In particular, drawings were missing for some of the older buildings, and many facilities lacked data for many systems.  

Results

The results from this project show that not only is it achievable for municipal ice rinks to transition to net zero, but it is financially feasible as well. In fact, over the lifespan of an ice rink, reducing emissions has positive economic benefits when you consider the total costs to operate, maintain and renew building equipment.

The feasibility studies demonstrated that an average of 85 percent emissions reduction can be achieved. This ranges from 26 percent for purely operational measures to 99 percent in a best-case scenario. 

Collectively, by following the roadmaps, the participating municipalities and rinks will be able to lower total emissions by 2,189 tons of CO2e by 2050.

Project participants have created a guidebook in partnership with FCM on achieving net zero ice rinks, and other municipalities have been reaching out for support to conduct their own studies. 

Benefits

In addition to lowering emissions, benefits of net zero building upgrades include:

•  Additional environmental benefits, such as less pollution
•  Waste reduction, due to maximizing the life span of infrastructure
•  Positive social impacts, including health, worker productivity and comfort
• Economic benefits, including lower energy bills

While these kinds of retrofits often have higher upfront capital costs than business-as-usual building maintenance, savings from lower energy bills can offset these costs, especially when calculated over the entire life span of the building. The key is to plan ahead and time energy-efficient retrofits for when equipment is already scheduled to be upgraded. 

Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency rather than building new has the added benefit of avoiding the upfront carbon emissions1 associated with creating any new materials. 

Lessons learned

The cohort has the following recommendations for municipalities looking to create their own net zero plans:

1. Gather building data and documentation as early as possible, to avoid slowing down the process.
2. Plan to implement a building automation system (BAS) as early as possible. A whole-building BAS helps maximize data collection and allows for easier identification of trends and potential savings opportunities.
3. Work collectively where possible, in a cohort with whom you can share ideas, expertise and risk. Incorporate an integrated design approach that includes all stakeholders to help with buy-in and avoid costly omissions.
4. Plan measures over time, with operational improvements first (to achieve early results) and capital retrofits timed with budgets and planned replacements.
5. Incorporate life cycle costing to show both emissions and cost savings over the longer term.

The team also highlighted the value of a coaching and peer-support approach to knowledge sharing. For example, one way to achieve significant emissions reductions in ice rinks is by switching from hot-water to cold-water ice resurfacing. While the cold-water method is just as effective when done properly, operators can see such a change as risky when the quality of ice is so important to facility users. Climate Challenge Network hosted a webinar on this method featuring rink operators already using the cold-water technology so that they could answer questions from their peers and offset any hesitation.

Next steps

Participating municipalities and rinks are now moving into the next phase of this project: finding funding to implement their road maps. They and Climate Challenge Network are working on various means of knowledge sharing beyond the guidebook, including webinars. In addition, plans are underway to conduct a similar cohort study on another big piece of municipal infrastructure: swimming pools. 

Read the transcript

Summary

Roads and vehicle traffic are a significant source of injury and mortality for wildlife, and road ecology experts are looking for ways to improve this situation, especially for species at risk. In one Ontario community, a road construction project presented an opportunity to try a new approach to reducing its impact on turtles and snakes. A group of partners came together to rescue reptiles from the roadside and research the effectiveness of various mitigation methods. The result? More than 3,500 turtle eggs saved, at a lower cost than traditional barrier fencing.

Background

The Township of The Archipelago encompasses several thousand islands in central Ontario along the eastern coast of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay, as well as a number of inland lakes. It has a total population of 13,332 residents, 979 of whom live there year-round, and is part of Shawanaga First Nation’s traditional territory.

The township is part of the Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere site, which was designated by UNESCO in 2004 as a model of sustainable development hosted in the traditional territory of the Anishinabek peoples. The Township itself considers sustainable asset management and preservation of the natural environment to be among its core principles. In 2019, the region was named a Community Nominated Priority Place for Species at Risk, meaning it was designated by and given funds from Environment and Climate Change Canada to support community efforts to protect endangered species.

Habitat fragmentation due to roads is known to be a major threat to wildlife worldwide. “Road ecology” is a field of study that aims to better understand this problem and the best ways to mitigate it, including the ways in which roads are built and maintained. Turtles are especially vulnerable to being harmed by roads for a number of reasons:

•  For most species, it takes several years — as many as 20 — to reach reproductive maturity.
• It takes about 1,200 to 1,400 eggs, or about 60 years, for a single turtle to replace itself in the wild.
•  Turtles and other reptiles require habitat connectivity to forage, mate, nest and overwinter; roads make it more difficult for these animals to move safely between habitat areas.
•  It’s not uncommon for turtles to be killed by vehicles before they’re old enough to reproduce.
•  Evidence suggests that many turtle species are in decline specifically because of road mortality.

The usual way of mitigating harm to wildlife during road work is by installing exclusion fencing. While this can be effective, it is only in place during the actual construction work and can actually create additional problems should the fencing structure be compromised. It can also be expensive to install in bedrock-rich environments such as are found in the Archipelago region.

The challenge

In 2020, an opportunity arose to use and test best practices from road ecology in an upcoming road works project. 

The Skerryvore Community Road connects the community of Skerryvore to Highway 69 as well as providing residents of Shawanaga First Nation with access to an ecologically significant wetland and spawning grounds. A 12-kilometre stretch of this road was due for resurfacing and culvert replacement. 

Stakeholders decided this was a good chance to study reptile use of the roadway and surrounding area while also exploring ways to reduce harm to turtles and snakes both during and after construction.

Approach

To fulfill the requirements of this project, and based on learnings from other road monitoring and turtle hatchery projects from groups such as Magnetawan First Nation, a partnership of local organizations came together. They included the Township, Shawanaga First Nation (SFN), the Georgian Bay Biosphere (GBB), Laurentian University, Tatham Engineering and local construction companies Hall Construction and Fowler Construction. 

The project spanned two years, which gave The Archipelago, SFN and GBB ample opportunity to study the effectiveness of various mitigation measures. In 2020, crews rehabilitated culverts and installed rip-rap — a collection of loose stone — along wetland edges. In 2021, they resurfaced the road.

All partners worked together to keep reptiles and their eggs safe. For example:

•  Staff and construction workers were taught about local reptile species and trained to identify, handle and move turtles and snakes from construction areas. They also participated in hatching release events.
•  GBB and SFN staff were present and on-call during construction to assist reptiles and move snake and turtle nests found on road-sides to GBB offices for incubation.
•  Together with Shawanaga First Nation, the team incorporated Indigenous traditional knowledge into the project’s day-to-day, for instance by using bilingual signage and including a tobacco offering during daily road surveys.
•  Construction included installation of rip-rap and paved road shoulders. Both methods are being researched by GBB and Laurentian University as means to deter female turtles from nesting on roadsides.

The study portion of the project included two types of surveys: road mortality and nesting. These helped researchers understand where and when reptiles were using the road and for what purpose — for instance, basking, nesting or crossing. This data is important to guide and assess mitigation measures both in The Archipelago and elsewhere. 

The team also made sure to engage the broader community in the project, through education and events. In 2021, for example, the GBB offices hosted turtle hatchery tours open to the public.

Results

One key finding of this project was that the novel approach to barriers was both more eco-friendly and more cost-effective than what is typically used. 

Including construction workers in conservation efforts and training them to care for reptiles found on site meant that these partners gained a sense of ownership and responsibility as well as new skills that can be brought to future projects.

Benefits

The project brought a number of benefits to the community and the local environment:

•  By not installing exclusion fencing, the team eliminated a number of harmful effects of such work. There was less disturbance of habitat, no risk of plastic or metal being left behind, and fewer GHG emissions from equipment and vehicles.
•  In 2021, 297 kg of greenhouse gases were saved by using e-bikes rather than gas-powered vehicles for road ecology monitoring.
•  Efforts to engage the local community meant that residents were on-board and engaged with the project, so much so that they were even bringing coffee to the construction crew. There is now increased local awareness of the cultural and ecological value of snakes and turtles.
•  The knowledge gained has helped inform conservation actions and direct further studies to assess replicability. Lessons learned will be applied to best practices for public works departments.
•  Protecting species and habitats is an important way to improve climate resilience. Across the two-year project period, more than 3,300 turtles were released back into the wetlands along Skerryvore Road.
•  The project has been an opportunity for the Township, GBB, Laurentian University and Shawanaga First Nation to work together and get to know each other’s capabilities and needs.

Lessons learned

One key success was the cooperation between numerous organizations connected to the region. In particular, it was an excellent opportunity for GBB and The Archipelago to partner with SFN on a project important to all involved.

This collaboration worked well in large part because partners had been developing their relationships for years, and had taken the time to build trust and reciprocity. For other municipalities who would like to embark on similar partnerships, Steven Kell, the species at risk biologist and project coordinator with SFN, has the following advice:

•  Reach out to First Nations and other Indigenous groups in your area, and learn about their capacities and preferred ways of communicating and working together. Remember that not every community will have specialists on staff, so it helps to use plain language.
• Convey all stages of a project to local Indigenous communities so that they can tailor their participation based on their capacity. Some parts of a project may be more applicable, or a better fit for their background.
•  Find out how communities use and have used the land in question, and how they would like to use it in future. For example, some members of Shawanaga First Nation access their land by foot or ATV and a reptile fence could hinder access, so construction plans should include options to get over that barrier.

Kell also points out some lessons learned on a more general level:

•  Involving multiple partners from the start is beneficial, including when it comes to the construction crew. While they might initially be resistant to working in new ways, they will grow to appreciate the value of environmental monitoring in the early stages due to how smoothly things go later on.
•  It’s important to have good data when attempting mitigation techniques, and it can be valuable in the end to delay a project to gather necessary information.
•  Look to the future — and be honest about long-term maintenance capabilities — when deciding on the best strategies to protect wildlife. A less-effective technique that requires less maintenance might be better in the long run than a more-effective technique that fails quickly.
•  Having boots on the ground and communicating with drivers is useful outreach and encourages them to be more cautious.

Next steps

The study evaluating how well rip-rap and paved shoulders deter turtles from nesting on roadsides will go on for multiple years. When it is complete, the results will be shared so that other municipalities — and other at-risk species — can benefit.

Quote

“Involving the construction crew in the hands-on portion of the biology work created a bond with the species that were being protected and resulted in further cooperation and protection, because the crew had a sense of guardianship over the animals and sites they were directly helping.”

– Steven Kell, species at risk biologist and project coordinator, Shawanaga First Nation