2008 City of Castlegar

Small City - Big Beginnings

The City of Castlegar has begun its path to GHG reductions when it signed the Climate Action Charter in 2007. Its first major corporate action was in the design and construction of its new City Hall. The project entailed the removal of an old energy inefficient city building and replaced with a 12,000 sq. ft. building designed to save over 275,000 Kwh per year versus a similarly sized conventional building. This represents a savings of over 50.4% compared to a conventional building. Most importantly the new building will save 28,740 kg of GHG. The building was priced at $4.2 M and came in on budget and on time.

The main energy saver was design of a geothermal well. In addition, the building design has incorporated a number of other features including:
- building control systems for switching off lights automaticallyat the end of the day, and daylight photo sensors dimming lights automatically according to the amount of sunshine,
- thermally broken window frames with no heat loss.
- energy efficient elevator that uses 25% less power to operate than normal elevators;
- sun tunnels to provide natural light to the upper floor walkway;
- energy efficient glazing
- insulation at R-40;
- heat air exchanger
- one water temperature only for all washroom fixtures.

In addition the new building has used other environmentally friendly features including low-flush toilets, environmentally friendly recycled roof material and xeriscape landscaping.

The Building has received a 2008 FortisBC PowerSense Award for an organization that promotes or demonstrates leadership in energy efficiency design or practice.

The City has also begun other corporate initiatives on its GHG reduction program. The City has begun a public composting facility this year. It has approved a curbside recycling program to start September 1, of this year. It has applied for an ICSP funding grant to review the City's landuse and development policies. It has commissioned a Water Sustainability Management Plan and has begun installing residential water meters as a fundamental step towards water conservation. In addition the City has also undertaken new corporate processes designed at reducing our GHG. Public Works is now using a mix of bio-diesel fuels with conventional fuels for fleet vehicles. The City has established a No-Idling policy and has encouraged other members of the community to follow suit. The City has begun to mix the Treatment Plant sludge with wood chips to produce Class B compost that is suitable for City landscaping requirements. The City has also begun to install Pedestrian Crossing solar powered lights for the first time in the City and the City is retrofitting all municipal buildings such as the firehall with energy efficient lighting.
All of the above has developed very quickly for our small City and we believe it is a good example for other small municipalities just starting on their own path to GHG reductions .

2008 City of Dawson Creek

THIS application is based on a number groundbreaking studies, initiated by the City of Dawson Creek and completed in 2008, to study the potential for Solar, Wind and Bio Mass energy utilization as well as Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Improvements for New Homes in Dawson Creek, a study proposing green building code options. These studies provide important information and potential actions to assist in the achievment of the greenhouse gas reduction goals set out in the City of Dawson Creek Climate Action Plan.

2008 City of Pitt Meadows

Due to its location, surrounded by agricultural lands, the City of Pitt Meadows has recognized the limitations of its urban area, and the need for sustainable developments. The City has recently adopted a Council Policy that requires the completion of a "Smart Growth Checklist for Development Applications" for all Development Permit, Land Use Bylaw Amendment, and Official Community Plan Amendment applications. The checklist is adapted from the City of New Westminster.
The checklist will be used in addition to the policies and requirements found in the Official Community Plan and as such, this checklist is not intended to be used as a tool to enforce the implementation of Smart Growth practices, but instead to provide the means to determine the sustainable potential of a proposed development. Depending on the nature of the project not all questions will be relevant at all times, however, the requirement by Council for an applicant to complete the list will emphasize the importance placed on sustainable development initiatives in the City of Pitt Meadows.
The checklist addresses the economic, environmental and social sustainability of a potential project, and requires that applicants provide information about the potential employment, the proximity to shopping and transportation, the energy efficiency of the proposed structures, the use of renewable energy alternatives, LEED Certification, storm water management, provision of green space and other amenities, accessibility and many other sustainable development practices.

2008 City of Prince George

Application in the Corporate Operations category based on work in the Energy Management field within Civic Facilities.

Over the past decade the Civic Facilities Division has partnered with BC Hydro Power Smart to undertake many individual energy improvement projects, including lighting upgrades, building energy management system installations, ice plant efficiency improvements and heat recovery, and separately building envelope/roofing insulation upgrade projects. Although these projects all resulted in substantial energy reductions, it was decided a more comprehensive energy management program which would involve getting all staff to buy in to energy management would be a substantial benefit for the city.

In late 2007 the City of Prince George formally partnered with BC Hydro under their Energy Manager Program and hired the firm Energy Advantage Inc. to act in the capacity of Energy Manager. This followed the city producing an Energy and Greenhouse Gas Management Plan, having a One-2-Five Energy Diagnostic completed, and partnering with Direct Energy for natural gas procurement flexibility. The One-2-Five Energy report identified that the city could save from $250,000 to $350,000 yearly in energy savings through improved energy management.

The energy manager project is now in its' first year 3rd quarter with executive and working groups identified, capital and operating budgets set up, energy audits completed on 12 major facilities, a new energy policy being developed, and initial work completed on identifying reasonable payback projects to tackle first. We will be capping off the first year of work by producing a Sustainable Energy Management Plan.

2008 City of Richmond

Watermania wave pool is located at 14300 Entertainment Blvd. in Richmond. the building was constructed in 1997 and is 74,043 sq.ft. in area.

The baseline: The building's HVAC system consisted of two chilled water cooling/hot water heating custom made (100 tons, 41000 CFM each) scott springfield units AHU-1 & AHU-2 located on lower roof on east and west side of the building. The air was supplied to and returned from the pool via main round ducts (suspended from the ceiling) and commercial type grilles on each side of the pool. Chilled water serving the chilled water coils was generated and circulated by two pumps CP-1 & CP-2 using an indoor 200 tons MQQUAY chiller located in main mechanical room by the pool and BAC cooling tower located
outside. Two RBI gas boilers B-1 & B-2, 4000 MBH each provided heating water to heating coils inside the AHU-1 and AHU-2. In addition to these units , there were also nine roof top electric cooling and gas heating Carrier packaged units RTU-1 through RTU-9 spread out on east and west side of the building on lower roof. There were a number of roof mounted type exhaust fans serving rest rooms, mechanical rooms and pool equipment rooms. One roof mounted exhaust fan worked in combination with make-up air unit MAU-1 serving the locker rooms.

Energy-saving project: This project included boiler upgrades, dehumidification system component replacement, and enhanced digital building controls. The existing mid-efficiency boilers were upgraded to advanced high-efficiency boilers. In addition to enhancing the heating capacity in order to satisfy periods of increased demand, the boiler upgrade also designed to reduce annual energy consumption by 2500 GJ. The existing twin screw chiller was replaced with a centrifugal chiller capable of performing heat recovery. The new chiller performs mechanical refrigeration to condense and dehumidify the pool natatorium air. In the process, waste heat is recovered by the dehumidification system and recycled for supply air and pool water heating. By minimizing reliance on outdoor makeup air and recovering waste heat, the chiller was improved overall air quality and designed to reduce energy loss by 4800 GJ. In addition, the digital automated building controls were upgraded to integrate all system components and to ensure that energy savings are achieved. The system enhancement includes software upgrade, installation of new Ethernet system, site controllers and process control units.

2008 District of Saanich

The attached report outlines Saanich's groundbreaking Municipal Carbon Neutral Reserve Fund (the Fund) which commits Saanich to carbon neutrality and sets a new level of excellence for municipal climate change initiatives. The implementation of the Fund was approved by Saanich Council in September of 2007, along with a set of principles designed to ensure the proper management of projects utilizing the Fund. It is to be used only for new GHG-reducing initiatives within Saanich. The Fund is an innovative tool which, to our knowledge, has not been developed anywhere else in Canada. Projects stemming from this fund will make a significant contribution to GHG emission reduction in Saanich. Saanich takes pride in its reputation as a climate change leader and will continue to seek innovative ways to engage and educate the community and to share its knowledge with fellow local governments.

2008 District of Squamish

Challenged with unprecedented development and growth, Squamish has resolutely been conscious of making policy and decisions that will help build a resilient community. This includes the  Squamish Community Energy Action Plan (CEAP). This CEAP includes:
· Municipal: Energy Audits of existing buildings, and policies and standards for new municipal buildings.
· New-Building Green tool-kit: Guidelines, checklists and educational information for builders and developers for new multi-family, industrial, commercial and institutional buildings.
· Homebuilders Toolkit: Information for single-detached and duplex builders doing new construction and renovations
The CEAP also includes three key catalyst projects:
· District Energy - A pre-feasibility report for development of Neighbourhood Energy Utilities on brownfield redevelopment sites.
· Sustainability Block: A comprehensive report and guidelines that integrate energy efficiency and GHG reduction into the Smart Growth on the Ground context.
· Multi-Modal Transportation Hub: A series of guidelines, uses, and innovations to help develop a central, multi-modal transportation node in downtown Squamish that is designed to support options to the car.
District of Squamish Council has consistently endorsed and supported energy efficiency and GHG reduction targets and principals, with Council initiated pledges and substantial budget dollars, as well as participation in the ‘One Change - One Year Challenge', where each Councilor has adopted at least one GHG reduction action for an entire year.
Six-month review of the ‘One-Change - One Year Challenge', as well as deliverables of the Squamish CEAP will occur in September 2008.

2008 District of Ucluelet

Ucluelet residents and businesses are becoming some of the most energy-aware people in all of BC. Ucluelet's approach to achieving community-wide energy adaptation is dependent on the community's involvement, during both the design and implementation stages of the project. By interweaving innovative public engagement processes into policy review, the community has automatically created a level of understanding to the "why" and "how" of sustainability. These latest energy actions continue to provide long-lasting momentum that is required for achieving a sustainable energy system: Carbon Smart Workgroup; Energy Day; Green Building Guide & BuildGreen Network; LiveSmart BC Low Income Housing Program; and LEED Gold Community Hub & Daycare. When kids are asking their parents to buy an electric car, local builders are competing to build the most energy efficient home, and the Municipal Treasurer is looking at life-cycle costing, you know that change is taking place.

2008 Regional District of Nanaimo

The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) Board of Directors has adopted an innovative green building policy that is among the first of its kind in the Province. The distinguishing feature of the ‘Green Building Policy for Regional District Facilities' is the requirement that all new construction undertaken by the RDN follow an integrated design process (IDP). This represents a departure from the conventional approach of local governments, typically requiring new construction to achieve a pre-determined green building standard.

The advantage of adopting a process-based green building policy lies in its inherent flexibility and adaptability to diverse circumstances. This enables the RDN, which builds and maintains an extremely wide range of facilities, to include all new construction in its green building policy. This flexibility also allows the RDN to prioritize energy efficiency and life-cycle costing, two key elements of the policy:

1. Based on the urgent need to mitigate climate change, all new construction will optimize energy efficiency and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Starting in 2010, efficiency measures will achieve a 50% reduction in tonnes of CO2 equivalent relative to the Model National Energy Code. This will increase incrementally until 2030, at which point the RDN is committed to building carbon neutral facilities.
2. The RDN will use the life-cycle costing approach to reveal the long-term savings associated with up-front investments in efficiency.

With this policy the RDN will increase the number of green buildings in the region, and lead the transition toward the development of more high-performance buildings.

2008 Resort Municipality of Whistler

The RMOW has a long history of sustainability-oriented approaches for both community planning and corporate management. This focus on sustainability has enabled a high degree of sophistication in corporate energy and emissions management planning - both in terms of informing and directing the RMOW's internal management and decision-making systems (e.g. detailed energy and emissions inventories), as well as supporting our continued advocacy for compact, energy-efficient neighborhood designs (e.g. WhistlerGreen & Infill Housing guidelines).

Over the last few years, the opportunity for the RMOW itself to develop the Whistler Athletes Village neighborhood has presented a unique confluence of these two core capacities - corporate leadership and neighborhood design. Building on our record of progressive energy management as well as our broader corporate commitment to systems-based sustainability objectives, this particular opportunity has led a number of new corporate innovations: the development of a unique new resident neighbourhood (one of 27 LEED-ND pilot projects in Canada), the creation of a waste-heat powered municipal energy utility, and the installation of an progressive district energy system that will service the space heating and hot water needs of more than 375,000 ft2 of new construction while reducing our communities dependence on carbon-based energy sources.

As demonstrated by the wide variety of proactive energy and emissions planning, policies and actions outlined within this application, and as uniquely evidenced by our development of the Athlete Village District Energy System in particular, we trust that you will find our corporate operations worthy of consideration for the CEA Energy Action Award for Corporate Operations.

2008 Township of Langley

In November 2006, the Township of Langley became one of the first organizations in Canada to join the Fraser Basin Council's E3 Fleet Program, displaying its commitment to improving the overall efficiency of its corporate fleet of vehicles and equipment (Appendix A). This initiative is consistent with the Township's Sustainability Charter. It also supports the Township's goal to decrease corporate carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 10 per cent below year 2000 levels by 2010 and its pledge to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2012. These goals have resulted from the Township's participation in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Partners for Climate Protection Program and commitment to the Province of British Columbia's Climate Action Charter respectively. Since joining the E3 program, the Township has began using a 20 per cent blended biodiesel in its entire diesel fleet, implemented a municipal vehicle anti-idling policy limiting idling to one minute, installed GPS units in its dump trucks to facilitate route planning, purchased two Smart Cars, replaced three inefficient pool vehicles with Hybrid Honda Civics and have embarked on an aggressive right-sizing effort. Resultantly, a fleet audit in the spring of 2008 revealed that the Township has improved its median fleet fuel efficiency by 8.5 per cent since committing to the program. In June 2008, the Fraser Basin Council announced that the Township of Langley's fleet has been named British Columbia's first Green Rated Fleet at the Silver level of achievement (Appendix B).