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.
