June 2007 Issue
SUSTAINABILITY
Calgary Becomes Leader in Reducing GHG Emissions
Editor’s Note: The following is part of a continuing PEGG series on sustainability, featuring articles submitted through the APEGGA Environment Committee.
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The goal of the City of Calgary’s award-winning Calgary Climate Change Action Plan 2006: Target Minus 50 is to reduce its corporate greenhouse gas missions by 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
To achieve this goal, the city’s Infrastructure Services and Environmental & Safety Management Department developed a corporate Energy Management Strategy in 2005. A key component of the strategy is a Green Energy Policy that commits the city to purchasing 90 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2012.
Green Energy
As of this year, the City of Calgary will draw 75 per cent of its electricity
from renewable, green energy sources, making it the largest municipal user of
green electricity in North America and the only municipal government in Canada
to achieve this milestone.
As a result, GHG emissions in 2007 will be reduced by some 200,000 tonnes annually — equal to taking more than 50,000 cars off the road each year. By 2012, GHG emissions will be reduced by more than 335,000 tonnes annually.
“The city recognizes that GHG emissions and other atmospheric contaminants pose significant health risks for Calgarians and affect the quality of life in our communities,” says Chris Wade, P.Eng., the city’s director of infrastructure services. “The Energy Management Strategy and Green Energy Policy will have a major impact on reducing the city’s corporate GHG emissions.”
He continued: “The city is committed to ensuring sustainable communities
without significantly increasing the cost of doing business or affecting the
quality of service to residents of Calgary.”
A cornerstone of the Energy Management Strategy is an innovative, 20-year electricity
supply agreement signed between the city and ENMAX Energy Corporation — the
city’s wholly owned subsidiary. ENMAX will supply the city with green electricity.
ENMAX is in the final stages of constructing a wind farm in Taber, made up of
37 wind turbines that will generate 80 megawatts of clean electricity.
Over the 20-year term of the electricity service agreement with ENMAX , the City of Calgary will reduce corporate GHG emissions by 4.8 billion kilograms of CO2 equivalent.
“The city’s target for reducing corporate greenhouse gas emissions is unprecedented,” says Dave Day, the City of Calgary’s director of environmental and safety management. “We’re proud to be leading the way with initiatives like purchasing green energy, making our buildings more energy-efficient and greening our fleet.
“We want to use our corporate experiences to support community reduction and energy efficiency goals that are expressed in imagineCALGARY. We’re looking forward to working with partners, including the University of Calgary, ENMAX and Climate Change Central to make it happen.”
The city’s first large green energy project was launched in 2001. Called Ride-the-Wind, the program involved operating its light rail transit exclusively on electricity generated from wind power, making Calgary the first city in North America to commit to such a bold step.
Powering its LRT using 100 per cent wind generated electricity reduces GHG emissions by 26,000 tonnes annually, the equivalent of removing 7.5 million vehicle trips from Calgary streets.
Most recently, city council approved the Calgary Downtown District Energy
project — proposed
by Infrastructure Services’ Energy Management Office — which is being
developed in partnership with ENMAX. This multi-phase project involves the development
of a heating and cooling plant in the downtown core in Phase 1, together with
a combined heat and power, co-generation energy plant outside the city centre
in Phase 2. The system will also generate electricity for current and future
use.
The district energy system is expected to reduce GHG emissions by about 19,000
tonnes per year and by up to 235,000 tonnes per year when the system is fully
subscribed.
In addition to green energy projects, the City of Calgary is also reducing corporate GHG emissions through action on
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building energy efficiency
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methane gas emission reduction
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“greening” fleet vehicles
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water conservation and treatment facility efficiency
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innovative practices and technology deployment.
Building Energy Efficiency
The city has made tremendous progress in improving building energy efficiency
in municipal facilities including upgrading heating, ventilation and air conditioning
equipment, lighting systems, building controls and energy supply systems.
It has also adopted a sustainable building policy to ensure that city facilities are designed, developed and operated in a way that provides leadership in the conservation, protection and sustainability of the environment.
For example, all new City of Calgary buildings and those undergoing major renovations must achieve a silver or better rating in accordance with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards — a rating system that evaluates the environmental performance of buildings. To date, the city has completed construction of three LEED buildings: Cardel Place (gold), Country Hills Multi-Services Centre (silver) and Crowfoot Library (certified).
Methane Gas Emission Reduction
Methane gas is a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential
of carbon dioxide. Therefore, the city will increase the amount of methane gas
it captures and utilizes at its wastewater treatment and landfill facilities.
Furthermore, the goal is by 2020 that the city will recycle 80 per cent of business and residential solid waste, and send 20 per cent to landfills, which is the inverse of the current situation. A number of other initiatives are also underway to help achieve these goals.
For example, methane is being captured at the Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant and used to generate about 11 million kW-h of electricity and recover more than 15 million kW-h of heat energy used to operate the facility.
Greening Fleet Vehicles
The city’s fleet comprises more than 4,000 vehicles, including police service,
transit, buses, fire department and general purpose vehicles and accounts for
over 20 per cent of GHG emissions. Therefore, initiatives to reduce GHG emissions
from the fleet will have a significant impact on overall GHG emissions levels.
Initiatives to reduce fleet emissions are
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improve the fleet’s overall fuel efficiency
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increase the use of renewable, green fuels and cleaner fossil fuels
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implement new practices and technologies that reduce fuel consumption
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encourage staff to choose alternative forms of transportation.
Water Conservation, Treatment Facility Efficiency
The production, treatment and transportation of potable water and wastewater
require tremendous amounts of electricity and natural gas, producing a significant
amount of GHG emissions.
To reduce these emissions, the city aims to reduce the amount of water consumed
by its operations, businesses and residents, reduce the amount of energy required
to produce, clean, and transport water, and optimize the efficiency of the water
utility infrastructure system.
To reduce water consumption, for example, the city introduced a progressive water conservation program that
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offers indoor and outdoor water saving kits to residents at cost
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expands the toilet rebate program, whereby residents receive cash rebates for replacing their 13- or 20-litre toilets with more water efficient six-litre ones
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directs that all new and upgrading of residential and commercial buildings use water-saving plumbing features.
Innovative Practices,Tech Deployment
Improved methods, new practices and emerging technologies have the potential
to further enable the city to have a significant impact on GHG emissions.
For example, Calgary’s streetlight and traffic signals retrofit program has significantly reduced GHG emissions. In 2003, the city retrofitted some 37,000 residential streetlights with lower wattage lamps reducing GHG emissions by more than 19,000 tonnes annually.
Replacing incandescent traffic signals with light-emitting diode technology has reduced The City of Calgary’s annual electricity consumption by about 6.8 million kW-h and reduced GHG emissions by more than 8,500 tonnes per year.
The city’s Energy Management Strategy and Green Energy Policy was developed using council’s Triple Bottom Line framework to integrate social, economic and environmental objectives to maintain high standards of living, social harmony and environmental quality.
The Triple Bottom Line is a decision-making, planning and reporting framework that provides a more comprehensive decision-making approach to help organizations identify the social, economic, and environmental impacts of their decisions. In government, Triple Bottom Line thinking is being used to
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achieve the objectives of sustainable community development
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identify the full range of costs and benefits of decisions
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minimize harm to its citizens, economy and environment.