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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-10-31, Page 2PAGE 2. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019. Continued from page 1 more expensive as non-passive houses. With operating costs being 25 to 45 per cent of a normally-built house, he said it only now makes sense to build passive houses. Passive house is just a term, he said, the practice can be applied to any structure, including skyscrapers with hundreds of units, community buildings, pools and senior housing. The big problem now, he said, is not new buildings but retrofitting older buildings. He said new buildings only account for three to four per cent of the total building stock in the world every year. Nagy went on to say that prefabricated units, both for new construction and remodelling or retrofitting could be a big boost for carbon reduction in construction. While it’s taken time, Nagy said, everyone is getting on board with prefabricated units, including unions, which are starting to realize the benefits of centralized production for workers. He highlighted programs that are showing how successful green energy can be, including investment opportunities for municipalities, batteries to better utilize green energy and electric vehicles being used by municipalities and private companies. Nagy ended his presentation by encouraging everyone to get involved with climate change, saying there is no outside party coming to help. “This is not someone else’s problem,” he said. “Someone else isn’t going to solve it.” WALTON’S CHRIS LEE Chris Lee, owner of Huron County’s first certifiable passive house, spoke next as to what led him and his wife Judy to building the green structure. He explained that, when it was time for him to move out of the approximately 140-year old home on his Walton property, which is also home to the Walton Raceway, he didn’t immediately turn to a passive house. Lee said he visited modular builders and found no one was talking about building envelopes or thermal envelopes, which is how well a house is shielded against leaking heat or cold, and thus leaking energy. Eventually, he and Judy arrived at the conclusion that a passive house was the way to go, and he said a big part of that decision was the fact that, with a passive house, you actually build it twice. Using modelling systems to virtually “build” the house allows people to see their structures. Lee said that, after 20 years of software development, the program shows not only what the house will look like, but how it will perform as a passive house with a three to four per cent margin of error. The Lees’ house was built to “age” in, Lee said, with everything needed to live on the lower floor of the building. He also pointed out that, despite his best efforts, even in the depths of winter, he couldn’t find any problems with the house from an environmental comfort level. HURON COUNTY - LILY HAMLIN Lily Hamlin, Huron County’s Climate Change and Energy Specialist, spoke next about the corporate Climate Adaptation Plan being created for the county. She explained that, when creating a plan to deal with climate change, organizations can either look to plans to adapt to the needs of the world or look to mitigate problems. Huron County, under her guidance, will be working to adapt its actions to combat climate change. She said Huron County is already facing problems as a result of climate change, like the increased number of heat waves and how long they last, more damaging precipitation and winters featuring more freeze-thaw cycles. The first step to creating a plan, Hamlin said, was to inventory greenhouse gas producers within the municipality. The goal, Hamlin said, was to create a baseline of carbon emissions based on 2017 levels. She said the county had, between its fleet and facilities, 3,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, with 43 per cent being created by the fleet and the remainder by facilities. The next steps, Hamlin explained, created a risk assessment document based on the inventory, so she could then adapt strategies to be integrated into the county’s climate plan. CRISTINA GUIDO - TOWN OF CALEDON Caledon Energy and Environment Specialist Cristina Guido briefed the forum on internal efforts undertaken by the town to reduce its carbon footprint. She explained that, when the municipality’s corporate energy plan was implemented in 2014, her goal was an energy consumption reduction of nine per cent, based on 2012 levels. After five years, the town had reduced its energy consumption by 12.6 per cent. She said a big part of that reduction was a revolving fund designed to allow senior municipal staff to take on green projects designed to reduce energy consumption. The fund allows managers to bring projects to Guido for approval instead of going through municipal council channels, as tax dollars aren’t used for the fund. The projects need to have a turn- around of 10 years or less, and a portion of the savings go back into the fund to make other projects possible. The original funds were raised through the municipality’s microFIT solar panels. Projects have included replacing light fixtures with more energy- efficient LED models and even implementing a cold-water flooding system in the local arena. Guido has also implemented better tracking for energy consumption, which allows departments to see where their peek utility usage is and try and mitigate it. Caledon’s next goals, she said, look at corporate emissions. After a 48 per cent reduction in emissions between 2007 and 2017, a significant portion of which was likely tied to the shuttering of coal plants in the province, Guido said that she was looking at a 24 per cent reduction from 2017 emission levels by 2024. That reduction represents different targets for each municipal department, she said, including energy consumption, fleet usage, water and waste systems. To help drive home the need for these kinds of plans, Guido presented a vulnerability/risk assessment for the municipality, showing how climate change has and will continue to impact the area. She said increased temperatures, longer growing seasons, an increased duration of and number of freeze/thaw cycles and lower precipitation in the summer were all problems caused by climate change. DR. PATRICIA L McCARNEY - WORLD COUNCIL ON CITY DATA The final speaker of the day was Dr. Patricia McCarney, President and CEO of the World Council on City Data (WCCD). McCarney said when she started her work, there was little common ground in the way municipalities and cities compared data worldwide. She approached the International Organization for Standardization and explained that she wanted to standardize data for municipalities, however the organization was originally not very receptive to the idea. Even when comparing the same information, municipalities all treated variables within data collection differently, pointing to emergency response time as a perfect example. “You would think it would be standard,” she said. “It’s not.” Some governments classify emergency response time as the period between an emergency call being received and responders being on the scene, while others measure the time between dispatch of emergency services and personnel being on scene. “The data doesn’t make sense when it’s compared,” she said. To remedy the problem, McCarney implemented a pilot project with nine municipalities comparing all the data each one collected. Of 1,100 data indicators the municipalities shared, only two were directly comparable, McCarney said, highlighting the need for more apple-to-apple comparisons. To guide the project, McCarney and her associates asked the municipalities to prioritize the information they would most benefit from, being able to compare with contemporaries. The results identified several themes, including waste, water, emergency response time, transit, education and health. McCarney and her associates standardized 100 priority indicators, then tested the program across the world with 50 municipalities. The result was published in July, 2014, and became the first ISO standard for city data, called ISO 37120. Since then, more indicators have been added. The WCCD is a not-for-profit organization that helps to roll out ISO 37120 certification across the world. McCarney said one of the most important things to remember You probably already do... if you subscribe to Yes - I want to save money. Enclosed is $38.00 for a 1-year subscription Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Town . . . . . . . . . . . . .Postal Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On-line subscriptions available too at www.northhuron.on.ca Phone or mail cheque made payable to North Huron Publishing to: P.O. Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 Save up to $2450 a year off newsstand price The Citizen STEVEN NIXON Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. L IMITED Bus: 519-357-2222 Cell: 519-531-0252 Fax: 519-357-4482 Email: nixon@execulink.com Web: www.stevennixon.com 249 Josephine St., WINGHAM, ON N0G 2W0 Serving the area since 1999 125 acre farm with 72 acres G.P.S. mapped rolling to level workable land, some random tiles, remainder hardwood & mixed bush. Backs onto Maitland River. Add to your current farming operation. Subject to severance. Seller is keeping buildings. Call Steve Nixon 519.357.2222 #18 84359 Hoover Line RR#1 Belgrave $1,100,000.00 MLS# 30734702 RuralTalks event focuses on local climate change Full house The RuralTalks event held at the Blyth Community Memorial Hall last Wednesday brought out high school students, local municipal and county councillors and staff and climate change experts to take in talks like the one provided by keynote speaker Bruce Nagy, shown above. (Denny Scott photo) Continued on page 3