Durham Region Officially Launches Durham Greener Homes, Partners with Windfall Centre
On Thursday, April 28, 2022, Durham Region unveiled the Durham Greener Homes at a launch event at Durham College, Whitby Campus. Durham Greener Homes is a home retrofit service that will empower Durham Region residents to undertake home energy renovations. Durham Region has partnered with Windfall Ecology Centre to deliver the new home energy program to help Durham residents achieve energy-efficient homes as part of the Region's Community Energy Plan- a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Durham Greener Homes Program offers homeowners a home energy retrofit service that offers financing and cash-back rebates for home energy upgrade projects and a home energy coach to give expert advice to residents in the home retrofit journey. The Durham Greener Homes Program will target single-family homes built between 1970 and 2000 (representing 46 percent of single-family homes in the Durham region) because these are understood to have high energy-saving potential.
Windfall Ecology Centre's Founder and Executive Director, Brent Kopperson, who spoke about Durham Greener Homes, said, Windfall Ecology Centre has been helping Durham residents retrofit their homes for over 20 years. We are proud to combine all we have learned in that time to Durham Greener Homes, a best-in-class home retrofit facilitation service designed to ease renovation anxiety and help homeowners get the most from their energy efficiency investments.
At the launch event, a $3.4 million boost was announced to help finance the Durham Greener Homes Project to help more residents achieve energy-efficient homes and create a cleaner, low-carbon environment in Durham Region. The financing is offered through the Green Municipal Fund and delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), and funded by the Government of Canada.
Durham Greener Homes will support energy-efficiency upgrades such as high-efficiency heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, thermal envelope upgrades, lighting upgrades and high-efficiency appliances. Additional eligible measures will include heat pump installation, renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, water conservation measures and indoor air quality measures.
Are you a resident of Durham starting your home retrofit journey? Visit durhamgreenerhomes.ca to learn more about the Durham Greener Homes program
More on the launch of Durham Greener Homes on Natural Resources Canada, Yahoo News, insauga.com
Renewable Energy to the Rescue as Texas Records Incredibly High Heat and Energy Demand
Renewables are slowly but surely gaining ground more recently in Texas as the city depends heavily on wind and solar power to meet the current high energy demand. Texans crank on the air conditioning this week amid an unusually early heat wave, setting new records for electricity demand in the state, which surpassed 75 gigawatts on Sunday and smashed the 2019 record. CNN reports that Texas grid operator ERCOT projects it could approach that peak again on Tuesday.
However, unlike previous extreme weather events in Texas, which led to deadly blackouts, the grid is holding up remarkably well this week. Several experts told CNN that it's owed in large part to solid performances from wind and solar, which generated 27 gigawatts of electricity during Sunday's peak demand -- close to 40% of the total needed.
Texas is, by rhetoric, anti-renewables. But frankly, renewables are bailing us out,
said Michael Webber, an energy expert and professor at the University of Texas at Austin. They're rocking. That really spares us a lot of heartache and a lot of money.
Full Article
Windfall Ecology Centre, Partners for Action and Possibilian Ventures are launching the Just Green Cities
Discussion Paper on March 4, 2022, at 1:00 PM EST. Just Green Cities
is a product of extensive research into the challenges of moving from big climate action ambition at the national level to operationalizing change at the municipal level.
Municipal infrastructure renewal has been one of the core underexplored challenges Canadians face in addressing climate crises. Consequently, Windfall Ecology Centre, Partners for Action and Possibilian Ventures partnered in early 2021 to explore three municipal infrastructure issues and their relevance to the SDGs. The areas of focus are:
- Fleet electrification
- Stormwater management
- Net-zero buildings
The Just Green Cities Discussion Paper seeks to create a common framework and language for integrating equity-driven decision-making into municipal infrastructure renewal to respond to the climate crisis. In this launch session, we'll present the Executive Summary with key insights on fleet electrification, stormwater management and net-zero buildings and discuss how we can continue to create a broader, inclusive conversation.
Join us in imagining a just, green future for our communities at the free launch event on Friday, March 4, 2022 at 1:00 PM EST.
York Region Commercial Buildings Need to Bridge Energy Performance Gap
When it comes to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, commercial buildings in York Region are underperforming their provincial counterparts, 2019 benchmarking data released in 2020 from the Ontario Ministry of Energy Northern Development and Mines has revealed. Businesses in commercial buildings have a role to play in overturning this lacklustre performance by taking action on climate change, and in turn, they can save money.
In 2018, the Ontario government launched the first mandatory commercial building energy benchmarking program in Canada. Tagged Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking
(EWRB), the program requires commercial buildings over 50,000 sqft to report their energy and water consumption annually. The program is a realization of the adage, you can't manage what you don't measure
. By measuring energy consumption and benchmarking with comparable buildings, commercial building owners and their tenants can evaluate their building space energy performance.
There are many benefits to energy benchmarking; top amongst these are saving operational costs by emulating best-in-class buildings and taking action on climate change from the resulting GHG reductions. Research by the US Environmental Protection Agency on energy benchmarking programs proves that up to a 2 – 7% savings in operational costs can be achieved just by measuring your energy performance.
According to The Atmospheric Fund, buildings account for 43% of York Region's GHG emissions. Early EWRB results suggest that York Region commercial buildings are not performing well when benchmarked against provincial energy performance data. Reducing GHG emissions in buildings is significant in reaching Canada's net-zero by 2050 commitment.
The interactive dashboard provides an overview of how York Region commercial buildings benchmarked for a selected group of building types. York Region buildings underperformed by an average of 15% (all types) and as high as 65% for the office building type. The sample is small for York Region, 77 buildings as compared to 805 provincially. Nonetheless, the indicators are not encouraging – we need to do better. A national comparison is also provided in the dashboard.
The 54,000 businesses in York Region are predominantly located in leased premises. They are business tenants in commercial buildings. While many commercial real estate firms have tenant engagement programs, a large percentage do not. And what does exist is often constrained by lease arrangements. In gross or triple net leases, the allocation of the benefits and the costs of energy reductions act as a disincentive to action in that capital cost incurred are mis- aligned to how the operational savings are allocated.
What is the solution? Since business owner activities in these buildings account for up to 80% of energy use, it is business owners in the building who need to take action. After all, customer-facing and B2B businesses have the most to gain in telling their customers, suppliers, and employees about their commitment to going green and taking action on climate change.
Business owners need to understand how their space contributes to GHG emissions. They need to inform themselves about their options for green leases
. With a green lease, those who incur the capital costs also receive the benefits in operational savings.
As part of its mandate to help businesses and commercial building owners champion climate action by achieving net-zero emissions in their buildings, York Region’s, ClimateWise Business Network, launched a friendly competition, the ClimateWise Building Challenge.
York Region building owners and tenants can join the ClimateWise Building Challenge to take advantage of the free York Region-wide competition and services. Through the challenge, business owners can take advantage of the many resources provided by the energy efficiency experts at Windfall Ecology Centre to help measure your current GHG emissions and form a plan to reduce your emissions in collaboration with your building owner and business neighbours.
To learn more about the value of energy benchmarking to achieve energy efficiency, check out this resource on the website, Successes in Sustainability: Landlords and Tenants Team Up to Improve Energy Efficiency
.
Will COP 26 Amplify the 'Fair Share' Concept as Negotiations Enter Week Two?
Negotiations at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow have entered the second week, a technical week featuring intense deliberations on pathways to achieving global emission reduction goals. The first week of the conference saw renewed emissions pledges, deforestation commitments, and bans on overseas fossil fuel projects.
However, the pertinent questions remain; 'how have countries arrived at their reduction targets? What is their Fair Share
in global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions? Will COP 26 deliver on requirements for countries to report their estimated emissions? Windfall Centre's Founder, Brent Kopperson, in his opinion article published by Toronto Star, prescribes the 'Fair Share' as the bedrock of all negotiations at COP 26 if we must begin to see any positive shift in ambition gaps and reduction targets.
Already, a United Nations preliminary analysis released today, November 9, 2021, shows a huge gap between nations' long-term decarbonization plans and their already submitted short-term plans. With this current reality, goal 2030 for many countries might be 'mission impossible.' While researchers say it is more realistic to focus on short-term pledges, which require immediate action and create room for easy accountability for world leaders, negotiators must hammer out requirements for countries to report their estimated emissions.
Highlights From COP 26 Conversations in Glasgow
Today is day five at the ongoing 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, and climate talks are in top gear. The summit, which kicked off October 31 to end November 12, has in attendance world leaders, countries' delegates, climate activists, major corporations, and others. Here are a few highlights from conversations at the summit so far.
UN Special Envoy Carney announces private sector Climate investment
Almost 500 global financial services firms have reached a consensus to align $130 trillion, which is about 40 per cent of the world's financial assets, with the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
Trudeau Makes Global Carbon Price Pitch at Cop 26
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for a collective effort to have the world's greenhouse gas emissions covered by pricing mechanisms. "We recognize right now that only about 20 per cent of global emissions are covered by a price on pollution. We should be ambitious and say as of right here today that we want to triple that to 60 per cent of global emissions should be covered by a price on pollution in 2030."
Governments, corporations Commit to Ending Deforestation by 2030
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that not less than 110 countries representing 85 per cent of the planet's forests had signed the COP26 Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, committing to stopping deforestation by 2030.
World Leaders Pledge Reinforced efforts to curb methane emissions
More than 100 countries have signed a pledge introduced by U.S. President Joe Biden and European Union leaders at COP26 to curb methane emissions. The pledge requires world leaders to cut methane which frequently leaks from oil and gas processing plants and landfills, by 30% by the end of this decade.
New $10.5 billion funds announced to support developing nations' climate ambition
A series of initiatives to help developing countries avert the dangers of rising temperatures was announced in the conference's early days. International development banks and a group of philanthropic foundations, Global Energy Alliance, announced a $10.5 billion fund to help these nations switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources.
If you missed our opinion article on COP 26, you can find it here
- 66% of Canadians want the Liberals to enact their platform’s climate promises or even stronger climate policies
- 65% want Canada’s post-pandemic recovery to move away from fossil fuels and towards investing in renewables
- A majority want the new Liberal government to step up climate action in the first 100 days in office on these key issues:
- 64% want the Liberal government to work to establish a cap on oil and gas emissions - the fastest growing source of emissions in Canada
- 62% want the Liberal government to establish a plan to stop taxpayer subsidies going to the oil and gas industry (And 61% are frustrated that the Prime Minister has not taken adequate action on this 2015 promise.)
- 65% want the Liberal government to deliver a Just Transition Plan (And 60% are frustrated that the 2019 campaign promise has not been delivered yet.)
The Emergency Heating Replacement Rule is Now Available
The Enbridge Home Efficiency Rebate (HER) has officially launched the for “no heat” customers between October 15th, 2020 to March 31st, 2021.
The Emergency Heating Replacement means that customers can complete a pre-retrofit energy evaluation after an emergency replacement of their natural gas furnace/boiler. This rule is available to all Enbridge customers who heat their homes with a natural gas furnace or boiler that also meet the HER program criteria.
What you should know
- An emergency replacement means when your customers heating system is unable to be repaired or is too expensive to be repaired, and it must be replaced immediately due to cold weather before the homeowner can obtain a pre-retrofit energy evaluation.
- Within five days of replacement, the homeowner must contact Windfall Ecology Centre to book a pre-retrofit energy evaluation.
- Pre-retrofit energy evaluation must be completed within 30 days.
- Homeowner or energy advisor must take a picture of the old heating system that shows the venting, specification plate, and model number (if applicable).
Contact us today or book a call time for more information and to get started.
Toll free: 1.866.280.4431 energy@windfallcentre.ca
What is the Speech from the Throne?
The Speech from the Throne opens every new session of Parliament. It will introduce the sitting government's direction and goals, as well as outline the ways to it will work to achieve them.
A number of guests attend the reading the Speech including Members of the House of Commons, senators, and Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Read more on the Government of Canada website.
There are two types of eligible recipients for the funding:
- Direct recipients: Commercial and institutional buildings owners and operators, including Indigenous organizations, that want to implement ISO 50001 in their buildings.
- Initial recipients: Municipal/provincial/territorial governments and agencies, utilities, industry associations and registered non-profit organizations that implement programs that redistribute the funds to direct/ultimate recipients to undertake eligible project activities.
The funding will be used to reimburse eligible project costs as follows:
- Eligible for-profit organizations may receive up to 60% of eligible costs
- Eligible not-for-profit organizations may receive up to 75% of eligible costs
- Maximum of $40,000 per facility
- The maximum contribution to an organization or group of affiliates is $200,000 per fiscal year (April 1 to March 31).
Eligible project expenditures include salaries and benefits, professional, scientific and technical fees specific to the energy management system, fees for data collection, benchmarking and analysis services, metering equipment, as well as other expenditures directly related to the project.
For more information, refer to Financial assistance for commercial and institutional buildings
