Subject:
Strait-Highlands Green Action Goes National
Summary:
Date Created:
11/12/2009
Last Modified
11/20/2009
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|  |  PRESS RELEASE
November 6, 2009
For Immediate Release
Strait-Highlands Green Action Goes National
The Strait-Highlands RDA has caught the eyes and ears of municipal leaders and stakeholders across Canada in its efforts to assist regional municipalities in reducing their respective carbon footprints while saving money. The Strait-Highlands Green Action project is opening doors to economic opportunities within municipalities and in the green economy sector.
The Agency’s consultant, John Beaton was a guest speaker on an online seminar titled “Integrated Approaches to Climate Change” on November 4, 2009. The seminar attracted an audience of 300 people that included regional, community and municipal leaders from across the country, and was hosted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). An overwhelming demand for participation resulted in FCM hosts closing registration and creating a waiting list in the event of cancellations.
Beaton informed the audience of the Strait-Highland Region’s “nuts and bolts” approach to an energy plan while demonstrating greenhouse gas emission (GHG) trends and forecasts. The targets of Strait-Highlands Green Action are GHG emissions related to municipal operations (buildings, fleet vehicles, street lights, water/sewer pumping and treatment) while the community GHG reductions are targeted toward the following categories: Residential, Institutional, Commercial, Industrial, Transportation and Waste.
The seminar included a walk-through of the activities related to the initiative, in addition to success stories leading up to the completion of Milestone Three. The three partner municipalities (Richmond County, Inverness County and the Town of Port Hawkesbury) unanimously moved to adopt the 20% GHG reduction target as well as the action plan in the spring of 2009. Since that time the Strait-Highlands RDA has been working with the municipalities and communities on implementing action items. Beaton informed the audience, “We have some early stage development plans going for municipal building retrofit projects and renewable energy projects that will greatly help to sustain operations as energy prices continue to rise.” He also added “It’s impressive to see a rising interest with businesses too, many who are spearheading their own retrofit and small to medium scale renewable energy projects.”
Other initiatives that Strait-Highlands RDA has spearheaded are helping to find tangible reductions in carbon emissions. For example, providing affordable transportation to local residents, Strait Area Transit is helping to meet community targets by reducing transportation emissions by over 3000 tonnes/year.
Beaton also showcased the Region’s Energy Asset Mapping (EAM) Project by showing seminar participants some of the products of this work. This initiative is the first of its kind in Canada; and has identified, and in most cases has mapped, all known potential sources of renewable energy development in the Strait-Highlands Region. The EAM project also includes a guide for individuals and businesses, bringing them up to speed on various applications of renewable energy. This resource has proven useful to everybody from renewable energy developers to local businesses. Beaton noted, “An integrated regional approach to climate protection presents the greatest amount of opportunity in terms of greenhouse gas reductions, demand side management, renewable energy development and regional competitiveness. Having a common vision, municipal transparency and pooling of financial and human resources certainly helps in getting real results.”
“Where we are now, and where we were four years ago, in terms of a municipal and community energy strategy is a very different place. Municipalities across Canada, especially rural ones, want to replicate our success at pooling resources with other municipal units for the larger combined GHG reduction benefit” says Blaine Gillis, Strait-Highlands RDA Chief Executive Officer. “What we will be just a few short years from now is a region with greater energy security, more jobs and more dollars circulating in our local communities,” Gillis added.
Strait-Highlands RDA is accountable to three Municipal Councils (County of Inverness, Town of Port Hawkesbury, and County of Richmond), Nova Scotia Economic and Rural Development, Nova Scotia Community Services, and Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation. Find out about our latest projects and activities at www.strait-highlands.ns.ca or subscribe to our monthly newsletter, email info@strait-highlands.ns.ca.
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