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It was almost seven years ago, on August 14, 2003, when a series of power surges caused a cascade of shutdowns at more than 100 generating plants throughout the northeastern U.S. and Ontario. The result was the biggest blackout in North American history with 61,800 megawatts of power lost to over 50 million people. A lot of reliability measures have been implemented and business contingency plans instituted since then but, the demands on our aging grid continues to grow.

Just this past July 5, 2010, at 4:45 p.m. on an extreme heat alert day in Toronto, a rush hour blackout caused traffic chaos. Before the power was restored, the blackout, triggered by a fire at a transformer station, left 250,000 Toronto Hydro customers in the dark.

There is no confirmation yet about the cause and some news outlets (both the CBC and BBC) are indicating that power usage was not the source of the blackout. However, while we await confirmation of the cause, one thing is for sure, we have become air conditioner addicts.

According to Stan Cox, author of Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World, we air condition everything from golf carts to storage rooms and recently, Dubai was looking at air conditioning a popular beach.

Obsession with Air Conditioning

Our obsession with air conditioning is a relatively recent phenomenon. The amount of energy consumed by running residential air conditioners in Canada almost tripled between 1990 and 2007. And to make matters worse, we are entering a cycle of increasing temperatures resulting in ever higher demands on air conditioners which in turn will contribute to our warming climate.

There are however, some important tips for using air conditioners that will result in more efficient energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Set your thermostat at 25°C or higher. Each half-degree setting below 26°C increases your energy consumption by approximately 8%.
• Consider cost-effective conservation measures, such as shading windows from direct sunlight.
• When possible, delay heat-generating activities, such as dish washing or cooking until the evening on hot days.
• Be sure your air conditioner is not blocked.
• Over most of the cooling season (which does not have to start as soon as the snow melts), keep the house closed tight during the day. Don’t let in unwanted heat and humidity.
• Ventilate your rooms at night naturally as weather permits by opening windows to create cross ventilation
• Consider supplementing the air conditioner with fans which will allow you to set the thermostat a few degrees higher.
• If purchasing a new air conditioner consider an ENERGY STAR® model, which use at least 10% less energy.

Looking for more energy saving tips? GLOBE, a leader in bringing energy efficiency to the housing sector, will be launching its Sustainability Toolbox in the coming weeks. For more information on GLOBE, visit www.globeservices.ca

If you have ever had to deal with overflowing garbage bins, trash blowing around buildings and related residents complaints, you know that this is not only unsightly – it can also be costly and time consuming. Reducing and recycling are not just trends or nice ideas, they are ways to lower operating costs and improve living and working conditions.

Sioux Lookout recently demonstrated how community-led efforts can help solve big problems. This north-western Ontario town of 5,500 recently became the first community in Ontario to move towards the outright banning of plastic bags, a ban that started with a citizens’ environment committee and a survey by high school students.

Why are plastic bags a problem?
The chemicals used to manufacture disposable plastic bags are toxic to both people and the environment. The phthalates used to stabilize and soften plastic are known endocrine disruptors. Vinyl chloride is a proven carcinogen and can also cause liver, kidney, and brain damage.

Although these bags are designed to be disposable, they are highly resource-intensive to manufacture, process, transport and dispose of – especially given that they’re intended for single use. But even if you re-use a disposable bag, most will still end up in landfill, where they can take up to 1,000 years to break down. Like plastic garbage patches in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the bags may be out of sight, but their negative impacts to the environment, the economy and human and animal health persist long after they’ve been used.

Other Jurisdictions
To date, Sioux Lookout is among only a handful of global leaders in their move to ban the bag.

In March 2002, Bangladesh banned plastic bags in its capital after they were found to have been the main culprit during the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country. Discarded bags were choking the drainage system. Notably, the ban has produced an unexpected positive economic effect: the revival of the jute bag industry. Jute grows abundantly in Bangladesh and requires a lot less energy to process than polyethelene.

Also in 2002, Ireland introduced a PlasTax of about $0.20 per bag. The money raised from the tax is put into a “green fund” to further benefit communities and the environment. The result has been that consumption has decreased by more than 90%, thanks to an intensive environmental awareness campaign, which made the carrying of plastic bags socially unacceptable.

The Power of Community
In the cases of Ireland and Sioux Lookout particularly, engaging the community proved to be critical to the success of the ban and its environmental and economic outcomes.

What does this mean to people in the housing sector? Well, there are many simple and inexpensive actions which you can take to lower costs and complaints in your buildings and improve health, comfort and maintenance. GLOBE’s Community Champions program, recently recognized in the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s recent annual report as a notable initiative, educates and enables the residents themselves to become agents of change in their own communities.

In addition, GLOBE’s soon to be released Sustainability Toolbox is a “starter kit” to identifying opportunities which will provide you with sector-specific examples of improvements that you can make to increase the efficiency of your operations.

To find out more about it, email us!

Sustainability initiatives have long been associated with the colour green. Green products, green services and green initiatives are how people express their efforts to be gentler on the environment. Green is also the colour of money and that is exactly what you will be seeing when you take advantage of the retroactive component of the Multifamily Energy Efficiency Rebates. Have you done any retrofit work since January 1, 2008? It will only take you a few minutes to check what retrofits will qualify for the rebates.

If you’ve installed some ENERGY STAR® refrigerators, well that will be worth $60 a fridge. What about some new T8 light fixtures? Depending upon the type of fixture, your rebate will be anywhere from $12 to $21. And if you have a current energy audit, (less than 12 months old) you are entitled to up to $35 per unit. It is just that simple.

Retroactive retrofits that qualify for the rebates are the easiest way to access the Multifamily Energy Efficiency Rebates. Make sure you get some green for your energy conserving work. We have staff available to make sure that you are seeing green really soon!

Contact SHSC Customer Care if you want more information on MEER.

To the uninitiated, SHRRP (commonly pronounced shurp) and MEER sound like characters from Star Trek. In fact, they are acronyms for programs that might just save your non-profit or co-op a lot of money.

Most social housing providers are already familiar with The Social Housing Renovation and Retrofit Program (SHRRP), and many have accessed funds through the program to upgrade their buildings. What is less commonly known is that the Ontario Power Authority is offering the Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Rebates (MEER) program, which provides financial incentives to offset some of the capital costs associated with energy-efficiency upgrades.

“So how does my housing corporation access these MEER funds?”
I thought you’d never ask!

Without going into all of the details here, there are 2 options for MEER funding: Custom and Prescriptive.

1. Custom incentives are calculated based on the actual energy savings, in kilowatt-hours (kWh) that will result from installing a particular measure.
2. For prescribed upgrades, on the other hand, a set dollar figure will be paid for each measure installed. For example, $60 will be paid for every old refrigerator that is replaced with an ENERGY STAR® rated model.

“Our new appliances are already being paid for with SHRRP funding. How can the MEER program help?”

SHRRP funds are stackable, meaning that additional funding sources can be added, as long as the total funding does not exceed 100% of the purchase price. However, most providers had items on their SHRRP “wish-list” that simply could not be accommodated. So the simplest answer is to find out how much MEER money your energy-saving upgrades are worth, and talk to your service manager about re-allocating an equal amount of existing SHRRP money to another approved expenditure. It’s a win-win for all concerned!

I know this all sounds complicated, but SHSC and GLOBE have resources to help. Contact SHSC Customer Care if you want more information on MEER.

Make it so!