CAC Crowdsourced Climate Implications
Crowdsourced - Municipal Facility Asset Renewal
Crowdsourced Report - Firehall Asset Renewal
Crowdsourced 2
Executive summary
During Clean Air Council’s November Climate Implications Workshop, municipalities worked with CAP to develop the first crowdsourced climate implications sections for the Repository. CAC generalized the report and municipal staff answered the following questions:
- What part of the climate implications are missing from this story?
- What top-level questions do you think aren’t considered yet?
- Let’s identify the gaps in these implications; what’s missing?
Municipal Facility – Firehall Asset Renewal
- Heat pumps and fossil fuel furnace units in three fire stations at end of life
- The municipality cannot purchase new equipment that locks in consumption of significant fossil fuels past 2030
- Need to pursue low-carbon and alternative fuel options whenever possible as capital investments are made into facilities
- The electrification of the Firehall will directly result in GHG emission reduction by fuel switching from fossil fuel to electricity. This will directly contribute to reducing overall GHG emissions and help it meet its 2030 net zero target.
- The optimization of heat pump and geothermal systems will improve operation of the HVAC system, improve efficiency, reduce operational costs, and reduce overall emissions at both firehalls. This will contribute to meeting the Net Zero Target
Climate implications
Climate Interventions/Opportunities
- The fire stations utilize ground-based geothermal systems to provide heating and cooling to the facility. The heart of the systems are two heat pump units installed working in tandem in each facility.
- Recommendation is to replace heat pump units and natural gas units to provide heating for fire station heating systems.
- Council declared a Climate Emergency and committed to achieving net-zero carbon by 2030.
- Meeting this target for the Town’s operations requires swift action to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, including natural gas at Town facilities.
Crowdsourced Questions to Consider
- Has an energy audit already been completed?
- What is the emissions factor being used to determine the GHG emissions?
- What is the fuel source for back-up power supply?
- Are there other energy efficiency measures? (I.e., leak sealing, thermal improvements)
- Are there any site-level stormwater management measures?
- Will there be EV charging readiness for support vehicles?
- Has a life-cycle cost analysis been undertaken?
- Have biodiversity opportunities on the site been identified (ex. pollinator garden etc.)?
- Maybe a follow-up to energy audit – is the plan in alignment with energy audit recommendations?
- The time to get to cost neutrality – As the carbon tax increases, people want to know how long before electrification breaks even
- If this is a change in land use, is this in alignment with density targets?