Energy Solutions at the Community Level - What Works?

Ray Tomalty

Canadians live in more than 5,400 communities that together use close to 60% of all
energy end-use in the country, with a relatively equal breakdown among the four key
sectors of residential buildings, commercial buildings, industry and personal
transportation. Under a business as usual scenario, community energy use can be
expected to increase by 80% by 2050 as a result of both economic and population growth.
Furthermore, the business as usual trend is likely to result in increased air quality
problems, and make communities more economically vulnerable as conventional
domestic energy resources are replaced with imports and non-conventional sources.
Rising energy prices, uncertain supply lines, and increasingly ominous warnings about
the ecological and economic disruptions attendant upon climate change are riveting the
attention of municipal administrations across the country on the need to curb energy
consumption trends.

The potential for energy use and GHG emission reductions at the community level are
impressive. Besides the energy used in municipal buildings, public transportation, street
lighting, and other operations, local governments exert influence over transportation and
land use patterns, the energy efficiency of private buildings, and in some cases, local
energy supply. Through measures such as district heating and cooling, energy efficiency
measures in municipal buildings and the wider community, the use of more renewable
energy sources, and a shift to more compact development patterns and sustainable
transportation, researchers have estimated that up to half of community-level emissions
could be eliminated.1

Of course, moving from theory to practice is always the rub. What sounds like a good
idea in principle may not be feasible on the ground. As pointed by Nola-Kate Seymoar
and others in a recent issue of Municipal World, most senior administrators and planners
in Canada turn to experience gained in other cities to assess the feasibility of
sustainability actions that could be taken in their own communities.2 Fortunately, many
communities across Canada and elsewhere in North America have undertaken measures
to reduce energy use. A review of some of the most successful and little heralded of these
initiatives, undertaken for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, has given us
some insight into the factors that lay behind successful initiatives on the ground.

Conditions for Success

Public outreach: Public support is crucial for the success of municipal energy initiatives
involving the wider community, such as energy retrofit programs or behaviour change
challenges. Public outreach programs[, such as Burlington's 10% Challenge,] can play an
1
MJKA. 2009.Exploration of the capacity to reduce GHG emissions by 2020 and 2050 through
application of policy to encourage integrated urban energy systems. Prepared for Quality Urban Energy
Systems of Tomorrow (QUEST).
2
Dr. Nola-Kate Seymoar, Zoe Mullard, Marena Winstanley, and Natalie Ethier. "City-to-CIty Learning."
Municipal World, volume 120, number 3 (March, 2010), pages 19-22.
important role in raising awareness and generating support for municipal initiatives
among businesses and residents. Municipalities use a wide range of communication
instruments, such as newsletters, phone messages, community events and Web-based
information sharing. Partnering with local utilities is another good way to communicate
with public, i.e., via public messages in monthly bills. [Burlingon and Boulder]

Supportive municipal policy environment: For energy reduction initiatives that involve
the wider community, a strong planning and policy framework is essential for success.
Municipal plans governing land use and transportation, for example, can help set the
stage for targeted municipal programs to encourage people to shift travel modes from
cars to active transport or transit. While few Canadian municipalities have the power to
adopt their own building codes, they could incentivize energy efficient features such as
the use of solar hot water heaters. A municipal strategy on climate change and
sustainability policies that address energy use could also help build a favourable
environment for progress on community energy use.

Planning framework: The most successful initiatives are those that flow from a
planning framework that sets out targets, general strategies, policy options and preferred
measures, and a monitoring framework. The best energy plans assign responsibility for
energy use or emission reductions to specific units of the municipal corporation and
spells out the role of community stakeholders. Obviously, a plan that emerges from a
broad consultative process has the greatest chance of success. [Burlington]

Information base: Taking an integrated, broad-based approach to energy management

requires a solid understanding of existing energy conditions and trends in the municipal
corporation. An initial inventory of energy use and GHG emissions enables staff to
rationally set feasible reduction targets and weigh the various options for reaching them.
The collaboration needed to produce a baseline inventory can also strengthen
communication and cooperation among municipal departments and external partners.
[Boulder] While the energy program is being implemented, rigorously tracking
information on energy use throughout the municipal corporation allows for highly
targeted retrofits and maintenance interventions, yielding high payoffs in energy
efficiency per dollar invested. [Eugene]

Support from national and international agencies: Financial, technical and moral
support from senior governments and other national or international agencies appears to
be an important success factor for local energy initiatives. In Canada, federal and
provincial infrastructure funds may assist with certain aspects of a local energy initiative
(such as transit infrastructure), Natural Resources Canada offers funding for municipal
energy initiatives such as renewable heat and building retrofits through its ecoEnergy
programs, and the Green Municipal Fund is available to support energy planning and
capital projects. Moreover, provincial utilities may be willing to contribute towards the
installation of more energy efficient equipment or to help fund renewable energy sources
through standing offers. National and international organizations (such as the Federation
of Canadian Municipalities or ICLIE) can also offer important technical assistance by
involving local energy leaders in knowledge networks through which experience and new
skills can be acquired. [Burlington] They also offer recognition of outstanding initiatives
through award (such as the FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Awards) or
certification programs (such as LEED), boosting the credibility of the initiative and the
likelihood it will be replicated elsewhere. [Aquas]

Inter-departmental collaboration: Broad-based energy initiatives are more likely to

succeed when other departments within the municipality buy in to the vision and process
being put forward by the initiative leaders. The best instrument to get other municipal
units excited about a new initiative is the sharing of positive results from preliminary
measures [aguas]. Once on-board, it is important that municipal departments share
information and provide feedback concerning the results of further measures to reduce
energy use. These feedback loops create a learning culture and allows energy managers to
further optimize energy efficiency interventions. [Eugene]

Community collaboration: Collaboration with external community institutions, such as

universities, energy consultants, utilities, community groups and businesses can help
develop networks that can advance new energy solutions in a community faster than
when each player works alone. Strong community partnerships and institutional
cooperation enables local officials and organizations to pool their human resources and
coordinate efforts to attract investment to support the implementation of common goals.
[Louisville in Kentucky] [Boulder and Burlington]

Leadership: Politicians or municipal administrators who champion the cause play a key
role in promoting municipal energy initiatives. Such people often provide the spark that
ignites interest among in the own staff and other departments and generate a consistent,
long-term pressure for reform of existing practices [aguas]. Support for and recognition
of those performing a leadership role can help create conditions under which new ideas
can succeed.

Institutional Capacity: Decision-makers, professionals and technicians require the

capacity to understand, identify, evaluate and implement energy solutions. This includes
the analytical capacity to evaluate the costs and benefits of proposed solutions, the
technical capacity to design and implement energy initiatives as well as monitor the
results, and the skills to build partnerships with multiple stakeholders. Successful
initiatives require personnel dedicated to energy management within the municipal
administration. Institutional capacity can be enhanced through appropriate training
programs, conferences and forum to exchange expertise and experiences.

Reality Check
Of course, not all the initiatives we explored were completely successful. In particular,
we found that municipalities whose energy programs included changes in transportation
behaviour and land use were slow to see effects on the ground. And even successful
initiatives have encountered resistance and problems that had to be overcome. Principal
among these were:
 lack of interest and support from municipal politicians
 lack of adequate funding
  lack of enforcement and accountability for meeting energy management targets
 fragmentation of municipal administration and lack of horizontal coordination
among municipal departments
 resistance to changes in workplace behaviour that would improve energy
efficiency
 lack of suitable expertise.

[needs concluding sentence]

Selected Energy Initiatives
Carbon Tax – Boulder, Colorado
The City of Boulder is the only municipality in North America to have adopted a local
carbon tax. The tax is collected from residential, commercial, and institutional customers
of Xcel Energy, the local gas and electricity utility. Only customers who chose to
purchase electricity from renewable sources (at a premium price) are exempt from the
carbon tax. Revenues are used to fund various energy efficiency initiatives that are being
implemented under the City’s Climate Action Plan (CAP).

District Heat Exchange System – Saint-John, New Brunswick

The City of Saint-John intends to set up a district heating and cooling system in its
downtown core that will use water from the nearby Bay of Fundy to provide heating in
the winter and cooling in the summer. The system will link several municipal buildings
and some neighbouring private buildings.

Norma Solar – Mexico City

According to the Norma Solar, which translates roughly as "Solar Bylaw", all new
commercial and industrial buildings that employ more than 50 people are required to
install solar water heaters. The heaters must have sufficient capacity to provide at least
30% of the hot water used in the given building.

Energy Efficient Transformers – Municipio de Centro, Tabasco

In collaboration with the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Federal Electricity
Commission), Municipio de Centro is piloting an energy efficient transformer program.
Around 1,300 transformers are being replaced across the municipality's territory. The
new transformers will reduce power loss in the electricity distribution system while
improving the reliability of the electricity supply, especially in the rural parts of the
municipality.

Energy Use Partnership – Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, the University of Louisville, and the
Jefferson County Public Schools District have formed an Energy Use Partnership. The
partners agreed to undertake energy efficiency audits in their buildings, develop low-cost
energy efficiency technology for implementation by the organizations, implement energy
efficiency awareness training programs for their employees, and incorporate energy
efficiency provisions into the specifications for new buildings.

Integrated Energy Plan – Whistler, British Columbia

Among the studied municipalities, Whistler had the most comprehensive energy
management plan. The Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) is the only energy plan to lay out a
rigorous set of performance measures. These measures are to be used on a continuous
basis for monitoring progress in implementing the plan and achieving its energy use and
emissions targets. As part of the IEP, the municipality made an energy use and emissions
inventory for the year 2000, which will be used as the baseline for evaluating future
progress.