The City of Burlington is working towards net carbon neutral operations by 2040. A pathway to achieve this Vision 2040 Strategic Plan goal is laid out in the Corporate Energy and Emissions Management Plan: 2019-2024. To ensure momentum towards achieving this goal, progress reports are presented each year to City Council. This post highlights some of the ongoing projects and initiatives City staff are working on as reported to City Council in June 2023.
Deep Energy Retrofit Studies
In late 2021, the City was approved for funding through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities – Green Municipal Fund to carry out four deep energy retrofit studies at Appleby Ice Centre, Brant Hills Community Centre and Fire Stations 2 and 7. The studies are complete, and we now have a road map to transition these four buildings to low or no carbon. A list of what needs to be done and total emission reductions for each building are provided below. Additional details for each item listed, total costs and timelines are available in Appendix B of the June 2023 staff report.
Appleby Ice Centre
Implementing the following measures will reduce emissions by 93 per cent:
- Electric hot water heating and ice resurfacing, packaged air source heat pumps and heat recovery ventilators, LED lighting upgrades, ice making upgrades on two ice pads, reverse osmosis water treatment, and rooftop solar panels.
Brant Hills Community Centre
Implementing the following measures will reduce emissions by 99 per cent:
- Roof insulation upgrade, high performance glazing and doors, HVAC (heat, ventilation and air conditioning) upgrades, electric hot water heater, LED lighting upgrades, and rooftop photovoltaic panels.
Fire Station 2
Implementing the following measures will reduce emissions by 92 per cent:
- Roof insulation upgrade, high performance glazing, air sealing, automated exhaust system electrification, HVAC upgrade, and rooftop solar panels.
Fire Station 7
Implementing the following measures will reduce emissions by 89 per cent:
- High performance glazing, air sealing, hot water electrification, HVAC upgrade, and rooftop solar panels.
Solar Installation at Fire Station 5
The City’s second City owned solar array is coming soon at Fire Station 5 in Kilbride (the first was at City View Park Pavilion in 2022). The system should offset slightly more than 100 per cent of the building’s electricity usage, which will allow City staff to electrify elements of the building’s heating systems (replacing natural gas with air source heat pumps) to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Redevelopment of Robert Bateman High School
We have set out a roadmap to transform the building from a 1960s-era low efficiency high school to a net carbon neutral building that will be both an example to the community and municipalities across the country. In the first phase, the construction team will implement the following energy and carbon reducing measures:
- Upgrades to the building’s wall systems to increase insulation values and replace glazing units,
- Heat recovery on all the new air handling units,
- Upgrades to heating infrastructure to support a future geothermal field, and
- Installation of heat recovery chillers which will be used to pre-heat the hot water for the facility and reduce the use of the natural gas boiler plant for water heating. In the future, these chillers will act as heat pumps and connect to a geothermal field.
EV Charging
More Level 2 EV Charging stations are now available for the community, with partial funding through The Atmospheric Fund, at:
- Tansley Woods Community Centre
- Appleby Ice Centre
- Mainway Recreation Centre
- Nelson Recreation Centre
- Mountainside Recreation Centre
- Norton Park / Haber Recreation Centre
Stay tuned for future blog posts on additional public charging station locations.
Take Action Burlington! Let’s all work together to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Collectively, we can make a difference.
This post was submitted by Tom Pedlar, Supervisor, Energy and Emissions, City of Burlington.
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