CITY OF NORTH BAY
Doing the Right Thing

Through the development of a “green plan”, the City of North Bay has set aggressive targets to reduce its global footprint, save energy and money, and demonstrate municipal leadership.

The City of North Bay is finding unique and effective ways to green its operations. Peter Bullock, the City’s Manager of Environmental Service explains: “Until now energy savings have been left to the individual departments to find, but we have recently moved this up the ladder to be a “full corporate initiative”. “We are now committed to finding new efficiencies and savings across the full spectrum of City operations.”

Bullock reports to a corporate-wide committee chaired by the City’s Chief Administrative Officer, David Linkie, which is spearheading the multi-faceted campaign to improve the City’s environmental performance. At the heart of his efforts is the city’s Energy and Environment Action Plan, completed in February 2008 by Energy Advantage. The plan not only has identified programs and projects found from an operational review but have provided direction on establishing the corporate framework as well as stressing the importance of achieving employee buy-in. The implementation strategy includes:

• Setting up the “Green Team” complete with targets
• Setting up the organizational framework and tracking as well as developing training and awareness programs
• Starting with short-term payback projects to establish a track record
• Developing project rationales for more costly/longer term payback options
• Looking for opportunities to begin sharing gained expertise with the ABCs (Area Boards and Commissions)
• Engaging the community as whole to join the cause, once the City has demonstrated what is possible

The City has already undertaken major projects at a number of locations in its 35-facility portfolio, which includes 12 administration buildings; two landfills; multiple small facilities like parks, parking lots and bus shelters; pumping and lift stations; two arenas; three fire stations; two water treatment and distribution facilities; and a sewage treatment plant. Traffic lighting, street lighting and fleet operations also fall under the City’s mandate.

For example, the City has converted most of its 44 intersections with traffic lights/pedestrian signals to light-emitting diode (LED) technology. These lights are extremely bright and visible while, at the same time, using about 85 per cent less electricity. This conversion has saved local taxpayers $142,000 annually in reduced energy consumption and maintenance.

The City recently turned its attention to its 5,600 streetlights and approved a plan to replace existing lamps with induction lamp technology that is expected to generate electricity savings of 35 per cent. Capital costs will be recovered in just eight years from energy and maintenance savings – or sooner with subsidies. This project will be a significant contribution to the City goal to reduce electricity use by 5 per cent per year or 1 million kilowatts per year until 2013.

“North Bay is ahead of the curve by creating an effective ‘Green Team’,” notes Todd Wilcox, Chief Operating Officer of North Bay Hydro, who also sits as a Green Team member. “They are demonstrating real leadership by establishing targets and monitoring progress.”

Wilcox says local distribution companies (LDCs) can play an important role in helping their customers identify energy-savings opportunities. One of the most obvious, yet underutilized, functions is the provision of current and historical consumption data, which creates a baseline from which to track and measure changes resulting from new initiatives. Wilcox and his team provided the City with load profiles for each of their key facilities, which captured real-time data on how energy usage changes over time.

North Bay Hydro also provided a breakdown of electricity consumption patterns by facility type. This research indicated that the largest consumers of electricity in the City are wastewater treatment (23.3%), street lighting (18.1%), water treatment (16.4%) and City Hall (8.3%). Their high consumption levels mean these facilities are obvious targets for energy efficiency improvements.

The LDC’s role can extend far beyond simply providing tips on energy efficiency, Wilcox suggests. While not every LDC will be able to offer the same suite of services, Wilcox says North Bay Hydro can help municipal customers by developing business cases for retrofits, sharing capital investment and project management expertise, identifying electricity procurement and pricing options, and providing guidance and support for local generation projects.

As part of its Green Plan, the City has turned its sights to renewable generation. With a capital investment of $120,000, a 10 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system was added to the roof of City Hall in 2008 and is expected to generate 12,500 kWh of electricity annually. While this project offsets a portion of the building’s traditional grid-derived electricity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 2.75 tonnes per year, the City has opted to tap into the Government of Ontario’s renewable generation incentives through the Renewable Energy Standing Offer Program.

The City is also pursuing a 1.6 megawatt (MW) landfill gas capture and combustion project at its Merrick Landfill site. When approved, the project will generate revenue as well as electricity – and counter global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 45,000 tonnes of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year. The site has been flaring since September 2007 and Wilcox says the City is already trading emission reduction credits on the global carbon markets. North Bay has forward sold its carbon offsets to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities until 2016.

The Green Plan has placed great emphasis on employee awareness and training. The plan highlights examples of where programs were attempted without proper awareness and how this has hampered program success. “This is a big challenge,” Linkie admits. “We are trying to evolve corporate culture and create a conservation ethic. That doesn’t happen overnight as people can be pretty set in their ways.”

The City is pursuing aggressive yet achievable targets: a five per cent reduction in electricity and fleet fuel consumption, and a three per cent per year reduction in natural gas consumption annually. Linkie is quick to point out that the creation of a multi-department Energy and Environment Committee has been a key tool in raising awareness of – and support for – City initiatives.

Best of all, he says, is the support of North Bay City Council. “They have demonstrated a willingness to consider initiatives that have long-term paybacks if we can show them that the projects will eventually pay for themselves and will help us to demonstrate and understand new options as they become available,” Linkie says. “You cannot justify implementing a renewable energy project based on a short-term payback scenario. Council has shown itself to be interested in doing the right thing environmentally.”

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