Environmental Issues in Northern Ontario
GREEN - Greater Renewable Energy and Ecodesigns Now
Interview with Guy Dauncey keynote speaker for the Kyoto Conference in Sudbury.
Guy Dauncey is author of Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change
QUESTIONS:
1.EarthCare Sudbury has just received an award from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for sustainability. EarthCare has a Local Action Plan since October 2003. How should EarthCare mobilize the community itself or thru its community 90 partners to implement the plan to prepare for Kyoto for example?
"I�m not coming in as an expert on how the citizens of Sudbury should chart their future; that�s something that takes a love of the local community, and a sense of what inspires people, as well as knowledge of the kinds of initiative that will make a difference in reducing emissions, and building a greener future. Sudbury has already done extraordinary things since 1975, and the new EarthCare Local Action Plan is really an excellent document, which shows how much work has gone into it.
The challenge now is to take that enthusiasm and transfer it to every household, school and business in Sudbury. Inco has shown what can be done with real leadership, and a willingness to take it to the shop floor. As a result of their drive for greater energy efficiency, they gathered hundreds of ideas from employees, and managed to save $20 million in their first year alone. Overall, they have reduced their consumption of energy by a full 10%, with no reduction in mining or refining.
Now imagine this same impulse moving out through Sudbury, and entering everyone�s front door. The Kyoto challenge asks every one of us to reduce our personal household emissions of greenhouse gases by 1 tonne; that�s an average 20% reduction, over the next six or so years. Inco had some easy successes. In on area of the plant, they realized that they were heating the place for 24 hours a day, even though the welders only worked there during the daytime, repairing the tubs that transport molten metal. So an employee offered to come in early to turn on the heater, and Inco is now saving $20,000 a year. At the household level, that�s the equivalent of realizing that you�re heating a room that you never use; this could be solved by installing a thermostat and giving it a low setting, enough to stop the room from freezing. It might also be the equivalent of turning off an old inefficient fridge that chunters along in the basement, keeping a few beers cold. Switching off just that one fridge alone might save as much as a tonne of CO2, and $100 a year as well.
Inco also had more complex challenges, such as recalibrating the smelter�s oxygen plant. A one degree change in the mid-point setting made no difference to its efficiency, but it is saving Inco $100,000 a year in energy they no longer need to buy. For a household, this might be the equivalent of opening up the wall below your shower, and installing a new system called the �GFX� (stands for �gravity film exchange�). Think of all that hot water going down the drain. Wasted heat! So now picture the cold water pipe coiling itself tightly around the waste pipe, like a snake, so that the heat is transferred into the incoming cold water. Presto! You�ve just reduced the hot water needed for a shower by 50%. (For all you home energy buffs, check www.gfxtechnology.com for the details).
These are technical examples, but what I�m getting at is the spirit, a Sudbury �can-do� attitude that embraces the challenge set out in the Action Plan: �to become the most energy wise community in Canada.�
2. How can consumers of energy, which now is increasingly more expensive, turn an energy crisis into an energy opportunity both for themselves and their city?
"The first thing we have to realize is that we�ve only enjoyed the benefits of oil and gas for the past 100 years; and there�s not much dispute that in another hundred years time, we won�t be using either: there just won�t be any left. I�d personally put the date a lot earlier. I doubt if anyone will be driving vehicles that use oil after 2040, and we may be something other than gas to heat our homes well before then. So this is the opportunity: we know that this change is coming, and we also know that climate change is giving us the same message, but in a lot more urgent way. So let�s get to it! The communities that pioneer the new future, beyond oil and gas, will be the first to reap the benefits of green economies, green businesses, clean air, and community pride."
3. Is this new energy crisis, both for oil and electricity a watershed event signally that the world is realizing that it must turn towards conservation, renewables and hydrogen futures?
"Yes. There�s a lot of fascinating debate about hydrogen, because hydrogen is not a source of energy; it�s a carrier of energy. You�ve got to use energy to split it off from whatever the molecule is attached to. If it�s from fossil fuels, which is the current way is done, then you�ve still got greenhouse gas emissions. If its by using renewable energy to split water, or to harvest it from algae, then we�re talking real solutions. But that brings up another question, which is if you�re using electricity to split water to make hydrogen to put into a fuel cell to make electricity, why not just use the electricity in the first place?
So that gets us straight into the whole question of how we travel, since electric vehicles don�t have the range that we expect. And her again, the EarthCare Local Action Pan has really covered the bases well; they�re looking at everything from more support for cycling, to the use of biodiesel, to using the �Upass� system for transit, that is proving itself so successful on college campuses across North America. I personally think that the future of transport involves a mix of more walking, cycling, and teleworking, much more use of transit, the use of the small, smart urban vehicles such as the new 2-seater diesel Mercedes Smart CDI that�s coming out this September, which does 83 mpg, and is as long as our regular cars are wide: you can park them sideways on, three to a parking spot. Now throw a community car sharing cub into the mix, so that people no longer feel the need to own their own vehicles, but share in the use of a fleet of vehicles instead, so that you can use the Smart cars for local travel, and just use a pickup or SUV for special occasions, and you�re looking at the potential for a 90% reduction in the amount of oil needed for our personal travel.
Renewables are another very exciting story. The global capacity for wind and solar energy is enormous. It makes total sense to get into wind energy, as the Local Action Plan calls for, and it also makes sense to plan ahead for the solar revolution, which is just around the corner. The Japanese are going gung-ho on solar, and they�ll drive the price down through mass production. Once the price comes down, so that solar pays for itself, it�ll make sense for every house to have a 2kw solar PV system on its roof. Remember, solar used to cost $100 a watt in 1980, and $10 in 1990. Today its down to $4, and heading lower. It�s all to do with the benefits of mass production. And there are other fascinating renewable forms of energy too, such as groundsource heart, deep rocks geothermal, biomass, and wave and tidal energy (for communities by the sea)."
4. What is the job creation and economic potential for implementing Kyoto at the local level especially in areas like northern Ontario where in Sudbury 10,000 mostly younger people have left in the last 6 years, therefore putting stresses on the community to maintain services with declining wage earners from the significant 24-35 age group?
Lots. Just think how many jobs will be needed crawling through every attic, and fixing up every home to make it twice as efficient. If you can leverage the advantages of taking an early lead into attracting clean energy companies and other environmental technology companies to come to Sudbury, to cash in on the technical traditions of your workforce and the loyalty of a town where there�s such strong community spirit, you could develop a green technology cluster: as the Local Action Plan calls for.
5. Can zero net energy houses be built that are affordable?
I am thinking of architect Jorg Ostrowski�s sustainable house project in Calgary.
"Habitat for Humanity, who build affordable houses using voluntary labour, have been pioneering an affordable zero net energy house. The technology is known: you combine passive solar design, super efficiency, ground source heat, solar hot water, efficient appliances, and heat recovery. If you roll the cost into the mortgage, which is geared to a long payback, and rig your energy bills so that the savings from your reduced bills go into the mortgage to pay for the additional cost of the systems, it all begins to make sense. I hope this makes sense!
There are so many possibilities; the real key is unlocking the energy of the community. That�s the challenge. "
