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A Clean Technology Hub
City of Nanaimo
City of Nanaimo
City of Nanaimo:
A Clean
Technology Hub
Written by: Carin Hall
Produced by: Xan Wynne-Jones >>>
T
Nanaimo’s strategic sustainability
initiatives put it on the map as an
ideal location to test new, innovative
clean technologies and ideas
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he City of Nanaimo, a
logistical hub by nature,
is also well on its way
to becoming a hub
of clean technology
and environmental stewardship
in British Columbia. The City
has adopted a broad scope of
sustainability plans that incorporate
a number of initiatives, tailored
to complement the needs of a
growing, aging community.
“We’re soon going to be dealing
with an older population of people
with fixed incomes,” says Rob
Lawrance, the City’s Environmental
Planner. “That has to be reflected
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City of Nanaimo
City of Nanaimo: A Clean
Technology Hub
in how we design the cities and
how we look at energy efficiency
projects.”
Fortunately, the general public
has become increasingly engaged
with the City’s moves to help
provide the City with more efficient
technologies, transportation
systems and services, while
significantly reducing its carbon
footprint. It’s a process, but with
those goals in place, the journey
has certainly begun.
“Accountability and
transparency will be paramount,”
A Nanaimo zero emission city vehicle
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says Lawrance. “Through
partnership building in the
community, it’s very promising
that we’ll be able to take on more
energy efficiency opportunities and
hit our emissions reduction targets.”
SUSTAINABILITY PLANS
Nanaimo’s focus on sustainability
is found in some of its
fundamental strategies and plans.
“planNanaimo” the City’s Official
Community Plan, has sustainability
as its guiding principle, which
acts as a lens when interpreting
policy contained within it. The
City’s Corporate Strategic Plan,
provides council focus on strategic
priorities for the City that works
in tandem with planNanaimo’s
goals. A strong sustainability focus
including the completion of a
specific Community Sustainability
Action Plan is recognized in both
documents.
Of course, British Columbia’s
Climate Action Plan, set in 2007,
also helped bring many efforts to
fruition, encouraging cities to sign
onto the Climate Action Charter
and become voluntarily carbon
neutral by 2012 was one example.
Cities unable to reach that goal
were required to pay offsets and
forward those funds to the Pacific
Carbon Trust.
“Locally, we were concerned
about tax revenue leaving the
community and going to this entity,
but through some discussions with
the regional district, we were able to
come up with a unique compromise
agreement,” says Lawrance. “It was
decided that all local and regional
governments would pool their offset
dollars into a regional fund to be
used for climate change initiatives
on a more local level. We were one
of the few in the province to have
done that.”
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
In addition to provincial regulations,
incentives and community
encouragement have contributed
to much of Nanaimo’s success.
In 2009, the City hired an Energy
Manager, Bruce Joiner, to pursue
actions that would help take
sustainability projects to the next
level. Within the first three years
alone, the energy management
program has achieved reduction of
over 1.7 million kwh of electricity,
8,000 GJ natural gas and reduced
greenhouse gas emissions by over
400 tonnes. A few of those projects
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City of Nanaimo
City of Nanaimo: A Clean
Technology Hub
included LED and other lighting
programs around the City, energy
efficiency upgrades on a number
of facilities and the installation of
a gravity bypass piping system to
minimize the use of water pumps at
College Park pump station.
“We’re just finishing up a new
City Hall Annex building, aimed
toward LEED Gold standards,”
says Joiner. “We pushed the
envelope even further by adding
energy modeling to identify
and improve the efficiency and
operation of the facility.”
In the near future, the City
is proposing the development
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of a new water treatment plant
that will include a containment
reservoir, which will not only power
the facility, but generate excess
power that can then be sold to the
provincial utility, BC Hydro. It is
estimated that the excess power
should be enough to offset the
needs of 70 to 100 homes.
“We seek projects that offer
a good payback,” says Joiner.
“It’s important that they not only
improve energy efficiencies,
but save the City money over a
certain time.”
Nanaimo is just starting to use
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
We seek
projects that
offer a payback
- Bruce Joiner, Energy
Manager
trucks in a pilot project, reducing
the amount of fuel consumed in
heavy fleet vehicles (and eventually
diesel powered trucks) while
burning more of the less expensive
and cleaner propane. A number of
electric vehicles have also been
purchased and charging stations
are popping up around the City for
public use.
“Every time we do something
out of the ordinary, we have to
make sure it’s very businessbased,” says the City’s Fleet
Manager Bruce Label. “For our
fleet, we look at the payback over
the life cycle of the vehicle.”
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City of Nanaimo
City of Nanaimo: A Clean
Technology Hub
STATISTICS
Industry:
Local Government Subsidiary
Founded:
November 21, 2011
A Nanaimo zero emission city vehicle
An electric Zamboni offers
around $23,000 in savings over a
life cycle, while CNG trucks can
reach an upwards of $49,000 to
$56,000 each.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
“There are many more initiatives
to come after we receive approval
from the City Council,” says
Lawrance. “But we can’t do it
alone. Our efforts are going to
greatly depend on partnership
building in the community.”
Many of those partnerships will
involve local hospitals, universities,
the real-estate community and
other entities around the City. The
Chamber of Commerce will be
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critical in boosting awareness of
energy efficiency in commercial
developments. Meanwhile,
BC Hydro has boosted the
development of a number of
incentive programs, investing in
over $1 million towards those
projects.
The Nanaimo Economic
Development Corporation (NEDC)
has been instrumental in attracting
further investment around the City’s
green industry.
“We have a number of world
class companies here already,”
says Sasha Angus, CEO of
NEDC. “We find that a lot of our
entrepreneurs not only encourage
sustainable business practices,
Headquarters:
Nanaimo, British columbia
but have created great companies
around that concept.”
As that industry continues
to grow organically, it’s putting
Nanaimo on the map as a centre
of clean technology. Within an hour
of any direction outside the City,
all of the environmental conditions
needed to field test clean
technology—from solar to wind to
bioenergy and tidal—are available.
“It’s a great place to come to
apply new technologies in the
conditions they need in order to be
successful,” says Angus. “Nanaimo
truly has it all.”
Key People/Titles:
Sasha Angus, CEO
Products:
Economic Development and Tourism
Services
Employees:
8 permanent full-time, 4 temporary
seasonal
Website:
www.investnanaimo.com
Visit us online:
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