Community Energy and Emissions Plan – District of Mission

In partnership with BC Hydro, the District of Mission created a Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP) — a relatively new undertaking for a smaller municipality. As a commuter community with a high percentage of single-family homes, the district already knew that its sustainability was highly susceptible to rises in energy costs. The holistic CEEP aimed to provide the district with a fuller understanding of energy-use patterns and the changes that were needed not only to achieve better energy efficiency, but also for community resiliency should costs rise. Mission had already adopted ambitious community and corporate targets for reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Official Community Plan included those targets, but the comprehensive, long-term CEEP was expected to contribute a framework for achieving breakthrough reductions in energy use and GHG emissions that would be integrated into all municipal planning: land use (especially brownfields), energy infrastructure, waste management and utilities. The list of options in the plan were to be implemented through district policies and bylaws. A comprehensive community consultation process included a region-wide resiliency workshop and continuation of a partnership with the local school district Open houses, brochures, and regular discussions at council meetings also formed part of the process. The CEEP program was designed to be implemented province-wide. Lessons learned would be particularly valuable for small- and medium-sized bedroom communities whose lack of public transit created a community dependence on automobiles and generated significant GHG emissions. The GHG emission reduction strategies that arose from the CEEP were also likely to become pilot projects in their own right — another item that would be of considerable interest to communities with similar size and demographic profiles.

(Project description from original funding application)