T2050 - reThinkGreen

This project convenes a cluster of municipalities on Manitoulin Island and the North Shore of Lake Huron, with the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by applying climate mitigation and adaptation principles to asset management and energy planning. The project will enhance municipal staff literacy on climate mitigation through (a) dedicated training sessions, (b) sharing of relevant focused resources, and (c) by providing an opportunity to discuss best practices among neighbouring communities. The project management team will provide support, leadership, and coordination to create two Regional Energy & Emissions Plans: one for Manitoulin Island and one for the North Shore, supported by formal committee Terms of Reference. Finally, the project will convene key local stakeholders and relevant experts to discuss ambitious capital projects capable of achieving substantial emissions reductions by 2050.In our work with these communities, we hear that lack of resources—staff time, local expertise, funds—is the greatest barrier to achieving emissions reductions. To overcome this obstacle, our project model optimizes municipal staff time, by ensuring that coordination tasks are completed by the project team and that information on emissions reductions is readily accessible to decision-makers. Building from the demonstrated success of OCCIAR’s Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice model (CCACoP), the online portal will provide a centralized repository of resources and training materials. It will have a conversation board for project participants to post questions, share successes, and strike up new ideas. Having a dedicated project management team devoted to creating two Regional Energy & Emissions Plans ensures they are delivered on-time to guide immediate-term emissions reductions projects. Each regional plan will incorporate individual municipal greenhouse gas emissions inventories and identify reduction targets from a common baseline year. Plans like these are essential first components for driving strategic long-term action and to meeting the Milestones of the PCP program; Plans outline the pathway for achieving deep emissions reductions over the coming decades by identifying regionally-appropriate policies and behaviours. Collecting these recommendations in one place reduces the need to “reinvent the wheel,” saves small municipalities money on individual plan preparation, and helps foster a harmonized approach to regional climate action. Examples of similar regional plans have been produced by Sustainable Severn Sound and Sustainable Peterborough, suggesting this practice is capable of generating successful results. The project also provides the opportunity to introduce, and begin implementing, innovative processes, potentially “disruptive” clean and renewable technologies, and fostering inventive cooperative policies for deep emissions reductions. Such implementation projects may include feasibility studies or actual construction of facilities—for example, larger-scale renewable energy generation and storage options, biomass fuel switching, or co-generation opportunities—that would be too onerous or costly for one municipality to undertake alone. Our project management team is addressing an observed gap by making connections and inviting key stakeholders—such as companies in Ontario’s clean technology sector, municipal services, post-secondary faculty and researchers, and investors—to a technical workshop to advise and assist in the scaling of these technologies in the Northeast region.