RETHINK Energy London Local Action Plan

The City of London will hold a public consultation on energy use and complete an energy mapping initiative in order to update its short-term local action plan (2011–2014) for sustainable energy and greenhouse gas reduction and to develop an integrated community energy and land-use plan to meet longer-term goals for 2020 and 2050.

The public consultation will provide the basis for a renewed climate change and sustainable energy Local Action Plan derived from meaningful public and stakeholder input using a dedicated RETHINK Energy London page with web-based surveys, a discussion forum and carbon footprint calculators along with promotional and educational tools and a communications plan for local media and the Internet.

The energy mapping exercise will assist in framing London's longer-term greenhouse gas reduction goals based on a current understanding of future land use forms and energy sources, and whether these longer-term goals are feasible considering traditional transportation and land-use planning and tools that look at both “stationary” energy use (such as electricity, natural gas, renewable energy, district energy and co-generation) and transportation energy use (such as gasoline, diesel and biofuels) and associated GHG emissions. It will also include the energy and GHG aspects of municipally-managed activities, such as water & wastewater (e.g., stormwater & grey water utilization, biomass & biogas), waste (e.g., landfill gas, biomass & biogas), and brownfield redevelopment (e.g., role of infill in reducing transportation energy & GHGs).

The research team will look at the impact of different scenarios on energy supply and demand, greenhouse gas emissions and life-cycle costs. Using this information, the city will refine London's longer-term greenhouse gas reduction goals through a collaborative community engagement process. The city will then prepare a financial implementation strategy for renewable and sustainable energy solutions. The updated sustainable energy and climate change Local Action Plan will be part of a broader Integrated Community Sustainability Plan that incorporates the new Transportation Master Plan, Green Development Strategy, Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy, and other City of London initiatives that are taking place concurrently (e.g., waste diversion, the new water conservation program, and the existing City of London Community Improvement Plan for Brownfield Incentives). As part of London's participation in the Integrated Energy Mapping for Ontario Communities initiative, the results of the initiative will be shared through the development of a best practice guideline that will outline how to replicate the energy, transportation and land-use mapping process and share important insights on the metrics, measures, information requirements and other key challenges and opportunities discovered while preparing energy plans for participating communities.

(Project description from original funding application)