AMHERST, N.S. — Amherst is moving ahead with its plan to reduce its carbon footprint and find potential energy savings through an agreement with Efficiency One.
Council passed a motion during its Jan. 27 meeting to pay $100,000 to Efficiency One, which is an arm of Efficiency Nova Scotia, to hire an onsite energy manager to work as an imbedded contractor for a two-year term.
“The agreement with Efficiency One ... is based on an established program that identifies and implements energy efficiency projects,” Coun. Jason Blanch said. “The onsite energy manager would also be responsible for updating the town’s 2010 emissions inventory, identifying immediate, medium and long-term projects and assisting in the development of the community energy strategy.”
Blanch said Efficiency One has onsite energy managers embedded in municipalities and institutions across Nova Scotia and has an OEM manager that oversees the entire program. He said the program offers the best way to ensure Amherst realizes energy efficiencies in its facilities and operations and reduce its carbon footprint.
“There may be an opportunity to offset the salary by, for example, partnering with a company in the industrial park or with Oxford or Cumberland County for specific facilities, but establishing such an agreement will first depend on the specific skill set of the OEM,” Blanch said.
In aiming to reduce its carbon footprint, Blanch said the town is doing so in a financially sustainable way by withdrawing the $100,000 per year from operating reserves so it will not impact tax rates.
He feels it will also lead to energy savings for the town.
“In 2018, Amherst spent over $880,000 on energy, including electricity and fuel, an amount which will continue to increase as costs of energy increases,” he said. “Almost all of this money leaves Amherst and provides no external benefit to the local community. As a result of the OEM program, other municipalities have reduced energy costs significantly.”
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality reduced energy costs by 25 per cent over two years, saving $2.6 million. For Amherst, he said, even a modest reduction of 10 per cent of 2018 energy costs could realize $88,000 in annual savings as opposed to the status quo.
Money for the initiative are being funded by operating reserves in the 2020-21 operating budget and won’t impact the town’s tax rate.
Speaking to the Amherst Rotary Club earlier in the day, Mayor David Kogon said the initiative is in response to last year’s declaration of a climate change emergency in Amherst – something it worked on with its youth town council.
He said it’s another example of how Amherst is working to be an environmental leader.
Kogon said Amherst has completed several green initiatives, including being the first community in the province to switch to LED streetlights, adopting an active transportation plan and supporting the development of a wind turbine as part of its $13-million-plus sewage treatment plant on the marsh.
The future, he said, will see solar PV installations at the stadium, fire department and the police department, partnering in the NSBI Smart Grid Energy Implementation Project and implementation of the Property Assessed Clean Energy Bylaw.
“It’s very clear that climate change is real and it’s very clear we owe our citizens and future citizens to be leaders in addressing it,” Kogon told Rotarians. “Unfortunately, it’s a fact that addressing climate change can’t happen without cost, but we are attempting to do this work in a financially sustainable way by using reserve funds to seed the work of the onsite energy manager and applying for senior government assistance when the opportunity arises.”
The town has applied to the Low Carbon Communities Fund and is hoping for an announcement soon.
Besides working with Efficiency One, council has also joined the Partners for Climate Protection Five Milestone Framework to formalize Amherst’s commitment to greenhouse gas emission reduction and action on climate change.
