The Columbia Institute’s Centre for Civic Governance has published an interesting report on how energy efficiency retrofits can save money while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions – GHGs. The BC Insulators are supporters of the Columbia Institute.
As Amory Lovins put it:
“Saving electricity needs about 1,000 times less capital, and repays it about 10 times faster, than supplying more electricity.” Lovins is Chair and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Energy Efficiency Advisor to the US government.
Energy use in buildings accounts for a significant portion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada. In British Columbia, they account for 29% of energy use and 12% of emissions.
It’s even more concentrated in communities – in many municipalities, such as Saanich, BC heating and cooling buildings accounts for 30% of Green House Gas Emissions. (Community Energy Emissions Inventory) Energy efficiency retrofits offer a fast and affordable way to cut GHG emissions, conserve energy and save consumers money on their utility bills. Money invested in retrofitting stays in the local economy and retrofit programs result in jobs and training opportunities.
Two promising models offer Municipalities a way forward to provide low-cost financing to cover the upfront cost of energy-efficiency retrofits:
(1) Pay As You Save and On-Bill Financing through locally owned utilities and
(2) property owners repaying over time on their property taxes with their energy savings in property assessed energy retrofits. Both models help homeowners.
Since the publication of This Green House: Building Fast Action for Climate Change and Green Jobs in 2011, a number of innovative jurisdictions have moved forward on municipal retrofit initiatives using either on-bill financing or property assessed programs…..
You can read the full report here.