We’ve all heard the tips for saving electricity: switch to LED lightbulbs, run appliances in off-peak hours, add caulking to drafty windows, and so on. But do measures like these really add up to significant cost savings?
The City of Brampton has proved that they can. Over the past six years, the municipality has saved more than $4.4 million through energy conservation.
Energy Conservation
Some of those savings have come in the form of incentives and rebates from utilities. This past fall, for example, Hydro One Brampton presented the city with a cheque for nearly $90,000 in recognition of the its conservation efforts.
However, nearly $2.5 million of Brampton’s savings can be traced to improvements in the energy efficiency of City properties. These conservation efforts have included:
- Converting standard lighting systems to LED.
- Improving insulation and sealing leaks in older buildings.
- Recovering heat that would otherwise be vented outside.
- Automating lights and heating/cooling systems to use energy only when needed.
- Installing low-flow bathroom fixtures to use less water.
The amount of energy that the City has saved through these programs between 2009 and 2015 is equivalent to removing 730 homes from Brampton’s hydro grid. And the associated reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is equal to pulling 545 vehicles off the road.
Generating Solar Power
In addition to conserving electricity, Brampton is also generating it! Solar panels at two City transit facilities and a fire station produce power that is then fed into the hydro grid and purchased by the utility at a premium rate.
Brampton’s culture of conservation informs a wide variety of other sustainability initiatives, in areas such as waste reduction. The city’s “Take Back the Light” program, for example, has recycled more than 7,500 of fluorescent lamps in the past year, diverting 0.23 kg of mercury, 35 kg of phosphor, 2,204 kg of glass and 28 kg of metals from landfill. Since 2014, Brampton has also recycled more than 1,400 kg of batteries.
You can learn more about Brampton’s sustainability efforts, and its environmental master plan, Brampton Grow Green.