No Energy to Waste
Ecology Ottawa / Newsletter / 18 March 2010
This spring, Ecology Ottawa is launching a new program: the No Energy to Waste! pilot project for community service agencies. Thanks to funding we have received from the Ottawa Sustainability Fund, we are working with three to five local community service agencies, such as shelters and supportive employment centres, to dramatically reduce energy consumption in their buildings. We'll be helping organizations that provide essential services to our community to cut their energy costs while also reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy used to heat, cool, and power Ottawa's buildings account for nearly two-thirds of our city's greenhouse gas emissions, so it's crucial that we start constructing better buildings and improving the ones we have.
You too can play your part by cutting down energy consumption and waste in the buildings you inhabit-your home, your workplace, your community centre, your place of worship, etc. Check out Ecology Ottawa's guide to workplace greening on our Green Buildings and Workplaces Challenge website here.
The website is chock-full of locally relevant resources to help you reduce the environmental footprint of your workplace and other buildings. Resources like:
° The EnviroCentre's ecoMobility program, which can help your workplace improve commuting practices by surveying all employees on their transportation needs and delivering customized strategies to change commuting patterns.
° Information on local places where you find used office furniture, bring computers for responsible end-of-life recycling, or rent teleconference facilities to cut down on travel for meetings.
° Our list of five lesser-known but high-impact workplace greening tips.
Those are just a few examples of the dozens of resources you can access at www.ecologyottawa.ca/greenbuildings.
Still don't know where to start, and need some inspiration? See what some of the workplace green teams participating in our Green Buildings and Workplaces Challenge have been up to. From green procurement policies to motion-sensor lighting, these teams have been busy reforming their workplaces to cut back on pollution, waste, and energy use. Read their stories here.
Working together, we can reduce the environmental impacts of our buildings in Ottawa. Let's start today, because there is no time -- and precious little energy -- to waste!
