"The Environment" is Neither Disposable nor Replaceable (and Protecting it is Neither Expensive nor "Dangerous" to the Economy)
On February 5 the new federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (Scott Vaughan) released his first report to Parliament. The first story line from it that the national news media picked up was the lack of accountability for $1.5 billion the federal government had given to the provinces (ostensibly to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other airborne pollutants). In the environmental media, the focus was on the report's blunt reference to Canada "not [being] on an environmentally sustainable path." What the Commissioner didn't say was that everything each of us does has an effect on the environment - nearly all of it negative. He also didn't say that individual and governmental failure to change what we do, so that we generate smaller negative effects on the environment, is more important than Canadians realize.
The City of Prince Albert is a prime example of a local government that has failed to take responsibility for minimizing the detrimental impacts on the environment produced by activities that occur within its boundaries. Recognizing that the first step in righting that wrong is the creation of a "Green Plan" that is uniquely suited to the city, I wrote out the requirements for and an outline of such a plan, then presented this to City Council at its regular public meetings. My presentations were given over a four-month period, from November 26, 2007 to March 24, 2008. None of the details of these presentations were reported - by either the print or broadcast media. Fully cognizant of their lack of newsworthiness, I am nonetheless reproducing the presentations here.
Fifteen months have elapsed since I began trying in earnest to educate Council on this (very basic) issue. Since much has happened during that time, including City Council giving congratulatory messages and nods of approval to Green Living Action Day and Project Porchlight last fall (but also, on my part, large doses of introspection), I have added comments on the original text. These appear in green ink.
Basic Requirements for a Green Plan
(presented at the City Council meeting on November 26, 2007)
1. [In the short term] It must consist of mostly low-cost, or no-cost measures.
Since future revenue seems to be already allocated to asphalt, soccer, and infrastructure, a green plan must cost next-to-nothing. Small portions of existing staff’s time are needed for writing, review, and enforcement of the program. Anything more costly can be delayed [for one year, now that two budget years have passed since this was written] - as long as you remember that costs increase exponentially as each year passes. Fortunately, most “green plan” tools are low cost.
2. It must be comprehensive.
Garbage reduction, recycling improvements, decreased water and sewer use, and reductions in electricity and hydrocarbon consumption must all be part of the program at the start. The time for token gestures and empty rhetoric ended at least ten years ago. Favouritism and exemptions have no place in our green plan [for example, prohibitions on new drive-thru lanes and a tax on existing such services should apply to every fast-food outlet, bank, and credit union: we don't want to duplicate Kalispell, Montana, which, with half the population of Prince Albert, has a downtown "bank" consisting of six drive-through lanes and a "building" with a footprint that is 15 feet by 10 feet], and the costs of not acting on all fronts simultaneously are going up way too fast.
3. It must be simple.
The plan has to be simple, because there are still people in Prince Albert who think global warming does not exist, and others who do not link climate change to the 80,000 yearly kilometers their household drives. [In the middle of 36 days of temperatures stuck between -22 and -38 in December 2008 and January 2009, one of the local paragons of hydrocarbon consumption asked me, "So what happened to global warming?" With a hard glare and venom in my voice, I replied that "Prince Albert doesn't constitute the globe." My neighbours on both sides also fail to link their actions to climate change: they insist on warming up their vehicles in the driveway, for at least ten minutes before they drive off, whenever the temperature falls below zero.] Technical complexity can be added later - even if the two senior levels of government fail to get serious about environmental planning. [The October 2008 federal election might have had an impact, but as long as the Michael-Ignatieff-led Liberals support the minority Conservative government, there's no hope for significant change at that level. At the provincial level, the Saskatchewan Party, like the Alberta Conservatives, still believes that carbon sequestration and "clean coal" are meaningful pursuits.]
4. It must have real, measurable targets and goals.
Aside from setting realistic targets and goals, the capacity to record progress toward them must be in place.
5. It must use tools that are being used elsewhere, and not try to innovate.
There are lots of smart people in the world, and I think we can simply accept their work as worthy of duplication. Avoiding innovation will reduce public confusion, eliminate unrealistic options, and shorten decision-making timeframes.
6. The plan must have a champion - someone whose job is to implement it.
This person must be free from political influence. Neither David Suzuki nor Hamilton Greenwood [a department head at SIAST Woodland Campus] is available.
7. There must be an award system of some kind in the plan.
These keep the program in the public eye, and are very important for the current mayor [who, since November 2006, has accorded special recognition to a score of sports teams and meritorous individuals at city council meetings].
Part I - "Internal" Measures in a Municipal Green Plan
(presented at the City Council meeting on January 28, 2008)
Except for Councillor Dionne, who had to leave the last time I spoke, council will recall that there are three parts in a Municipal Green Plan. Tonight I will explain 16 internal measures that should be included in part one of the Plan. Their adoption must be the first step, because this will show leadership by city council and city administration. After all, if you don’t show an interest in environmental initiatives, it is unlikely the rest of the population will.
1. Hire a sustainable development coordinator.
This is necessary because someone who works for the city must conduct research and monitor the Green Plan’s implementation - full-time. That person will also be responsible for engaging the public in the Green Plan’s implementation.
2. Collect information on the electricity, natural gas, propane, gasoline, and diesel consumed by all of the city’s buildings and vehicles, then set targets (in percentages) for reducing this consumption.
[I know this is a tall order for an organization like the City of Prince Albert. If you want to know how difficult it is to get actual consumption information, start by examining the police operating budget found on pages 90-99 of the January 12, 2009 council meeting documents. It seems most police vehicles run on air and an unwavering sense of justice, not gasoline or diesel: the only references to vehicle fuel and oil costs are on line 331, where we see $1701 for "CFSEU Vehicle Fuel & Oil" in 2007, dramatically reduced to just $86 in 2008, and line 342, where the "Emergency Response Team" is noted as using $0 - yes, ZERO - for "Vehicle Fuel & Oil" in 2006, 2007, and 2008. This is either a brilliant achievement (worthy of at least a Pultizer Prize or an Oscar), one which the city must try to replicate in its other departments, or an indication that fuel costs are astronomically high, so are hidden somewhere else in the chart of accounts.] Targets should be in percentages of kilowatt hours, cubic meters, and liters - not in dollars or tonnes of greenhouse gases, because the process should be simple, and independent of price increases or emission formulas. Targeting 30% reductions by 2011 is a good start. For fuel used by city vehicles, I can give you a multi-function spreadsheet that I designed for my gas usage. [This spreadsheet can be easily modified to accommodate a fleet of several hundred vehicles].
3. Eliminate free parking for all city employees and elected officials.
Land is valuable, and if we insist on allowing public land to be occupied by private vehicles, less than 25% of the time, there should be a charge of $100 per month to use it exclusively as storage space. This is a fair price, compared to the $500 per month commonly charged for a parking space in Squamish, BC, and the $125/month average charge in downtown Saskatoon last year [2007].
4. Encourage city employees to take the bus to work, by giving them a monthly bus pass.
In order to get a pass for the subsequent month, they would have to use the pass to get to work on at least 15 days in the current month.
5. Encourage employees to carpool, by setting up a car pool program for each city facility with more than 5 employees.
6. Encourage city employees to walk or bike to work, by giving a dollar-a-day payment to them for any day they walk or bike to work.
7. Encourage city employees to bike to work, by installing covered, secure bike parking racks that do not damage bicycles, located within 10 meters of the main entrance to city-funded buildings. [This means installing racks at the Rawlinson Centre, the Art Hauser Centre, and the Dave Steuart Arena; replacing the ancient rack at the library; and covering the rack just outside the north door of City Hall.]
8. Adopt a policy that every building constructed or renovated with city funds must meet the energy efficiency standards at the silver level of the LEED building rating system.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and and Environmental Design. The City of Prince Albert is so far behind in this area that basic LEED certification is no longer acceptable. Although this is the level Saskatoon now requires - and Regina, and Calgary, and the 800-resident Town of East Gwillimbury, Ontario, for its 800 residents - we can do better.
9. Build sidewalks.
The money can come from allocating 1% of the road repair, resurfacing, and construction budget.
10. Allocate another 1% of the road repair, resurfacing, and construction budget to on-street bicycle lanes.
[A few years ago, the City removed the only on-street lane it had - on 15th Street East, from 6th Avenue to 10th Avenue. The entire length of this thoroughfare is a likely candidate for the first crosstown, on-street bike lane.]
11. Change the city’s streetlights to lower wattage, low-pressure sodium, flat-lens fixtures.
Wattages can be reduced since the flat-lens fixture focuses light down, rather than sending it up and sideways. [There also has to be a better way of ensuring that streetlights do not burn 24 hours-a-day: filling in SaskPower's web site form, as well as calls to their 1-800 number, both necessitate several weeks to address these problems.]
12. Change the toilets in city buildings to dual-flush units.
Users save water by selecting a small flush for liquids, and a larger flush for solids. [The provincial government now gives Saskatchewan homeowners a subsidy to make the switch, so there may be funds available to the city for this purpose.]
13. Replace sink tap sets in city buildings with sensor-operated units.
[If you want to know how much water is wasted by a broken faucet, ask the General Manager of the Gateway Mall about the sinks in the men's washroom off the mall's food court: in the past ten years, I've been in that washroom at least 200 times, and on only two occasions have I found the taps not pouring rivers of water straight down the drains.]
14. Adopt and enforce a policy to restrict idling by city vehicles to a maximum of 30 seconds after starting up and while stopped.
[Police vehicles are the worst offenders in this category. Apparently the police versions of the Ford Crown Victoria and Dodge Charger driven by the local constabulary have batteries so puny they can't power the notebook computers in the vehicles. Solution: install solar panels on the roofs of the vehicles - but these would have to be larger than the ones just installed above the solar-powered light fixtures on stop signs at 22nd Street and 1st Avenue West.]
15. Change water and sewer rates to encourage conservation.
The current rate structure rewards high volume users with a lower cost per unit than low volume users pay. On a personal note, I’ve managed to reduce my water consumption by 50% over the last seven years [2000 to 2007]- with zero impact on my water bill.
16. Hold a public environmental planning workshop - to come up with ideas that supplement those I just spoke about. I’ve only given you a small sample of the many brilliant ideas that can put us firmly on the path to a Prince Albert that is "green" year-round [and I do tire quickly at hearing the sound of my own voice].
Part II - "Greening" Bylaws
(presented at the City Council meeting on February 25, 2008)
Here are nine to consider.
1. Eliminate drive-through lanes at all businesses in the city.
These asphalt atrocities encourage pointless fuel consumption, discourage people from walking, take up valuable real estate, and, in the final analysis, provide a “convenience” for a few people that is literally toxic to all of us. One way to phase in the elimination of these lanes is to require an annual $10,000 drive-through-lane license (the amount is a conservative estimate of the health and environmental costs to society resulting from the lane’s use). If you can’t see yourselves passing this bylaw, how about collecting $1 from every patron of a drive-through? Municipalities all over Canada (such as Toronto, Hamilton, and Jasper) have finally realized how much damage is done by drive-through lanes. We should join them.
2. Give builders an incentive to build “green” houses and commercial buildings.
This could be done with a 25% reduction on the building permit fee, or the “off-site levies”, for construction that meets LEED criteria (remember, that means Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Over their lifetimes, these buildings save the city money - in reduced water and sewer treatment costs, for example. Rather than immediately requiring home builders to exceed the R2000 standards by 20%, the bylaw could adopt the LEED for Homes criteria, which were established by the Canada Green Building Council just last month [January 2008]. These building standards should also be applied to renovation jobs.
3. Require subdivision developers to integrate their units’ transportation needs with the city’s transit system, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
This should be part of the development agreement they sign with the city.
4. Create parking spaces near the doors of city facilities that are reserved for registered car pool and hybrid vehicles.
Incidentally, this is already done across the street, at the Saskatchewan Forest Centre.
5. Adopt an anti-idling bylaw.
Drivers in PA are notorious engine idlers - another wasteful “convenience for a few” that causes major harm to all of us - and remote car starter addicts. There is no benefit from engine idling that can’t be provided by wearing clothes that are appropriate for the weather. Of course, the bylaw would need a phase-in period, and signs on the highways entering the city. [The toothless version passed in Edmonton in late 2008 should not be used as a model - look at Banff's.]
6. Impose an annual license fee for lawn sprinkler systems.
These are famous for watering during rainstorms and sweltering summer afternoons - a major waste of a resource that costs the city plenty to provide. The levy would be similar to the alarm system fee now paid to the city through the home security companies.
7. The flip side of the sprinkler system license fee would be a bylaw that reduces the property taxes of any commercial or residential property that removes a lawn and replaces it with xeriscaping (that’s a term for the use of landscaping elements that require very little, or no water beyond snowmelt and rainfall). [My personal xeriscaping project starts in May 2009.]
8. In the next contract with the city’s bus service provider, ask the company to pay half the cost of building bus stop pull-offs on streets that are also provincial highways.
[These streets are 6th Avenue East (from Marquis Road to 15th Street), the entire length of 15th Street, and the entire length of 2nd Avenue West.] This gets the bus out of traffic, allows traffic to flow more efficiently, and provides a safer ride for transit users.
9. Revise the building code to encourage energy-efficiency measures. This suggestion is different from supporting LEED-standard homes and commercial structures. Here I mean making it legal to build straw bale homes, use rain and gray-water in toilets, generate one’s own electricity; and, generally, supporting innovative, low-energy house construction techniques, then reducing a property’s tax bill based on a points system. If you think about this, it makes sense because these measures lower the city’s cost of providing services over the entire life of a building.
The bylaw changes I’m proposing are needed now. Let’s just do it.
Part III - Public Outreach
(presented at the City Council meeting on March 24, 2008)
Public outreach does mean getting the public involved in the municipal green plan. Here are seven ways that can be done.
1. Educate the public, using water bill inserts
This simple idea creates an opportunity for emphasizing the proper use of the blue bins; but it also provides an opportunity for educating the public on methods of reducing water consumption, recycling facilities at the landfill, and the city’s efforts to conserve resources at each of its buildings.
2. Educate the public, near the entrance of every city building
When members of the public enter city-run buildings, they should be immediately made aware of energy conservation, waste and water reduction, and recycling facilities located in those buildings.
3. Implement a city-wide faucet aerator and low flow showerhead replacement program.
By now you should have heard about the Town of Battleford’s plan to replace all the toilets in the city with low volume units, and Saskatoon’s token replacement of 3000 showerheads in that city. We need to start with aerators on all the water faucets in our city, then move on to all the showerheads.
4. Develop, then implement a green program for school-aged youth
Post-secondary schools will need a program that both their administrators and their student representatives can adopt. These need to go beyond one-off campaigns. High schools and elementary schools will need separate programs, but they may be easier to work with through programs developed in consultation with the school boards, as opposed to the individual schools we see at the post-secondary level. Remember that for every dollar spent in green education for adults, we should spend at least $5 on green education for children - because they will (hopefully) be around for a long time. Remember that these programs also readily lend themselves to public recognition awards, one of the mayor’s passions.
5. Involve businesses in creating a green city
This type of initiative can be tailored to separate businesses with more than 50 employees from smaller businesses, and both of those categories should be distinct from government employers. The first step would be a survey of existing corporate, federal government, and provincial government employers’ green policies and practices, followed by support for expanding the “green” activities for each type of business - with initiatives similar to those promoted among homeowners and the three levels of educational institutions. Specific measures should come out of the consultations.
6. Involve the citizens in a major green project
The City of Saskatoon is supporting a downtown residential initiative called River Green. We should have had a major affordable green housing project where the empty shell of Prince Charles school sat. What made this idea a perfect fit for the site were its size, the location, the need for a major jumpstart to non-condominium home construction in the city, and the golden opportunity to apply for funding from Prince Charles’ Green Trust. Surely the future ruler of the British Empire would have looked fondly on a green project built around a school named after him. [Without even considering the potential for such a project, the city let the property be sold to a developer - who is building a half-dozen single-family houses there.]
7. Add the city’s new “green” image to the travelling public’s experience of our city.
Here I mean involving the thousands of hockey players, softball and baseball players, convention delegates, visiting golfers, and the family members who accompany these individuals to Prince Albert in our “green” programs. The intention is to give them more than a trophy, or bric-a-brac as a memento of their stay in the city: we should give them a perceptible share in the task of ensuring that our city is environmentally sustainable, and something they will use when they return home.
That’s it for my green "prescription." As I said at the beginning of this series of presentations, the information I’ve provided you with over the past four months is merely the foundation of a municipal green plan. And while I’m not hopeful that any member of city council will actually take it to heart, this whole process will have been worthwhile if it inspired even one person to make changes in their lives to advance the cause of making Prince Albert environmentally sustainable. Have a safe walk home.
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One of my hobbies is collecting cartoons. Although I started my collection 30 years ago, "environmental" cartoons only got added to the mix in the last decade. I would have liked to have included a favourite example in this post, but respect for copyright issues intervened. Instead, I'll describe the image, and e-mail it to anyone who wants a copy.
The cartoon in question was originally published in the Ottawa Citizen, and subsequently re-printed on page 4 of the July 12, 2006 Prince Albert Daily Herald. It shows an obese middle-aged male, identified on his shirt as "NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY," and clearly in the grip of inebriation, urinating on a wall identified as "THE ENVIRONMENT." Unfortunately, the character relieving himself could have been identified as "PRINCE ALBERT." If we could change anything about this city that would be treasured a thousand years from now, it should be this image.
As a not-too-subtle reminder of some of the effects of ignoring the need to reduce our impact on the planet, and in sympathy with the residents of the Australian State of Victoria, I include this photo of the Crutwell fire (view north from Highway 302, West of the penitentiary, June 29, 2002).
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