If you walk along a busy road, you are likely to inhale vehicle exhaust. Surprisingly, drivers and passengers in passing cars are breathing even more polluted air. Toxic air pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides don’t simply float outside in the atmosphere; they can be found in high concentrations inside cars, posing a serious […]
Deep Energy Retrofits Part 2- The City of Vancouver Advances Net Zero Emission Buildings
Why do energy retrofits matter and what are Canadian cities doing to advance them? The City of Vancouver has a target to reduce 50% of GHG emissions from existing buildings by 2030 and 100% by 2050. This goal is in line with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) findings to limit global […]
Deep Energy Retrofits Part 1-New York Retrofit Challenges and Advantages of Retrofits
Buildings account for almost 70 per cent of New York City’s Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. Advancing energy efficiency retrofits within our existing building stock is critical to reducing the GHGs and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. In addition to GHG reductions, energy efficiency retrofits offer many other benefits such as increased occupant comfort and […]
The Federal Government’s Race to Zero
Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and poses major threats to human health, biodiversity, and economic development. In the past seven decades, the average temperature in Canada has risen by nearly 1.7 degrees Celsius, with temperature increases of 2.3 degrees Celsius observed in Canada’s northern areas. The government of […]
Geothermal’s Super Power: Fighting Climate Change While Managing Electricity Demand
One of the challenges of weaning our society off the use of fossil fuels to heat our buildings is determining what this increased reliance on electricity mean for our utility bills and our electricity system as a whole. All low carbon futures scenarios show that whether from increased heating demand or electric vehicle charging the […]
Heat Pumps and their Role in the Low Carbon Future
To achieve our climate targets, we must reduce the use of fossil fuels to heat our homes. Heat pumps offer an efficient and cost-effective way for Ontario homes to transition from fossil fuels to electricity. This is because while natural gas is cheaper than electricity, heat pumps are much more efficient than furnaces. This helps […]
Geothermal as a Climate Solution
During May we will be sharing a few blogs on the role that heat pumps and geothermal can play in helping to reduce greenhouse emissions from the building sector. Buildings account for about 30% of Ontario’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and can be 50% of a community’s emissions (such as in Toronto). Reducing the use […]
Hamilton Senior Housing Becomes Climate Champion
Advancing the energy efficiency of existing buildings is a critical part of any community’s climate action plan and social housing retrofits presents an ideal opportunity to accelerate that effort. City Housing Hamilton is the social housing agency for the City of Hamilton, and they have adopted a Passive House standard to help provide their residents with high quality housing while also improving their financial, environmental and […]
CAP’s releases Green Fleets Support Package
In a previous blog post we discussed some of the challenges and opportunities of fleet electrification. Together with fleet managers from over 30 municipalities, we identified two priority recommendations: the development of electric vehicle business cases and electric vehicle employee policies. Acting on these recommendations, as part of our Federation of Canadian Municipalities funded Climate Action Support Centre project, […]
Markham Cycle’s 2020 Season a Success
How do you increase cycling in places where very few people bike? Since 2014, The Centre for Active Transportation, a project of Clean Air Partnership, has been removing barriers and sparking cycling adoption in suburban communities through a community bike hubs approach. Despite COVID, their current project in Markham reached nearly 2,000 people this summer […]
Fleet electrification – challenges and opportunities
Transportation is a significant source of GHG emissions in most municipalities. Therefore, a transition towards a low carbon fleet is needed. Clean Air Partnership works collectively with fleet managers across more than 30 municipalities in Ontario. Here are some of the challenges and opportunities for fleet electrification. Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure Significant resources are […]
The Clean Air Council – Canada’s largest municipal climate action network
The Clean Air Council (CAC) is a project of the Clean Air Partnership (CAP). The CAC is a network of 30 municipalities and health units who have been working collaboratively for 20 years on the development and implementation of clean air, climate change, sustainability, and resilience actions. Each year we provide more than 20 in-person […]