City Operations
The City continues to improve efficiency in its operations, reducing waste and emissions. Examples include:
- The Tansley Woods Community Centre solar hot water system was fully operational in mid 2010.
- The 90 solar collector panels water heating installation, with a total capacity of 325 kW, is the largest in Canada based on Natural Resources Canada’s data (as of February 26, 2010).
- The system provides up to 25 per cent of the energy required to heat the pool water.
- The system allows emissions avoidance of approximately 67.5 tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) every year.
- The actual renewable energy produced from the system is being tracked and will be made available to the public.
- An energy management system is in place for all indoor pools. The system shuts down at 10 p.m. and starts back up at 5 a.m. There’s an emergency mode if necessary to override the system.
- The City of Burlington is implementing an infrastructure stimulus funded corporate-wide building automation system (BAS).
- The BAS will automate the corporate facility heating, cooling, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), and lighting systems.
- The digital controls system will allow the integration of environmental conservation, energy efficiency, comfortable occupancy conditions and optimized productivity in City building operations and maintenance by implementing measures such as occupancy based controls, day light harvesting, time-of-day system scheduling, free cooling and so forth.
- Lighting retrofits include:
- City Hall and the public areas of Elafoot Hall (Kilbride), Rotary, Mainway, Centennial and Mountainside. The exit signs were also changed to LED technology in each of these buildings and some exterior lights have been modified as well.
- T12 lighting fixtures were retrofitted with new energy efficient T8 lamps and ballasts at Central Arena, Mainway Arena, the Seniors Centre, Brant Hills Community Centre and Fire Stations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.
- Lights in the Angela Coughlan and Tansley Woods pools were converted to T5 fixtures.
- Mainway Arena (both ice pads) lights are now 50% more energy efficient and can be staged for further efficiencies.
- Occupancy sensors were installed in City Hall meeting rooms.
- Photo cells are used in the city's parking garage ensuring lights are only on when necessary
- Traffic signal conversion to LED was completed in 2008. LEDs are 85% more efficient than incandescent signals and brighter.
- Energy efficient tankless hot water heaters have been installed at the Rotary Youth Centre and Skyway Arena.
- Installation of more efficient natural gas fired dehumidifiers at Appleby Arena to replace the existing electrical units.
- Approximately 30 vending machines across the corporation have been fitted with a device that will reduce power consumption on cold drink vending machines by an average of 45%. The vending machine is powered down when the area surrounding it is unoccupied and automatically repowers the machine when the area is reoccupied.
- Energy audits have been completed for the city's six arenas.
- The City is an active participant of the Mayors' Megawatt Challenge.
- A corporate energy policy was approved by Council in July 2009.
- New construction projects are being designed/constructed to be compliant with and exceed the industry standards for energy efficient and green buildings. These standards include Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB) and ASHRAE 90.1. Higher energy efficiency shall be achieved by implementing energy monitoring and verification (M&V) measures and green technologies such as solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation panels, solar air heating wall, and so forth:
- Fire Station 8 is being designed to be LEED silver certified and at least 25% more energy efficient than Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB).
- Burlington Performing Arts Centre has been designed, and is being constructed, to be LEED certified. The Centre shall be the first stand-alone green performing arts centre in Ontario.
- The Appleby Ice Centre expansion was completed in 2010 and was built to be LEED certified. The facility engineering systems have been designed to allow for energy savings of 25 per cent above what is required by ASHRAE 90.1-1999.
- Burlington Transit Operations Centre renewal and expansion was completed in 2010. The completed facility shall be LEED silver certified.
- The "Greening the Corporate Fleet Transition Strategy" was approved in June 2008.
- The City currently has 22 hybrid vehicles in its fleet.
- Piloting aftermarket products to reduce emissions on off-road equipment.
- The City updated its idling control bylaw in 2009.
- Computerized controllers and Global Positioning System (GPS) are on spreading equipment to effectively control how much salt and sand are spread. Additionally, supervisor and patrol vehicles are equipped with infrared thermometers to ensure that the road temperature determine spreading rates. If the road temperature is warm, products do not need to be applied as falling snow would melt on contact.
- A filter crusher is used for vehicle maintenance operations increasing the efficiency for draining oil to 98-99%. The oil is then recycled and the metal parts from the filter are sent to the scrap yard.
- Turf machinery are mostly diesel tractor-drawn vehicles. Biodiesel has been used in such equipment since 2003 between May and September reducing emissions. Since 2007, the contractors hired for turf maintenance also use biodiesel.
- Waste concrete and waste asphalt, generated from roadway and multi-use pathway maintenance, are collected by local companies for reuse. Approximately 25 tonnes of asphalt is re-used annually. Hot mixing is not done on smog days.
- When new playgrounds are installed or maintained, metal is recycled, screening is reused in parking lots and paths, pea gravel is topped up, and sand and soil are brought back to the operations centre.
For additional updates, please refer to the environmental quarterly reports in the reports section of the website.