Isra-Mart srl: City awards carbon reduction contract

Isra-Mart S.R.L. news:
Penticton council voted 5-1 Monday to contract an environmental-sustainability company to assist the city in its efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate carbon emissions.

Stantec Consulting Ltd. was selected through a joint search co-ordinated by the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen for civic governments in the area to help each assess their energy consumption and create a plan that will achieve carbon neutrality by 2012 as signatories to the Climate Action Charter.

Penticton’s contract with Stantec will cost up to $32,000 (plus taxes) this year, money well spent according to Coun. Garry Litke who sits on both the city’s and the regional district’s climate action charter compliance committees.

“The climate action committee has been working on this for over two years or longer,” Litke told council. “It has been a long time coming.”

According to Litke, so far Penticton has used a piecemeal approach to reducing carbon emissions.

“We have reduced greenhouse gas emissions and we have saved energy, but those have been sort of intuitive moves,” he said. “We haven’t been able to document them, measure them or exactly know how effective those actions have been.

“What we need is an expert who will direct our operations to ensure that we will get the best bang for our buck, instead of continuing with what we have been doing, which is sort of a shotgun approach. We think things are the right idea but we don’t really have proof. Stantec will be able to provide us with that proof.”

According to Stantec, said Litke, based on the size of its operations, the City of Penticton is probably emitting approximately 3,000 tonnes of carbon a year, for which, starting in 2012, the city will have to purchase off-setting carbon credits.

“Currently, carbon is trading at $25 a tonne. So, if you do the math, that means a bill for the City of Penticton of about $75,000 (annually),” explained Litke, adding that price is likely to go up.

“The reality today is that municipalities are obliged to participate in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. If they don’t they will be levied significantly and will probably be disqualified from receiving grants from the government.”

Litke said he was impressed with Stantec’s report, calling it “as good a proposal as I have ever hoped to receive from anybody.”

“We have an opportunity here to co-operate with other municipalities and the regional district and we get great economies of scale doing it that way, rather than doing it on our own,” he said.

Only Coun. Dan Albas voted against the contract.

“I just felt that the report, and maybe I didn’t read it in as (much) depth as maybe some did, but I just didn’t feel that we are going to be getting full value for the amount,” said Albas.

“If we are working with the regional district and we are paying for a certain amount of that, then for us to add on another $32,000, I question that. I am just not in support of us spending that much money on that.”