Canada needs leadership on `green' issues

Harper should follow Schwarzenegger's move

DAVID CRANE
The Toronto Star
Mar. 3, 2006

California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, built a movie career by playing the role of a supercharged action hero taking on all manner of bad guys. But now, in his political career, Schwarzenegger has become the supercharged campaigner against bad guys who generate greenhouse-gas emissions or waste energy.

The debate is over, he says, and "the time for action is now." Climate change, he contends, "threatens every person in the world," warning that "it is our children who will be harmed the most if we don't act aggressively and promptly to reverse these trends." Stephen Harper, take note.

Schwarzenegger's "green" strategy includes what he calls the largest energy-efficiency investment program in the history of the U.S. electric utility industry, a plan to get at least 20 per cent of the state's electricity from renewables by 2010, a green buildings initiative and a statewide push on conservation measures.

So why can't we do something similar in Canada, making a serious, not timid, push on energy efficiency, conservation and renewables? There are efforts underway, but in Canada, the people who are trying are frustrated by the lack of ambition or polices.

One strong advocate is Volker Thomsen, president of St. Lawrence College in Cornwall, Ont. Thomsen, who came to Canada from Denmark, has experience in energy renewables and conservation practices in northern Europe and thinks Canada could benefit hugely from the same forward thinking.

St. Lawrence College currently consumes 22 million equivalent kilowatt hours of energy at a cost of $1.7 million a year. But this could be reduced by $400,000 a year at least with an investment of $2.85 million, he says. Thomsen believes energy conservation can yield big savings with existing technology and is already working to achieve savings.

At a recent presentation to an Ontario Centres of Excellence conference, Thomsen called on the Ontario government to set an ambitious target for energy conservation, which he argued could save the college system alone $57 million a year in energy savings and the entire public sector in the province over $1 billion. Ontario could obtain further savings by expanding the availability of renewable energy, he said.

St. Lawrence has opened an Energy House on its Cornwall campus to demonstrate the potential from existing technologies, train technicians in the application of new technologies and allow the faculty to design new systems.

In Toronto, Shane Baghai, a prominent real estate developer, is building a major condominium project that is incorporating a wide range of energy saving and renewable-energy technologies. Baghai, who came to Canada from Iran via Britain, says he finds it "embarrassing" to see how far Canada lags behind northern European countries in green buildings.

In his St. Gabriel Village project, on Sheppard Ave. E. near Bayview Ave., Baghai is installing wind turbines and solar panels to reduce demands on the city's electric power grid. He is also installing a hybrid electric power generation system, using natural gas, which will protect the complex from electricity blackouts. By 2009, Baghai hopes to have a co-generation power system for the entire complex. These energy systems should reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 16,000 kilograms, nitrous oxide emissions by 42 kilograms and sulphur dioxide emissions by about 110 kilograms for the first two 19-storey towers. Solar and wind power should generate in the range of 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Baghai is also installing energy-saving windows, a green roof that will help insulate the towers, lighting systems that are significant energy savers and electric appliances that are highly energy-efficient and which also use much less water. The roofs will also have systems that collect the water for irrigation instead of dumping water in city storm sewers. Shower heads in the units are also designed to use much less water.

Baghai and Thomsen are also both strong advocates of another green technology, one that could solve the garbage problems of Toronto and other cities.

They are both talking about plasma technology, which is not incineration, but a clean technology that, at temperatures similar to those on the sun, converts waste to a gas that can be used to generate electricity or produce hydrogen for a fuel-cell economy, turning garbage into an energy feedstock.

Thomsen and Baghai deserve credit for their leadership on the green economy. But the big question is why can't Canada embrace their approach and become a model for the world in energy conservation and the adoption of renewable energies? After all, it's in our own best interest.

David Crane's column appears on Friday. He can be reached at crane@interlog.com by email or by fax at 416-926-8048.