Green On. -- The online newsletter of the Conservation Council of Ontario

Emergency Conservation
and
A 20% Conservation Action Plan
A special edition of the Conservation Council of Ontario's e-newsletter
Please forward to your friends.

August 19, 2003
Chris Winter, Executive Director

If there is a bright side to the blackout, it is that in the past few days alone we have heard politicians use the word “conservation” more times than they have over the entire past decade. I wish the circumstances had been better, but it's good to have them back!

Ontario now faces two conservation challenges. The first is to weather the immediate power crisis through emergency conservation measures. The second is to re-build Ontario's capacity for conservation. In this issue, we address both the immediate and long-term conservation needs:

1. Please join us in the Two Fan Challenge -- a challenge to all homeowners to surf the next heat wave with two fans and a ten minute daily conservation routine.

2. Support our Four Point Action Plan for Energy Conservation -- a 0.7 cent per KWh staggered surcharge on electricity, a $1 billion green energy and conservation fund, support for community-based outreach, and regulatory and infrastructure changes to create a more energy-efficient economy and society.

The Two Fan Challenge
See http://www.greenontario.org/solutions/twofans.html

On behalf of the Conservation Council of Ontario, I'm challenging Ontarians to meet the next heat wave head on with two fans and a ten-minute daily conservation routine. Most homes can be kept cool for days with just two fans if you follow these simple steps.

Start this routine on the cooler days before a predicted heat wave

1. Trap the cool air in each morning.
        Close all windows
         Close the blinds and drapes except where needed for natural light.
         Conserve energy to minimize the heat generated by lights and appliances.

2. Let the cool air in each evening.
         Open all drapes and windows
         If there’s no breeze, use one window fan to bring air in or expel warm air
         Use a floor fan to keep the air moving through the house, or blow cooler air up from the
        basement

We’ve used this method for years in our family, and it’s kept our two storey, semi-detached house cool for at least two to three days into a heat wave. Conservation was never about freezing in the dark, and it isn’t about sweating in the heat either. It’s about eliminating the wasteful ways and living a comfortable, efficient lifestyle.

Ours is a typical urban home. There’s nothing we are doing that cannot be done by nearly every homeowner in Ontario. I’ll be monitoring the outdoor, top floor and basement temperature during heat waves for as long as the Ontario is experiencing a power crisis and in need of emergency conservation measures.

A Four Point Action Plan for Energy Conservation
See http://www.greenontario.org/solutions/energyplan.html

The public has done its part admirably by voluntarily cutting back on electricity consumption. Now it’s time for provincial leadership in implementing an aggressive long-term energy conservation plan that will reduce our overall electrical power consumption by at least 4,000 Megawatts, or twenty percent of the current average demand.

The key step is to re-establish the provincial role in promoting energy conservation. Provincial funding for conservation was an early casualty of the Common Sense Revolution in 1996. Not surprisingly, electricity consumption in Ontario grew about 8% between 1995 and 2000.

Only with the recent crises over electricity prices and supply shortages has the provincial government come up with a conservation “action plan” of voluntary actions and a provincial tax rebate on energy efficient appliances. The Province’s action plan does not involve Ontario’s any conservation organizations, nor does it include any long-term commitment to restoring a conservation ethic in Ontario’s society.

Our Action Plan for Energy Conservation
The Conservation Council of Ontario is a fifty-year-old association of provincial organizations and individual conservation leaders. We have long espoused a strategic approach to conservation issues that combines regulatory, economic and voluntary measures to achieve our common goals.

For energy conservation (both electricity and other forms of energy), these are the four key elements of our conservation action plan:
1.        Price energy to promote conservation
2.        Create an Ontario Green Energy and Conservation Fund
3.        Support community-based conservation outreach and education campaigns.
4.        Plan for long-term energy efficiency.

Price energy to promote conservation
Should energy prices rise to reflect the true cost of production? Absolutely, but even more important is to make conservation an economically-viable alternative. Any increase on the base 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity should be directly earmarked for conservation and alternative energy. We estimate that each 0.1 cent per kilowatt hour would result in $150 million per year for conservation incentives and support programs. A 0.7 cent per KWh surcharge would generate in excess of $1 billion annually for conservation and alternative energy incentive programs. There is already a surcharge to retire Ontario Hydro’s stranded debt, so the concept is already in practice. Further, the surcharge could be structured to exempt a base consumption rate in order to promote conservation, avoid adding to the energy costs of low-income families, and allow the government to maintain its commitment to capping basic electricity rates.

Create an Ontario Green Energy and Conservation Fund
The federal government, under the Climate Change Strategy, recently announced a $1 billion program to promote greenhouse gas reductions, including energy conservation. The Toronto Atmospheric Fund (established by the City of Toronto to fight smog and climate change) uses its $25 million fund for low-cost energy efficiency loans and outreach projects. It’s time Ontario stepped up to the plate and use a conservation surcharge on electricity to establish its own $1 billion green energy and conservation fund.

Through an Ontario fund, municipalities would be able to finance programs for building and street-lighting efficiency, wind and solar power could be subsidized, and homeowners would be eligible for subsidies for energy-efficiency renovations and rooftop solar units. It would stimulate investment and improve Ontario’s long-term energy security.

Support conservation outreach
Government advertising alone won’t create a conservation ethic in society. We need to involve as many community groups, schools, cultural and faith associations, and provincial organizations as possible in promoting conservation. Media advertising needs to be supported by community workshops, door-to-door marketing by community groups, incentives (such as low-cost efficient lightbulbs), homeowner support services (like the Green Communities home energy audits) and other services such as green power cooperatives and car-sharing. There are tremendous resources available in the non-government organizations that can help turn conservation values into action. It’s time we put them to work.

Plan for long-term efficiency
We need to increase energy efficiency in appliances, our homes, automobiles, and in urban design. Regulatory instruments such as the Ontario Energy Efficiency Act and the Ontario Building Code can strengthen minimum performance standards, and the provincial government needs to rethink its “smart growth” initiative to turn away from highways in favour of compact, energy efficient urban design. Ontario and North America lag far behind Europe in energy efficiency. We need to become leaders in conservation technology and urban design.

All in all, it’s not that difficult to create a conserver society in Ontario. We estimate that if people contributed even one percent of their gross income and one percent of their time to conservation measures, we can achieve tremendous results.

It sounds like the public is ready to make that commitment. We’re just waiting for the right economic incentives and leadership from the provincial government to make it happen.

A Special Appeal -- Support Conservation Now!
Like most charitable organizations, the Conservation Council of Ontario lost its provincial funding in 1996, and we've been living on a shoe-string ever since. We depend on member and public donations to cover our minimal core operating expenses and my salary.

Right now, our bank account is dangerously low. We need your contributions, or the Conservation Council of Ontario faces the very real prospect of having to fold at the very time when we are needed the most.

Please send a cheque payable to "The Conservation Council of Ontario", 43 Sorauren Avenue. You can also make a secure online donation through the services of CanadaHelps.org, a registered Canadian charity. Simply follow this link:

Many thanks.

Funding Matters
Go to: http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2003/fm/
While on the subject of fundraising, there's an excellent report you should read by Katherine Scott of the Canadian Council on Social Development. It's called "Funding Matters: the Impact of Canada's New Funding Regime on Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations" It documents the dramatic changes in financial support for charities over the past decade, including the shift from core funding to project funding and sponsorships and the desire for a significant return by way of recognition. The consequences of these changes have included volatility in funding sources, a tendency to "mission drift" in order to secure funds, a loss of core infrastructure, reporting overload, collapse of related funding sources (the house of cards), advocacy chill, and human resource fatigue.

I found it strangely reassuring to find there are so many other organizations experiencing the same woes.

Stay cool.

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Green On. News is an online newsletter, published periodically with an e-mail prompt. If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from this service, you can do so on the Green Ontario home page, http://www.greenontario.org