Summerland awarded efficient energy award

Photo: Contributed

The District of Summerland has been recognized for its efforts to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions through a FortisBC "Efficiency in Action" award. 

Announced today at a virtually-hosted awards event, the award was presented to acting mayor Doug Holmes on behalf of the district.

“We are thrilled to have received this recognition of our community’s commitment to reducing energy use in our buildings.” said Holmes.

“Council’s six strategic priorities include infrastructure investment, good governance, and community resilience, and this award shows that we’re making progress on each of those. Saving energy means saving our taxpayers money, and reducing our environmental impact is something we know our community is passionate about. We look forward to continuing these efforts with even more reductions as we move forward with our refreshed Corporate Climate Action Plan.” 

An update to Summerland’s Corporate Climate Action Plan is underway, with a final draft expected to be presented this fall. The plan will lay out priority items to further increase energy efficiency, decrease GHG emissions, and save the community money spent on district-owned buildings and fleet vehicles. 

Actions already taken include detailed energy audits on all 12 major municipal buildings, replacing aging HVAC equipment with newer high-efficiency and heat pump options, upgrading all standard streetlights as well as lighting in the arena complex to LEDs, and installation of a water treatment for the ice arena that eliminated the need for hot water when building and resurfacing ice. 

These changes are anticipated to save the district $80,000 per year in energy costs. 

More information on all of Summerland’s climate action initiatives can be found here.