Antigonish Town Council heard about a recently completed deep energy retrofit feasibility study during Monday’s regular meeting of council.
Lise Roy, the strategic initiative coordinator with the Town Antigonish and the lead on the town’s net zero initiative, made the presentation. Roy explained that after the town did a carbon inventory including corporate and community infrastructure, they saw the green house gas emissions for the infrastructure. She said it was felt they needed to start there in the town’s net zero ambitions.
The retrofit feasibility study began in 2022 and looked at eight buildings in the town including the Antigonish Arena, town hall, the public works and electric utility building, water treatment and sewage treatment facilities, the Columbus Field washrooms, the fire hall, and the library. The requirements for the study were to show a 50 per cent reduction of GHG emissions over 10 years and an 80 per cent reduction in 20 years, compared to the baseline year of 2019.
She said all of the buildings require some imporovement measures, including LED lighting upgrades, programmable thermostats, replacing windows, and installing heat pumps. The study cost the town $18,000, with other funding coming from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ green municipal fund.
After the presentation, council approved a capital fund pre-application to the FCM to implement the improvement measures.
