Action Plan - FCM

Town of Banff Local Action Plan
4.1.3 Green Building & Site Design Guidelines
The Town is working towards improving the energy performance of buildings in the community
through the development of Green Site and Building Design Guidelines 13 . These guidelines are
a means of setting minimum levels of performance for new buildings resource consumption and
overall building sustainability. Based on similar work in other communities, implementing a
comprehensive set of green site and building design guidelines for energy use in buildings can
reduce consumption by 25% to 40%.
4.1.4 Solid Waste 3 Rs Program
Banff’s recycling program began in 1994. In the first year of the program, a recycling rate of 6%
was achieved, increasing to 12% in 2000.
4.1.5 Street Lighting Master Plan
The Town of Banff Street Lighting Master Plan’s primary objectives are to provide a consistent
level of lighting on public roads while minimizing light trespass and increasing energy
efficiency. The plan will result in a 25% increase in lighting fixtures and a 26% reduction in
energy consumption. Since 1997 the Town has already changed approximately 60 lights to more
efficient bulbs.
4.2 Existing Municipal Operation Initiatives
4.2.1 Environmental Management System (EMS)
A comprehensive EMS has been under development since the winter of 2001/2. It is being
developed using the ISO14001 model. The aim is to ensure continuous improvement in
environmental performance by systematically tracking the management of significant
environmental aspects and the performance of individual initiatives to meet specific targets.
The EMS will address all significant environmental aspects (in municipal operations) over which
it has direct control, as well as those community-wide environmental aspects that the Town has
some significant degree of influence to change. Many of these environmental aspects will have
some connection to energy savings. The corporate roll-out of the EMS will be complete by the
end of 2003.
4.2.2 Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Upgrade
Prism Engineering conducted an audit of the WWTP in February 2001, and the town of Banff is
undertaking all of the retrofits recommended in that study. Retrofits began in July 2001, and as
of November 2002, natural gas consumption had already decreased by 50% and electricity had
decreased in the range of 7-17%.
4.2.3 Fleet conversion to Natural Gas
The Town partnered in the establishment of a public natural gas vehicle refuelling station in the
Industrial Compound which opened in November 2001. The Town has investigated which fleet
vehicles can economically be converted to natural gas and has purchased one natural gas fuelled
13 See for example the building design guidelines developed for the City of Santa Monica. These guidelines may be found at
http://greenbuildings.santa-monica.org/Main.htm
The Sheltair Group Page 15
Sept 2003