Action Plan - FCM

Town of Banff Local Action Plan
Initiative 3: DELIVERING A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING RETROFIT PROGRAM
Description: The Town promotes and offsets the costs of residential building retrofits, and
facilitates procurement of retrofit services.
Overview &
timeline:
This program could begin with the delivery of up to 300 EnerGuide Home visits. The
EnerGuide visits would provide the opportunity to identify short and long-term energy
savings opportunities for each household.
This program could be delivered in a phased approach.
In 2003, the Town would need to develop a targeted marketing strategy to ensure the
uptake of the EnerGuide program. The Town would also have to allocate budget
towards subsidizing the EnerGuides for residents.
In 2004, the program would begin with the delivery of EnerGuide Home visits to a
target of 300 homes per year. During the visits, low-cost actions such as insulating hot
water heating tanks and air sealing could be carried out by the evaluator. EnerGuides
are delivered to Alberta residents by ATCO Gas.
The Town has attempted to promote EnerGuides in the past, however the uptake has
been very low. An EnerGuide booth was set up at the Earth Day event in 2002 and
there was significant interest from residents, however no EnerGuides were booked as a
result. Therefore the Town could be more active in measures to promote the program.
This could be done by further subsidizing the program, providing incentives to
participate (e.g. a draw for free compact fluorescent lightbulbs, etc.), delivering a
promotion that targets specific residents (e.g. those undertaking retrofits, additions,
etc.), providing information on the TSB Web Portal and other educational
opportunities. It is critical that education be a strong element of the overall program, as
knowledge and understanding can be the most significant driver for these types of
programs.
In the second or third year of the program, the Town would encourage EnerGuide
participants to undertake the retrofits that were identified by the evaluator. The Town
would also provide information on available resources to off-set the costs of the
retrofits (such as the proposed Town of Banff Revolving Fund).
The Town could also consider assisting in establishing a Green Communities
Association to provide an institutional structure for carrying out the home audits over
the long-term. A successful model of such a program is the Green Communities
Association in Ontario (see: www.gca.ca/)
Responsibility: Environmental Manager
Ease of
Implementation:
Capital /
Development
Costs:
Moderate: Requires communication/marketing strategy and partnership with outside
entities.
Medium: $15,000 / year – to help subsidize 100 audits. (The federal government
already subsidizes the $300 retrofits by $150. Due to the low uptake of the program todate
it is recommended that the Town subsidize the remaining $150 for 100 homes.)
The EnerGuide for Homes and the commercial building audit (see initiative 4)
initiatives would likely require allocation of 30% of a full-time manager position for a
The Sheltair Group Page
Sept 2003
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