A local look at climate change and the Region

In May, Regional Council approved a Corporate Climate Action Plan, which aims to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases our organization emits. This plan is part of a larger community strategy called TransformWR, and the goal is to cut emissions in half by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050. 

On this episode of Your Region Pod we look at the challenges we face in reducing the local effects of climate change and the important role municipalities play in reducing harmful emissions. 

We hear from Dr. Sarah Burch, a professor at the University of Waterloo and the Executive Director of the Waterloo Climate Institute. Tova Davidson joins us as well, she is the Executive Director at Sustainable Waterloo Region, an organization that helps businesses see the cost benefits of environmental sustainability.

Meaghan Eastwood, Manager of Planning and Sustainability at the Region of Waterloo and a member of Climate Action Waterloo Region, shares a few examples of what the Region is doing to reduce emissions. Visit the Region's 2024 yearbook to learn more. 

Check out our newsletter, Around the Region,  for more news and stories about how we are addressing climate change. 

And... if you haven't already, listen to our Meet the Pollinators episode to learn about out how some of the smallest creatures have a big role to play in keeping life on this planet healthy.

You can find Your Region Pod wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

I get asked a lot whether we're making any progress. Some people feel very cynical. We also now know that for the first time ever, we have solutions that work. 

Speaker 2 (00:09):

Hey, this is your region pod, and I'm Sam. 

Speaker 3 (00:12):

Hi, I'm Sherry. Welcome to the show. Today we're talking about a phrase you hear deal E if you follow the news, global warming, but how much do you know about where we stand locally 

Speaker 2 (00:23):

And who's responsible for clearing the air? 

Speaker 1 (00:27):

Thank you so much for having me. Very glad to be here. My name is Dr. Sarah Birch. 

Speaker 2 (00:31):

She's the best expert we could find on this subject, and fortunately, she is among the best. 

Speaker 3 (00:36):

Sarah is the executive director of the Waterloo Climate Institute, 

Speaker 1 (00:40):

Which is the largest university based research climate change research centre in Canada, 

Speaker 3 (00:46):

And a professor at the University of Waterloo. She works with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The 

Speaker 1 (00:53):

IPCCs job is essentially to spend several years very rigorously and carefully gathering together all of the incredible science and social science that people produce all around the globe on climate change to understand what's happening, what we can do about it, where we're seeing some progress, where we're not making progress fast enough. 

Speaker 2 (01:16):

Let's start big then, and maybe you could set the table for us. How urgent is the problem? 

Speaker 1 (01:21):

There's some good news and some bad news. As always. We are not on track to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to prevent less than two degrees of warming. We don't want average temperatures on earth to get more than two degrees above what they were before the industrial revolution. 

Speaker 3 (01:42):

Two degrees may not sound that bad in the context of how it feels outside when it's say 25 versus 27, but in the context of global warming, it can trigger a range of dangerous effects around the world. 

Speaker 2 (01:54):

When you look at Waterloo region, what can we expect to see here locally? If we're unable to contain things to two degrees or less, 

Speaker 1 (02:04):

We'll certainly see increasing extreme weather and flooding. There's many parts of the region that are prone to flooding, given that we've built largely on a floodplain. So those more intense rainfall events are an issue and certainly cause property damage and lots of risks. We feel the effects of fires in Quebec and elsewhere in Northern Ontario, and that has real implications for health and wellbeing here. There's other ones related to disease vectors like ticks and mosquitoes carrying disease, Lyme disease, and others. We'll be experiencing more frequent and intense heat waves and that makes already vulnerable folks even more vulnerable. 

Speaker 2 (02:49):

You got me thinking with this idea of we consider a heated home in the winter, a near human right in this country, given we will likely then consider the same for cooling in the summer, and would that then, and it becomes a cash 22, doesn't it? 

Speaker 1 (03:05):

If we're using natural gas, if we're using coal, if we're using fossil fuels to produce our electricity and then we need more of it because we have to cool our homes to stay healthy and safe, then our emissions will go up. And this is one of the great ironies of climate change that we're going to cause more climate change because of climate change. 

Speaker 2 (03:22):

Sarah tells us the local impacts of climate change require local responses. 

Speaker 1 (03:27):

It's not a one size fits all type of problem. Climate change plays out in very deeply local ways. So yeah, municipal action plans are a crucial step towards laying out those goals, making sure that our near term actions align with our longer term, more transformative objectives rather than just taking these incremental little near-term steps and having no greater vision of the future. 

Speaker 4 (03:55):

According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, we municipalities have direct influence over almost 50% of the nation's emissions, so we have a lot of power and responsibility in this. Megan 

Speaker 3 (04:11):

Eastwood leads a team that tracks how well the region of Waterloo is doing at reducing the amount of greenhouse gases the organisation emits across services and buildings. 

Speaker 4 (04:21):

Our highest source of emissions are from landfills, and so it's actually methane emissions, and that's really attributed to decomposing landfill waste organic waste. What's been really challenging is that our team who operates the landfill, they're using all of the best available technologies to capture, reuse, and prevent the escape of methane emissions. But right now, the technology's not there yet to improve that. They've really maxed out everything that exists. So we really need some progress made, even at the international level to drive forward new technologies to minimise what we call fugitive methane emissions. 

Speaker 3 (05:01):

Since 2009, the region as an organisation has reduced the amount of greenhouse gases by 25% as part of its climate action plan. Not only do the region's climate actions reduce ghs, they can result in cost savings and more efficient services. Megan shares an example. 

Speaker 4 (05:19):

Yeah, so what we're doing is we're shifting away from fossil fuels, so we're looking at our energy sources, for example, natural gas, which is still commonly used across not just Ontario but the world, and we're looking to clean sources of energy like electricity. So we're looking at how we can replace existing assets at the end of their life cycle with low carbon alternatives. So that might be using, for example, solar panels to generate our electricity needs. We're already starting to do that. We've actually installed 15 rooftop solar projects on our facilities. So that type of continued effort where we can do that more or look to other district energy solutions, whereby we might capture some of the heat that's generated from activities like processing wastewater. There's a lot of extra heat that just doesn't really go anywhere. It isn't used. We can capture that heat and use it for some of our heating and cooling needs. So some of the things we don't talk about is when we shift to clean energy sources and increase energy efficiency, there's savings in that we can find operational savings. So there's good news financially as well. 

Speaker 2 (06:35):

The cost benefits of climate action make up a good part of Tova Davidson's elevator pitch. 

Speaker 5 (06:40):

A great example in Waterloo region is the Evolve one building, and it actually was only between five and 8% more expensive than a regular class A office building, but it generates but 108% of its energy, so the operating costs are almost nothing. 

Speaker 2 (06:55):

Tova team was a partner in the development of Evolve One, and she's the executive director of Sustainable Waterloo region. And, sorry, incoming pun warning, one of the things that they do is help businesses and organisations see the green in greenhouse gas reduction. 

Speaker 5 (07:12):

It's completely possible to do, and there are other examples like Verif, FORMM and Cambridge went to net zero. It's a steel fabricator, doubled the size of the business, saved a million dollars doing it. 

Speaker 2 (07:24):

So I guess mean the other thing. There is a business case for this. Yeah, 

Speaker 5 (07:28):

A hundred percent. When we talk to businesses, I love it when they want to do it because they believe in it, but if you're doing it because it's going to save you money or it's going to attract better talent or reduce your risk from reporting or revenue risk or reputation, whatever is your motivation. That's great. 

Speaker 2 (07:44):

Are there certain industries that you find are more easily adaptable to getting into net zero? 

Speaker 5 (07:51):

The one I want to talk to the most that we don't always get to talk to is manufacturing because they actually have the most to benefit from their energy use is high. Often their buildings are not very efficient, not well insulated for not really that much investment compared to their total operating and capital costs. They could save a lot of money and a lot of greenhouse gases. 

Speaker 2 (08:15):

And so I guess that goes to the inverse of the question that those are the most challenging businesses to reach. Then 

Speaker 5 (08:21):

Manufacturing's tough. They're often under a lot of pressure. Their margins aren't very big. They're worried about right now what's happening in the world and how it's impacting their business. Bottom line, the other group that can be really tough in Waterloo region is very lucky to have so many of these are tech companies and startups because they are often just trying to keep the doors open, get their product to market and innovate on their product, that kind of stuff. So doing extra to them, it's seen as extra on the side of the desk. And what we find is that with the organisations that are the most effective are those that don't see it as a governance or corporate social responsibility thing, they actually see it as a key strategic priority for them and they see the business value. So it's the first place we always start is where is the return on investment for this? What are you hoping to get out of it? So then we can actually make decisions that drive towards that. 

Speaker 1 (09:17):

I hear these very blanket statements like nobody's doing anything and nothing's working, both of which are completely, entirely false, and I don't think it's enough. I don't think we're moving fast enough, but some of what we're doing is working. 

Speaker 2 (09:32):

Sarah Birch says that seven or eight years ago we were talking about what the world would look like with four degrees of warming and it's catastrophic, but with the policies that have been coming online in Canada and elsewhere, we're actually on track to see a lower increase of around 2.7 degrees. This shows that good policy and community action is having a real impact 

Speaker 1 (09:55):

In that world. We just have really dramatic and significant and punishing climate change impacts, and we're not on track to limiting warming as we need to be. 

Speaker 3 (10:05):

The community is working together though to achieve the targets set, so that's 80% greenhouse gas reduction in the next 25 years, and on the way to that 50% by the end of 2030, 

Speaker 2 (10:19):

Led by Tova Group and reap green solutions. Local organisations, residents, and all municipalities in the region have come together to coordinate on climate actions. Part of this includes measuring and monitoring progress and getting the community involved. 

Speaker 3 (10:34):

The plan is called Transform wr, and you can find the links to it in the description of this episode as well as more on what the region and its partners are doing to curb emissions in the community. 

Speaker 2 (10:45):

Thanks for joining us today, and we'll see you next time.