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Trustee preaches virtue of cutting energy costs |
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Written by --
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 |
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TORONTO – While not as controversial as day-school funding, nor as gossip-inducing as the lastest rabbinic misstep, saving money on energy in public buildings in the Jewish community does present one major boon: it helps the bottom line.
These savings – and especially the attendant incentives, provided by both public and privates bodies – were the topic of a presentation to 40 leaders of Toronto-area synagogues and Jewish schools recently at Adath Israel Congregation.
“There can be fewer things more mundane in what we do in education and shuls than worry about utility costs,” said meeting organizer James Pasternak, a trustee for the heavily Jewish Ward 5 (York Centre) of the Toronto District School Board. “But next to wages, it often sits as one of the highest and most ruinous expenses.… The strategies and ideas that we embrace…will help keep our structures operating in a cost-effective baseline.”
The evening, entitled Revitalizing our Buildings: Ideas, Savings and Funding Opportunities, featured three speakers: Victor da Rosa, from the Better Buildings Partnership of the City of Toronto; Bill Chihata, from Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. and Grant Miles of the Office of Energy Efficiency at Natural Resources Canada.
Both the government bodies and Enbridge provide incentives to organizations that retrofit buildings to save energy. According to Chihata, Enbridge shelled out $247,000 in incentives to the Toronto District School Board.
As well, the three organizations help to decrease gas energy bills by increasing efficiency. This is accomplished through training, workshops and communications such as those provided by the ecoEnergy program of the federal government, or by specific retrofits of small or large scope such as those by ecoEnergy or Enbridge.
A school gym, for example, is the perfect venue for Enbridge’s Infrared Heater Program, under which a rebate is available for the heater’s installation, said Chihata.
The city’s Better Buildings Program, which has helped Toronto’s Centennial College with its retrofits, can chip in with incentives as high as 40 per cent of the total eligible project cost.
Under these programs, administrators of interested synagogues and Jewish schools would work with engineers or consultants to assess the best course of action for the institution and provide the documentation necessary to receive incentives. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 November 2009 )
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