November 21th, 2016 Council Meeting Notes: City's corporate GHG emissions down, Timms wins an award.

Yesterday, I posted about two development related items that were on the agenda at Monday night’s council meeting. Today, I’ll be posting about the other items that were on the agenda.

The City of Langley is a signatory of the BC Climate Action Charter, and as such participates in the Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program. This program provides a 100% refund of the carbon tax paid by the City of Langley because it:

• Is carbon natural.
• Measures and reports on its community GHG emissions profile.
• Creates complete, compact, and energy efficient urban communities.

As you can see from the following table, the City’s GHG emissions from its operations have been declining since 2008 which is good news. The City has been investing in reducing its GHG emissions by upgrading to more energy efficient lighting, heating/cooling systems, and vehicles. The City recently upgraded the boiler at Al Anderson Pool which was the largest single-source of GHG emissions within the City’s operations. The new boiler should reduce GHG emissions by about 30%.

City of Langley's direct GHG emissions from 2008 to 2015. Select table to enlarge.

The follow table shows which parts of the City’s operations create the most GHG, and consume the most energy.

City of Langley's Corporate Energy & Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, 2015. Select table to enlarge.

Nigel Thom from the Fibromyalgia Well Spring Foundation presented on their awareness walk for invisible illnesses. They started this walk in Langley on May 24th, and ended their journey on June 28th. They walked for 39 days and traveled 1100km. You can read more about this walk on their website. Thom also noted that they are working with BC Housing towards building and operating an affordable housing lodge for people with invisible illness.

Mayor Schaffer presented the award that the City of Langley won for the Timms Community Centre, received at the Fraser Valley Commercial Building Awards for best built community institutional building in 2015. You can find out more information about this in the Langley Times.