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Released: 04 November, 2003

Climate Change Action Fund Public Education and Outreach Projects — Business and Industry Stream and Communities Stream

Business and Industry Stream and Communities Stream

The mandate of the Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF) - Public Education and Outreach program (PEO) is to raise Canadians’ awareness and understanding of climate change and to promote action. It supports partnered projects in four streams of activity: Communities, Youth and Educators, Business and Industry, and General Public.

The Government of Canada established the CCAF to take concrete steps to engage Canadians, non governmental organizations, businesses, universities, communities and various levels of government in partnerships to promote climate change understanding, action and adaptation. The CCAF was introduced in 1998 with initial funding of $150 million, and renewed with a second investment of $150 million in Budget 2000.

Business and Industry Stream

Over the course of the CCAF – PEO program, the Business and Industry Stream has funded projects to encourage municipalities to establish and implement greenhouse gas(GHG) reduction strategies, and to foster community-driven energy and transportation demand management activities.

Bell Canada Employees: Climate Change Awareness and Commitment

The goal of the project is to promote awareness among Bell Canada’s 45,000 employees and encourage them to make a voluntary commitment to reduce their GHG emissions and thereby lessen other environmental impacts. Employees will make commitments to take action at home, at work and on the road.

The One-Tonne Corporate Challenge - Engaging Employees in a Friendly Workplace-Based Campaign

The Pembina Institute is proposing to promote the One-Tonne Challenge by establishing a workplace-based campaign to encourage employees to join in a friendly competition with other companies to reduce their personal GHGs. The project will work with several Alberta-based companies, including Petro-Canada, Suncor and Shell Canada. Employees would be provided with information on actions they could take to reduce their emissions. Companies would offer their employees incentives to commit to taking these actions and would then track the amount of emissions they reduced as a result. A fun and friendly competition would be encouraged between companies to achieve the greatest level of employee involvement and the greatest amount of emissions reduction.

Idle Free Workplaces Project

The Idle Free Workplaces project will research, demonstrate and educate businesses on the benefits of implementing Idle Free fleet policies and will inherently influence employees in their personal travel habits as well. For example, the cost of idling one car per minute will be extrapolated to the size of a given fleet to demonstrate the savings that can be accrued in one “idle free” year. Existing research will be converted into appropriate and targeted communications materials aimed at fleet managers within workplaces and their employees. Collaboration and networking with the City of Vancouver, British Columbia Automobile Association, Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and Young Drivers of Canada driving school will also be central to project development.

Project Challenge: “I’m Doing My Part”

The goal of the project is to make people aware of how they can reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne, as set out in the Climate Change Plan for Canada.

EE-Ontario Food Processing Industry

This project will demonstrate the linkage between energy efficiency, reduced GHG emissions and improved profitability in the Ontario food industry. The project will be completed in three phases. Phase 1 and 2 provide the data to prepare the course materials for the Phase 3 Industry Workshops sessions targeted to food industry stakeholders.

Getting There ….. Clean and Green

Getting There Clean & Green is an exciting new project that will assist City of Edmonton employees on their way to environment-friendly commuting. Through a multi-faceted social marketing based campaign, participants will be motivated to reduce transportation-related emissions. The project will involve a workplace intervention program targeting City of Edmonton employees through direct mail, flyers and e-mail. The City of Edmonton employs more than 8000 employees, which will ensure a large audience is reached through this project. Efforts will also be made to ensure that employees are aware of their contribution to the “One-Tonne Challenge.” By emphasizing the contribution of individual employees, it is hoped that their actions will encourage citizens to be part of this important goal.

Cool Shops - Energy for Small Retail Sector

Greenest City’s Cool Shops program works with street-facing retailers in Toronto neighbourhoods to identify and implement in-store energy management measures that yield a reduction in energy use and savings from lowered utility costs. This win-win climate change solution is currently helping the City of Toronto meet its GHG reduction targets.

Nanaimo Meets Kyoto

The goal of this project is to motivate citizens to take action on reducing their GHGs through climate change education offered in their workplaces. The objective is to develop a three-part workplace educational program for employees using and adding to the learnings from piloted programs such as ‘’Count Me In!’’ and ‘‘The Change Starts Here.’’ They will offer a series of workshops to at least 20 workplaces (200 employees) in the Nanaimo region. Workplaces will be contacted by mail-out and follow-up calls. A local media campaign will include press releases, cable TV notices and radio to update on GHG reduction and celebrate achievements of the participating workplaces.

Communities Stream

Over the course of the CCAF-PEO program, the Community Stream has supported projects to GHG emissions and increase awareness of climate change at the household level. A portion of its budget has been allocated to projects that educate Canadians on both the impacts and adaptation aspects of climate change.

Yukon Green House Challenge

The Yukon Green House Challenge is a unique, innovative and inexpensive project that brings real emissions reductions and widely publicizes the impacts and benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the household level while also gathering important information on Yukon households in relation to GHGs.

Neighbourhood Action for Healthier Homes and Cleaner Air

EnviroCentre proposes to work with 50 “Conservation Champions” from social housing communities to develop, implement and monitor a community based social marketing campaign designed to engage 500 households in identifying and agreeing to try both physical and behavioural ways to conserve energy in their homes and through their travel habits.

$aving Energy at Home

The city of Calgary proposes to deliver seven seminars on a pilot basis. The seminars will emphasize the financial savings and environmental benefits that Calgarians can achieve by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and changing their energy-consumption behaviours. The seminars will give Calgarians an opportunity to learn how to improve the energy efficiency and comfort levels of their homes from a highly reputable, local building energy-efficiency expert. The seminars will be free of charge and staged at several community association buildings located throughout Calgary.

20/20 The Way to Clean Air

20/20 is a social marketing campaign built on solid research that demonstrate that a 20 percent reduction in home energy use and vehicle use can be achieved. The three previous phases of 20/20 research, which consisted of a literature review, a “living lab” study and a pilot project, informed the program design, communication strategy and materials for campaign implementation. The campaign uses advertising, targeted outreach and social marketing tools to reach homeowners and those who drive to encourage activities that will lead to energy reductions and long-term behaviour change.

Passion for Action

Passion for Action is an intensive ten-week program with a goal of reducing home GHG emissions by 20 percent through energy-use behaviour changes and low-cost technology upgrades. Schoolteachers, with training and support from EEAP personnel, deliver the program to senior elementary and junior high schools with the intent of creating home climate change champions. A GHG Emissions Simulation Lab will help students develop a real understanding of energy efficient pratices and behavior in their households.

Melting Mountains Awareness Program

The Alpine Club of Canada and various partners have launched an awareness program entitled “Melting Mountains,” aimed at informing the outdoor community about the impacts of climate change on the alpine environment. This program will demonstrate the importance of healthy alpine environments and show how climate change threatens many facets of mountain life. The ultimate goal of the program is to inspire the targeted communities to take the Peak Challenge.

“Everything You Wanted to Know About Energy Efficiency But Were Afraid to Ask ”

Clean Nova Scotia, with the assistance of Kent, will develop a demonstration seminar series and a video that provides homeowners the specific information they need to properly make their home more energy-efficient. Demonstrations will be given on how to use caulking, weather-stripping, and insulation, as well as information on EnerGuide labels, Energy Star? products and compact fluorescent lighting. This information will be provided within the context of energy efficiency and the One Tonne Challenge; examples of money saved and GHGs reduced will be provided.

Greater Toronto Area Clean Air Online Pilot Project

The Greater Toronto Area Clean Air Online (GTA-CAOL) is an Internet gateway site that will increase understanding of climate change and clean air issues, and promote mitigation and adaptation actions required to address the issues. This gateway is targeted toward members of the public, municipal decision makers and community leaders.

C0₂RE Public Outreach Initiative

This project will develop and implement three early action initiatives aimed at homeowners, as part of the initial CO₂RE public awareness and outreach campaign that started in September 2003. The objective is to facilitate community-wide individual actions to improve energy efficiency and reduce individual/family GHG emissions while increasing awareness of the CO₂REorganization, its initiatives and community-wide GHG emissions reduction goals.

Energy Efficiency and Climate Change: Community Commitment

The Energy Efficiency and Climate Change kiosk will help people visualize and understand their role in energy use. People will also see that they have the power to make a difference by changing their daily activities.

The H.O.M.E Project

The H.O.M.E. Project will target 600 private households and individuals, including association representatives (such as a medical association or a school board) on P.E.I.

The Project will centre on promoting actions by Islanders, at the household level, to reduce GHG emissions in the sectors of energy-efficiency use, transportation (such as ride sharing and anti-idling) and water conservation. Other sectors to be touched on briefly, but not extensively, are renewable/green energy and waste management.

Development of A Code Of Best Practices to Reduce Ghg Emissions

This project has five major objectives:

1. To identify and work with existing northern and Canadian climate change initiatives;
2. To provide tools and opportunities for Gwich’in communities to learn about the effects of climate change, and the role that Gwich’in communities can play in reducing Canadian GHG emissions;
3. Find local, northern ways to reduce GHG emissions at the individual, household and community levels;
4. Produce a Code of Best Practices to reduce GHG emissions for the communities of Fort McPherson and Aklavik; and
5. Promote the Code of Best Practices as a pilot project for future initiatives in other northern communities, through pamphlets that will be distributed widely in the local area

Toe of the Glacier Signage - Climate Change Panels

Because of an incident in the fall of 2001, Parks Canada Agency will introduce a new approach to public safety. New signs have been manufactured and will be installed along the Toe of the Athabasca Glacier. Because the Athabasca Glacier is the most accessible glacier in North America, and is a superb example of climate change, the Friends of the Jasper National Park would like to add climate change messaging to the signs along the Toe of the Glacier Trail.