Early in 2022, Blue Quill Community League investigated retrofitting our existing community hall and other amenities to Net Zero energy. Earlier this year, Net Zero specialists at Carbon Busters completed an assessment of our facility and charted a path to get the community hall to Net Zero. We also looked at ways to increase the accessibility of the building.
You may wonder what Net Zero is. Buildings that are Net Zero generate as much energy as they consume. They do this using renewable energy generated on site. In Alberta, this means increasing the overall efficiency of a building by improving its insulation and decreasing air exchange with the outdoors, transitioning away from natural gas furnaces to electric heating and cooling, and powering it all with a roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system. The electric heating and cooling system recommended is a shallow geothermal system that uses steady below ground temperatures to increase the efficiency and lifespan of the heat pump system.
With the alarming increase in wildfires over the last several years, community members are more concerned than ever about climate change and Blue Quill Community League wants to do its part. Our aging facility is in need of upgrading. We have aging equipment, the building lacks
accessibility features for those with movement and other impairments, and the cost of energy has dramatically increased in recent years while our energy consumption has increased as the building has aged. We think now is the time to tackle these issues to increase the economic and
environmental sustainability of the community hall, while also making it more accessible to our community members.
In 2022, Blue Quill Community League submitted an Expression of Interest to the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) and received a free energy assessment from Carbon Busters. This charted a path for us to get to Net Zero energy. Carbon Busters completed their
assessment and issued a report in February of this year, which we used to apply for the federal Green and Inclusive Community Buildings grant that will fund up to 80 per cent of the project, should we be successful. We’re still waiting to hear back about the grant, but we expect to know
if we’ve been approved this fall.
We want to thank Alberta Ecotrust Foundation’s Climate Innovation Grant Program for the funding to get this project started, as well as the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues for all their support.
