E-News Fall 2022
Our Circular Economy, Energy, Transportation, and Water teams continue their hard work to tackle pollution. This newsletter highlights key initiatives Pollution Probe is currently spearheading, including:
• First-Ever Electric School Bus Pilot in Calgary
• Community Engagement = More Great Lakes Cleanup Data
• A “Smart” Technology Based Approach to Watershed Management
• New Energy Framework Supports Municipalities in Transition to Net-Zero
Conference and Gala
“Make sure to join us in person on November 22nd for our 2022 Conference & Gala where we will reflect on environmental achievements, ongoing challenges, and what needs to be done to keep environmental issues top of mind in the age of disruption and rapid change.”
– Christopher Hilkene, Chief Executive Officer
In the age of disruption and rapid change, it is easy to see how environmental action can get deprioritized. How do we keep environmental issues top of mind while simultaneously addressing other urgent social, economic, and geopolitical issues? The 2022 Pollution Probe Conference and Gala, Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: Greening Canada in an Uncertain World, will explore how Canada can address emerging challenges and leverage opportunities for continued environmental gain.
To kick things off, the afternoon conference will draw from the viewpoints of expert speakers and participants to delve into emerging complex, systemic issues that must be addressed simultaneously alongside environmental issues. These include economic stressors, social change and equity, disinformation and polarization, and Indigenous reconciliation. Plenary discussions and breakout group activities will help develop ideas for continued environmental action in tandem with other critical actions.
The evening reception and gala dinner is a prominent and popular networking event for environmental professionals. This year we will be joined by special guest speaker The Honourable David Piccini, M.P.P. Ontario’s Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks.
The 2022 Conference and Gala will be held at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library on November 22. This is our first in-person event since COVID, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again.
Circular Economy: This summer, Pollution Probe was pleased to welcome several local community engagement coordinators for the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, a joint initiative with the Council of the Great Lakes Region. Made possible through generous support from the Province of Ontario, our new additions to the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup team were tasked with increasing data collection and engagement efforts at a total of 10 sites.
Energy: Pollution Probe and QUEST Canada released their Advancing Community Energy Planning Alignment & Implementation Framework for Ontario. The Framework is intended to assist communities in implementing their energy or climate plan. The Framework provides an integrated approach communities can use to align local stakeholders in achieving their community energy and emission goals, supporting municipalities in the transition to net-zero.
Transportation: This fall, Pollution Probe and its partners are launching the first ever electric school bus (ESB) pilot project in the City of Calgary. The project will involve monitoring key performance and cost data from the ESB as it is used in regular service over the course of the school year. Outputs will include a business case for ESBs in Canada, a technical brief for school bus fleets, and a research report.
Water: Pollution Probe and the Council of the Great Lakes Region are leveraging big data and smart computing capabilities to support an enhanced approach to watershed management and adaptive decision-making in the Great Lakes. We recently hit a major milestone with the completion of a working prototype of the DeX-Terity platform!
Pollution Probe aims to engage all Canadians on environmental issues that are critically important to act on over the next decade.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
This summer, Pollution Probe was pleased to welcome several local community engagement coordinators to the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, a joint initiative with the Council of the Great Lakes Region. Made possible through generous support from the Province of Ontario, our new additions to the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup team were tasked with increasing data collection and engagement efforts at a total of 10 sites in Kingston, Rockport, Whitby, Cobourg, Barrie/Innisfil and Toronto, including a number of new locations joining the initiative this season. Through the coordinators’ efforts, the amount of data collected has increased significantly, which will provide us with a much greater understanding of the types and sources of plastic found across the Great Lakes.
The value of having a local presence in the community goes well beyond improved data collection. Coordinators have played an instrumental role in helping the initiative reach new audiences, increasing the dialogue about plastic pollution and its impacts on our Great Lakes. Through attendance at a wide range of events in their respective areas, including farmers markets, outdoor movie nights, beach cleanups and municipal festivals, they have had a chance to connect directly with the community, providing important information about what the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup and its collaborators have been finding in the lakes, and the many ways the initiative is working to end plastic waste.
Most importantly, together with our local waste characterization collaborators across the Great Lakes, (including Georgian Bay Forever, Bay Area Restoration Council, the Meaford Rotary Club and others), local volunteers have provided an opportunity
for a greater number of individuals and families to participate in community science. In September, our partner, Dr. Diane Orihel from Queen’s University, took 16 students on a field trip to Kingston’s Portsmouth Olympic Harbour marina to characterize the plastic debris collected by the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup’s Seabin. This opportunity helped those involved gain a deeper understanding of their natural surroundings and contribute to building an informed public who can advocate more successfully for the protection of human health and the environment from the impacts of plastic pollution.
ENERGY
Pollution Probe and QUEST Canada released their Advancing Community Energy Planning Alignment & Implementation Framework for Ontario. The Framework, which was covered in Energy Manager Canada magazine, is intended to assist communities in implementing their energy or climate plan. The Framework provides an integrated approach that communities can use to align local stakeholders in achieving their community energy and emission goals, supporting municipalities in the transition to net zero.
Our energy director, Richard Carlson, was also interviewed on the deal between Microsoft and OPG and their clean energy credits arrangement. You can check out the full interview with Energi Media here:
Our energy work is reaching communities from coast to coast. As part of our Innovation Sandbox’s initiative, and in partnership with QUEST Canada, we provided recommendations to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on how to accelerate low-carbon energy innovation. The recommendations followed from a series of interactive workshops in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that brought together regulators, policymakers, utilities, industry associations and academics from across the
provinces to both explore the barriers to energy innovation in each province and to collaboratively design Innovation Sandboxes for their respective jurisdictions.
For summaries of the key outcomes, takeaways, and the framework’s design recommendations for both jurisdictions, be sure to review our Final Reports below.
TRANSPORTATION
This fall, Pollution Probe and its partners are launching the first ever electric school bus (ESB) pilot project in the City of Calgary. The project will involve monitoring key performance and cost data from the ESB as it is used in regular service over the course of the school year. Outputs will include a business case for ESBs in Canada, a technical brief for school bus fleets, and a research report.
Piloting ESBs in real-world conditions is a logical next step to complement our research into ESB costs, environmental impacts, and human health benefits. Our team is excited to be working with school bus fleet operator Southland Transportation in Calgary and would like to thank project funders at the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation and Scotiabank Net Zero Research Fund for their support. We look forward to releasing findings from this pilot in mid-2023. And we hope you all stay tuned for the release of our ESB Strategy for Ontario – coming later this year!
WATER
Pollution Probe and the Council of the Great Lakes Region are leveraging big data and smart computing capabilities to support an enhanced approach to watershed management and adaptive decision-making in the Great Lakes. We recently hit a major milestone with the completion of a working prototype of the DeX-Terity platform!
Watersheds throughout the Great Lakes Basin are facing increasing pressures from population growth, economic development, pollution, and a rapidly changing climate. Pressing socioeconomic and environmental challenges are growing at a rate that often outpaces our ability to understand them. This makes it challenging for decision-makers to predict the complexities and unintended consequences of development and to make more timely decisions to reconcile growth, prosperity, individual well-being and environmental protection.
Made possible through generous support from the RBC Tech for Nature program, the past year has seen the team working together with Lambton College to design, build, and test the first iteration of a solution to address these challenges by ingesting, analyzing, and visualizing substantive datasets. The DeX-Terity platform’s analytic and visualization capabilities will give users the opportunity to explore and develop unique hindsight, insight, and foresight into the complexities
of watershed health and to predict risks before they happen and prescribe sustainable pathways for the future. With a working prototype complete, this year will see the team further test and refine the platform’s capabilities based on feedback and guidance from a wide range of potential users.
Future efforts will also include building out the platform for use beyond the geographic region of its initial test case, with a focus on an increasing number of water quality parameters and indicators.