For once Sudbury has beat out Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton as being the place to be if you?re green. An article by Alanna Mitchell in the Oct. 9
Globe and Mail, said Sudbury citizens are demonstrating that Canadians can save money by reducing the amount of energy they use.
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BILL BRADLEY |
Sudbury topped the list of 20 cities when it came to using the earth?s resources wisely.
A pioneering study released this month was conducted for the Canadian Federation of Municipalities called Ecological Footprints for Canadian Municipalities.
Twenty cities were assessed for how much land and sea would be required to produce the amount of food, energy and other materials citizens use.
Sudbury was found to tread least on Earth?s natural resources, or it had the smallest ecological footprint.
On average 7.25 hectares were needed to sustain one person. Sudbury came in at 6.87 hectares. York Region, north of Toronto came in at 10.33 hectares, the highest in Canada.
This is a far cry from Sudbury being derided as a moonscape, a place fit only for hard rock miners and astronauts.
?That is good news for Sudbury and the three other communities that share the top honour,? said senior planner Tin Chee Wu for the City of Greater Sudbury.
That is because the Earth only has 1.9 hectares of productive land and sea available to meet the needs of each person.
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GRAHAM |
The more communities can do to reduce their demand on the world?s resources, the better the chance we can live sustainable into the future says Wu.
Sudbury is rebranding itself as a community that can lead others in environmental achievements, not being labeled as the cause of ecological problems.
This recognition by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities helps that cause.
Mitchell notes the dramatic re-thinking here is being carried out by thinkers such as Paul Graham, Sudbury?s plants engineer. He has calculated that purchasing fossil fuel derived energy from elsewhere was one of the biggest items in Sudbury?s total budget, whether public or private sector.
Graham proved through energy reduction projects in local buildings that saving energy saved major money. In fact almost $1 million was saved from the city?s energy budget. EarthCare Sudbury and its 91 community partners, also has prompted city officials to considering green energy such as geothermal from waste underground heat, biodiesel or wind energy as a fifth spur to economic development after mining and tourism. It all takes time though.
While REpower Wind Corporation, Sudbury?s wind farm business, has yet to erect a wind farm locally, they have relocated a German wind farm engineer with his wife, an optomologist, to Sudbury from Germany in order to get the projects moving ahead.
This may be only the first of a growing green wave of professionals remaking what the world thinks of this city.
Bill Bradley writes about environmental issues for Northern Life.
