the event from yesterday
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Toronto mayor promotes energy efficiency in Edmonton
BY GORDON KENT, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COMAPRIL 27, 2009
EDMONTON — Toronto Mayor David Miller says a plan he’s promoting to increase energy efficiency and neighbourhood renewal for aging apartment buildings could also succeed in Edmonton.
The tower-renewal project encourages owners of Toronto’s 2,000 concrete-slab apartments, mainly erected from the 1950s to the 1970s, to reclad the exteriors in metal, glass or other insulating material that will cut energy consumption in the buildings by 50 per cent.
The improvement is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to five per cent for the entire urban area.
At the same time, rezoning will allow little-used open space around the towers to sprout shops and small businesses, making neighbourhoods in decline more attractive, Miller said in a speech Monday at the Hotel Macdonald.
“These projects will pay back in about seven years just for the cladding alone.”
Four test developments were started last fall to find out how well the scheme works, Miller said.
“The biggest challenge is … so many landlords want to do it, we have to say no to a lot of them,” he said.
“We think this program can run in any city in Canada, because every city in Canada … (saw) the construction of these concrete apartment buildings.”
Coun. Don Iveson, who introduced Miller, said later Edmonton has many older apartment and office towers that should improve their energy efficiency.
The city could help owners find financing, show people the benefits and zone for redevelopment, but probably wouldn’t directly subsidize the upgrades, he said.
“Sometimes you just need to see things in action. You need someone else to take the risk and see if it works before a conservative property manager would do it.”
Robert Walker, vice-president of Ledcor’s building division for northern Alberta, said Edmonton put up many similar concrete towers in the 1960s and 1970s, when the cost of oil and electricity was much lower.
With few big new projects on the horizon, this might be a good time to overhaul existing stock, he said.
“In the last few years, there was so much work in Alberta that people didn’t take a breath and think about retrofitting … now they will look at how to save money.”
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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Business/...y+efficiency+Edmonton/1539540/story.html
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