Orangeville Citizen

Orangeville Hydro is sure its customers have heard, read articles or seen programs or movies that feature the consequences of climate change and probably wondered what they could do to play their part, or help to contribute to a solution.

It may be even more poignant now with the Climate Change Conference taking place in Bali, where Canada was named number 53 out of 56 countries for taking action against climate change.

In the past few months, Orangeville Hydro Services in collaboration with the community group Power Up Renewable Energy (PURE) have been investigating how they might effectively demystify the ‘green’ business world by assisting and supporting the consumer in achieving their ‘green’ aspirations, helping them become informed and linking them to the appropriate service or product provider by offering a ‘green’ “one-stop-shop”.

Businesses offering energy audits, ‘green’ architectural services, ‘green’ construction, ‘green’ construction supplies, energy conservation, energy reduction upgrades, and renewable energy based installations, e.g. solar heating, solar electricity generation, and wind power systems, are not that well known and sometimes hard to locate.

The business model being investigated by Orangeville Hydro Services and PURE provides a readily accessible bridge between the consumer and the product and service provider community, perhaps analogous to a travel agency, bringing the ‘demand side’ and the ‘supply side’ together.

In November, the Orangeville Hydro Services/PURE team contacted over 150 businesses offering the services and products mentioned above.

The response has been most encouraging with better than 50% response rate and better than 96% wishing to pursue an affiliation.

The utility was delighted to note that during a recent public radio broadcast David Suzuki stated that a resource such as this is required to help the public at-large connect to those who can provide the services and products that will assist in combating the consequences of climate change.

Locally, Dr Ron Dembo, President and CEO of Zerofootprint (www.zerofootprint.net) and a resident of Mulmur, recently gave a presentation in Orangeville on climate change and its consequences.

He suggested that climate change should be viewed as World War 3. His firm has developed an ‘eco-footprint calculator’ that can assess the ecofootprint of an individual and compile the information for a location or an area, for example, Headwaters.

To access and use the calculator visit: www.zerofootprint. net/calculator/headwaters

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