The City of Edmonton has announced a new program designed to help cut emissions over the coming years.
The Corporate Climate Leaders Program includes a number of businesses tasked with taking an inventory of their greenhouse gas emissions and creating a plan to reduce them.
The program has a total of 18 businesses registered, including Alberta Health Services, Covenant Health, MacEwan University, NAIT, the University of Alberta, West Edmonton Mall and IKEA.
More than 2,900 solar panels have been installed on the roof of IKEA’s south Edmonton warehouse.
The store uses the same amount of energy as about 400 homes; the solar panels offset about a quarter of the building’s energy needs.
“It’s great for society and the world but it’s also great for business, this is an excellent way for us to manage our costs of the second largest input to our business behind people is energy costs,” IKEA Canada Head of Sustainability Brendan Seale said.
The company owns two wind farms in southern Alberta that generate enough power for all of their Canadian stores four times over.
“All of the power that we generate that is fed back into the grid is a revenue source for IKEA,” Seale said.
“Edmonton’s Energy Transition Strategy calls for a greenhouse gas reduction of 35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035,” Councillor Ben Henderson said in a statement. “Achieving this ambitious goal will require action by all Edmontonians, and it’s exciting to see our local business community step up and commit to doing their part.”
The city admits Edmonton’s carbon footprint is a tiny part of the worldwide issue, but it’s worth it.
“If everybody starts thinking that way and not just saying the other person needs to reduce, then that’s how you actually get deep carbon reductions,” Mike Mellross, the city’s Energy Transition Program manager, said.
Businesses can sign up to participate in the program until October 12.
With files from Jeremy Thompson
