ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative: Using Less. Living Better

January 21, 2007

The biggest untapped source of energy we have available to us is the energy we waste. Using energy wisely to make sure our energy supplies go further yields huge benefits for all Canadians. Consumers reap significant dollar savings while business and industry see increased profits and productivity. However, the biggest impact of our investments in energy efficiency is reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that affect our environment and health.

In light of all this, the Government's ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative will invest approximately $300 million over four years to promote smarter energy use across all sectors of society.

The ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative is a focused mix of information and incentives targeted to improve energy efficiency in housing, buildings and industrial processes. It includes a new initiative designed to help those who need the most help with retrofit projects, such as Canadian homeowners and small- and medium-sized business owners.

ecoENERGY retrofit

Homeowners, smaller businesses, institutions and industrial organizations are all affected by volatile energy costs. However, these same groups often don't know which improvements would yield the largest energy savings, and lack sufficient funds to carry them out. The $220-million, four-year ecoENERGY Retrofit Initiative will fill that gap by offering financial support and information to encourage the retrofit of homes, small buildings and industrial processes.

Homeowners

Only one to two percent of Canada's housing supply is built new each year. Therefore, an important way to reduce household energy use is to make existing Canadian homes more energy efficient. It is expected that the ecoENERGY Retrofit incentives will promote smart energy use in more than 140,000 homes.

A personalized checklist will show homeowners the best upgrades for their homes and how much financial support is available to make those improvements. The average grant is expected to be more than $1,000 and will yield an average 30 percent reduction in energy use and costs.

Smaller Business and Organizations

Canada has thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses, institutions and industrial organizations, such as manufacturers, schools, hospitals, stores, hotels, restaurants and offices. To help this important and diverse group reduce their energy costs and related emissions, ecoENERGY Retrofit will provide financial incentives to speed up action on energy-saving projects in an estimated 800 smaller organizations.

This support will be particularly helpful to the smaller businesses in Canada's manufacturing base that have been buffeted by high energy price2007-09-05heir ability to sell their products abroad.

The total energy savings for ecoENERGY Retrofit overall, including both housing and smaller organization retrofits, would provide free heating for all the homes in a city the size of Windsor, Ontario for one year.

ecoENERGY for Buildings and Houses

The Government of Canada will also encourage the construction, operation and retrofit of more energy-efficient buildings and houses using complementary activities such as rating, labelling and training. An investment of more than $60 million in ecoENERGY for Buildings and Houses will generate the following:

• new design tools and training so designers, builders, owners and operators can learn about and use best practices and new technologies;
• house and building energy rating and labelling systems; and,
• dialogue and co-operation with provincial and territorial energy-efficient housing programs with a view to encouraging other levels of government to adopt more stringent building energy codes.

Each building constructed to an efficiency level 35 percent better than the current energy code will save 10,000 tonnes of emissions and some $2 million in energy costs over its life.

ecoENERGY for Industry

Canada's industries account for 38 percent of energy demand and are responsible for 34 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, industry is an important contributor to our economy, accounting for approximately 32 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and employing almost 25 percent of Canada's labour force.

To help large industry deal with regulations introduced as part of the Clean Air Act, and to stimulate action across all industries, the new ecoENERGY for Industry program will devote approximately $20 million to encourage information-sharing on new technologies and best practices in energy use; training for energy managers to identify and put in place energy-saving projects; and cost-shared assistance for energy assessments that identify a wide range of ways to improve energy use.

ecoENERGY for Industry is expected to yield energy savings equivalent to the energy used by between 65,000 and 146,000 households.

Using Less, Living Better

The Government of Canada has announced a suite of ecoENERGY Initiatives designed to help boost clean-energy supplies, encourage Canadians to use energy more efficiently and develop clean-energy technologies. One component, the ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative is all about using less and living better. The Initiative and its targeted programs will provide significant incentives and resources directly to individual Canadians, businesses and industries so they can make wise choices that save energy, money and our environment.

Program details about all three components of the ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative, including information about how to apply for ecoENERGY grants, will be available when the programs start in April 2007.