Altona’s Green Action Team has completed their audit of three of the community’s recreation facilities, resulting in a variety of ideas on how they can become more environmentally friendly.
The team was formed late last year, and is made up of local volunteers Shayna Schroeder, Winnie Yu, Melissa Thiessen, Michael Hiebert, and David Sawatzky.
Under the tutelage of the Green Action Centre in Winnipeg, their task was to perform assessments of the Millennium Exhibition Centre (MEC), Rhineland Pioneer Centre, and the Altona Curling Club.
Sawatzky’s position as a recreation operations assistant for the Town proved to be helpful during this process.
The audit was based on things like water and electricity bills, building usage, and food and waste management.
“The whole process began with me gathering information in order for them to put together the actual green audit,” he explained.
The exercise continued with monthly workshops where the team, guided by members of the Green Action Centre, went through each facility focusing on these areas.
Green Action Team Member David Sawatzky says discovering ways to improve the environmental footprint of local recreational facilities has been an enlightening journey.
“Each session included reviewing statistics. As an intermediary with the town, we had gathered statistics about energy usage and all that to better understand the building,” said Sawatzky. “Members of our team put things into perspective as far as energy usage, compared to a provincial, national, and international scale, and we asked for suggestions and recommendations on how the building could be improved. Then we weeded through these suggestions and came up with some short-term and long-term goals, and things that would not work.”
One of those recommendations is to reduce usage of electricity and water.
“In a facility like this, it’s a little difficult because you want to be open to the community as much as possible, but you also want to look at how the building is being used, when it’s being used, how you can maybe have the lights on less, have the heat down, things like that.”
Reducing waste is another suggestion.
“We did a waste audit, and literally went through a specific time period and calculated the amount of waste collected in the building. We realized that about 60 per cent of the waste we throw away is either recyclable or compostable,” said Sawatzky. “When you go by weight, that’s substantial in a facility like this. But we believe with some education and encouragement, that number can come down.”
The team has come up with a few ideas to make this happen in the short term.
A $7,500 grant, made available for a medium-scale project based on the audit’s findings, will help cover the cost of some of the solutions they hope to provide.
“One suggestion was using the money to install programmable thermostats and changing to a more integrated cooling and heating system,” Sawatzky said. “Outdoors, we are suggesting that the annual plants in the flower beds be replaced with perennial, more water-friendly plants around the building. We’re also looking at installing some interactive displays to illustrate environmentally friendly practices when people enter the facility. Those practices can then hopefully be transferred to their homes and businesses.”
Sawatzky says the Town of Altona has been very encouraging and supportive during the green audit process, because it reflects their own green values. For example, council approved the purchase of an electric Zamboni in their 2023 budget, which is set to arrive in January.
“I think a lot of the things we’re proposing to them are not only ecologically sustainable, but they are essentially things that will help save taxpayers money, over the short term and long term. In that sense, it’s a win-win. It’s not a subject we can ignore any longer.”
Going forward, the hope is that some of these suggestions will be integrated. The team will also be submitting a larger, broader list of recommendations to be considered in the future as well.
“We really hope that this building, going forward, will take some of what we’ve suggested and put it into practice,” said Sawatzky, noting those results could be posted online or with signage throughout.
Meanwhile, while the Green Action Centre led the local Green Action Team through this audit process, representatives were also teaching the volunteers how to lead similar exercises for other local organizations and businesses looking to reduce their environmental footprint.
In the next phase of this process, a working group will be created to coordinate a larger-scale project funded through a federal program to the tune of $50,000.
