A Green Venture Capitalist's Call To Action

Tom Rand says his hotel shows that anyone can cut carbon and make money at the same time.

Build an Ontario cleantech industry, cut urban carbon emissions by half, and it won’t cost a dime. Sound like I’m selling Florida swamp-land? Hold your fire. This is the real deal.

All of the following lessons come from my own project: the Planet Traveler hostel at 357 College St., Toronto, where we’re building the greenest hotel in North America. That means: 75 per cent less energy use than business-as-usual. And we’re doing it by economic argument alone – i.e. we’re making money being green. We received no subsidies, no grants. If we can do it, anyone can.

Buildings are responsible for between one-half and three-quarters of carbon emissions in large urban centres. Retrofitting those buildings with existing Ontario-based technologies can cut almost any building’s energy use by three-quarters. How much would it cost? About five per cent of the building’s value.

Bogged down by a fog of feasibility studies and a lack of clear federal, provincial, or city guidelines, we sit and stare at our cityscape. In the meantime, our climate is starting to bake. Best management practices say you figure out payback periods to the second decimal place even before the CFO goes to the board. This is paralysis by analysis. Urgent action is required on the carbon front now, and we know enough to know we should look as we leap.

The following five technologies can be implemented in any building and pay for themselves. Who cares if the payback is three years or six years? Borrow the capital at market rates and you’re making money from day one.

Video produced by Tony Ferguson.

1) Geo-exchange: Heat and cool the building with the ground beneath your feet. Use city laneways and parks if you haven’t got a lawn. Savings? 50 to 75 per cent off the heating/cooling bill. Supplier? Canadian company Clean Energy Developments.

2) Solar thermal: Use the sun to pre-heat your hot water. Savings? 20 to 50 per cent of hot water. Supplier? Canadian company Enerworks.

3) Wastewater Heat Re-capture: Grab the heat going down the drain with the Powerpipe, a simple copper heat exchanger. Savings? 30 to 40 per cent of hot water. Supplier? Renewability Energy.

4) LED Lighting: We can light up the entire building, inside and out, with the same energy as a two-slice toaster. Savings? 50 to 80 per cent off lighting. Supplier? Haven’t picked one yet, but there are lots of Canadian players.

5) Solar PV: Under the Ontario Green Act, we can put solar PV cells on the roof and get paid enough to make it worth doing. We’ve put five kilowatts up there, and we’ll get around $500 a month under the MicroFIT program.

Our total energy savings will be around 75 per cent. Our incremental cost will be around $200,000. Monthly energy savings? Around $2,500. Cost of borrowing the $200,000? A lot less than we save. The building’s worth about $4 million, so it’s just 5 per cent of the building’s value.

How can you feel confident these technologies pay for themselves? Because it’s been proven in the hundreds of thousands of other buildings they’re installed in.

So get on with it Canada. Stop the dithering. Don’t be paralyzed by analysis.

The government’s role? If banks aren’t stepping up to let us tap the 5 per cent, then they should backstop the loans.

Build a cleantech industry. Save money. Potential for Canada? A full 30 per cent reduction in carbon emissions. And a whole lotta jobs.