City of Nelson earns high marks from Community Energy Association
By The Nelson Daily Staff
The City of Nelson was recognized as one of the major award winners by the Community Energy Association.
The CEA presented Nelson Mayor Janice Morrison and councillors with the 2024 Climate & Energy Action Award for its “Low Carbon Homes Pilot.”
The award was presented Wednesday by Megan Lohmann, the CEO of the Community Energy Association, and Rik Logtenberg, Chair of CEA’s Board of Directors during a ceremony at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver.
“As a small, rural municipality, the City of Nelson displayed how local governments of all sizes can implement replicable embodied carbon solutions with co-benefits for the economy, society, and environment,” the CEA said during the presentation.
The judges were impressed with the City of Nelson’s efforts to address the embodied emissions associated with construction materials, suggest low-carbon alternatives, and provide training for the local construction sector.
Climate & Energy Action is a program encouraging low-carbon building materials, a community climate action tracker, an extreme heat information portal, early local implementation of the Zero Carbon Step Code, and a program encouraging retrofits of apartment buildings by providing tax exemptions all received awards today recognizing the best local climate initiatives in British Columbia.
According to CEA’s new chief executive officer, Megan Lohmann, presenting awards to innovative and creative local programs inspires similar action elsewhere.
“We believe that recognizing and elevating leadership in BC is critical to inspiring continued implementation of ambitious and impactful action in BC.”
Other award winners included:
- City of Nanaimo – BC Energy Step Code and Zero Carbon Step Code Implementation Strategy
- City of Surrey – Climate Action Tracker
- Capital Regional District, City of Langford, District of Oak Bay, District of Saanich, Town of Sidney, and City of Victoria – Capital Region Extreme Heat Information Portal
- City of Victoria and the District of Saanich – Tax Exemptions for Rental Apartment Retrofit Acceleration
About CEA and Climate & Energy Action Awards
The Community Energy Association accelerates bold action by local governments and Indigenous communities related to climate and energy. CEA grew from a committee established by the Government of BC and the Union of BC Municipalities in the 1990s, was incorporated as a non-profit in 2003, and registered as a charity the following year. CEA functions as a non-profit consultant with members and a Board of Directors; more than half of CEA’s member-organizations are local governments and Indigenous communities.
The Climate & Energy Action awards have been presented for 26 years to BC municipalities, regional districts, and Indigenous communities, recognizing exceptional leadership and initiatives that have achieved measurable results.
