We are excited to announce that this year’s Green Project Grant will be awarded to 14 recipients to support 17 different projects! This year’s projects include energy saving, waste reduction, water conservation, and environmental stewardship projects!

Green Economy London successfully fundraised a $19,000 project stream with support from The City of London, London Community Foundation, Convertus, Partners in Project Green, and the Federal Government.

Part of this project implementation requires members to set a reduction target in the related target area, ie Water, Waste, GHG Emissions, or Environmental Stewardship. By setting a target and tracking the impact these projects have, members will be able to report and align project impacts with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Green Economy London’s program has aligned with 6 SDGs, and through our target setting, project implementation, and impact measurement process we are able to help members align and report on these goals. 

GHG Emissions Reduction Focused Projects 

• LED Lighting retrofit projects: LEDs have the potential to reduce electricity consumption and costs by an estimated 30%. LEDs are not only more energy efficient, but they have a 3-5 time longer lifespan than fluorescents, and will therefore reduce lighting maintenance as well as reduce waste from burned out bulbs.  The 5 businesses listed below will all be updating their current fluorescent fixtures to LEDs.
  • ReForest London
  • Carmina de Young
  • Plant Matter Kitchen
  • Bluestone Properties
  • Microcad 
• Solar Panel Installation: Heeman’s is implementing a huge solar panel project at their farm to help reduce their GHG emissions from most of their electricity usage. This solar project has the potential to reduce Heeman’s GHG emissions by over 2 tonnes per year and generate over 110,000 kWh per year! 
• EV Charger: Reimagine Co Zero Waste Store will be installing an Electric Vehicle charger at their store location. This will not only allow them to charge up their plug-in hybrid vehicle for deliveries, but also allow community members and shoppers to charge their electric vehicles as well.  This project, combined with their bike racks fulfill their commitment to encouraging sustainable transportation.

Water Conservation Projects

• Blue Roof Feasibility Studies: Pillar Nonprofit Network and the London Food Bank both will be receiving blue roof feasibility studies done on their respective buildings to determine how a reusable water system could work at their building. Blue roofs collect stormwater, which is then piped through the building to be used to flush toilets and for the London Food Bank could be used to irrigate their hoop house and outdoor gardens. Blue roofs have the potential to reduce significant amounts of potable water consumption and costs and reduce stormwater in times of flood.
• Low Flow Fixtures: Both McCabe Promotional and the London Brewing Co-op will be adding low flow fixtures to their bathrooms as a water conservation initiative. Low flow fixtures expel less than half the litres per minute of standard fixtures, which will result in 1000’s of litres of water saved per year! This is a simple yet extremely effective project to conserve valuable, potable water.

Waste Reduction and Diversion Projects

• Soil sieves for Wormery (Composting project): Western Fair District currently redirects most of their onsite organic waste into compost bins and then feed it to their own onsite worm farm. To date they have processed over 18 tons of raw material and  plan to further improve and expand their composting capacity through this funding. This equates to preventing over 45 tons of GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere had the waste gone to landfill instead. 
• 3-bin Composter: ReForest London will be expanding their composting system from a one bin composter to a 3-bin composter, in order to have all buildings on their property have access to composting streams. This will allow them to ensure that no organic waste ends up in the garbage, while at the same time providing valuable compost for their new native plant and pollinator gardens.
• High Efficiency Hand dryer: Pillar Nonprofit Network will be installing a high efficiency hand dryer as a waste reduction strategy. This project will reduce a significant amount of paper towel waste and associated costs! Additionally, new efficient models sensor use so no extra energy is used. The carbon footprint of paper towels is 50% greater than a high efficiency hand dryer! This project delivers a quick payback period, easy waste reduction solution, and reduces bathroom maintenance. 
• Recycling Program: Big Bike Giveaway recycles bicycles, and they work hard to divert waste from our landfills such as tires, tubes, rubber and wire. This funding will be used to improve their recycling program to ensure proper recycling for all waste they collect.

Environmental Stewardship

• Pollinator Garden: Western Fair District is installing a pollinator garden in collaboration with Pollinator Pathways and Friends of Urban Agriculture at their Art building. Pollinator gardens are essentially for healthy urban environments, and provide necessary habitats and food for key native species and pollinators. 
• Employee Tree Planting Day: MTE Consultants have recently established a Corporate Sustainability Committee and Green Teams within each of their offices to develop and implement sustainability initiatives. They will be implementing an employee tree planting day as their initial project for their local Green Team to build momentum and foster employee engagement while giving back to the community.

Green Economy London is proud to work with our members to implement these important efficiency projects, and grateful to our sponsors for helping us do so.  We believe that you can’t improve what you don’t track, and that London’s Green Leaders are helping to prove that a more sustainable economy is possible.