Plant sprouting in soil

Plan to Mitigate Environmental Impacts 

Township of West Lincoln's Plan to Mitigate Environmental Impacts 2020-2025 - Notice of Completion

The Corporation of the Township of West Lincoln recognizes the global and local impacts of climate change and understands its responsibility to help reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions while also preparing its community to adapt to the changing climate. This Plan to Mitigate Environmental Impacts is the Corporation's first of many efforts to become resilient to climate change, while also a way for the Corporation to lead by example. Included in this Plan are sections dedicated to both the community and corporate. Both individual sections identify where we are now and where we want to go. This Plan concludes by identifying how we are going to get to where we want to go. This Plan builds off of regional, provincial, and national Climate Change Action Plans, but provides details specific to West Lincoln.

The Corporation’s Green Team led this Plan to completion by providing their valuable insights. The Green Team serves as an agency:

  1. To provide an opportunity for the flow of strategic advice and expertise between staff and Council for the continued implementation of the Plan to Mitigate Environmental Impacts, and
  2. To facilitate staff discussion on how particular environmental, economic, and social issues impact municipal operations as well as the broader community.

The preparation of this Plan was carried out with assistance from the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program, a fund financed by the Government of Canada and administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Notwithstanding this support, the views expressed are the personal views of the authors, FCM and the Government of Canada accept no responsibility for them. This Plan was prepared by Meghan Birbeck the Climate Change and Sustainability Coordinator for the Corporation of the Township of West Lincoln.

The next update to the Plan to Mitigate Environmental Impacts will be in 2026.

Energy conservation and demand management plan

In September 2019, the Township of West Lincoln submitted the 5-year update to its Energy Conservation & Demand Management Plan to the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines. This plan was approved by Council on September 23, 2019, as per RFD-CAO-05-2019. This plan summarizes the Township's annual energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for its operations. It also describes previous, current, and proposed measures for conserving and otherwise reducing the amount of energy consumed by operations, and for managing the Township's demand for energy.

The Township of West Lincoln has met the challenges of monitoring and reporting of its energy consumption, as required by Ontario Regulation 507/18, and is driven to improve the energy efficiency of our operations due to rising energy costs, energy security, and environmental concerns.

The next update to the Energy Conservation & Demand Management Plan will be required by July 1, 2024.

Municipal energy consumption reports

In addition to the 5-year Energy Consumption and Demand Management Plan, Ontario Regulation 507/18 requires that the Township report on its operational energy consumption annually. Reporting energy consumption annually offers the Township a mechanism to both construct educated energy targets and to monitor if targets are being met.

Corporate initiatives

The Township of West Lincoln has recognized that many efforts toward environmental sustainability have been taken on by individual staff over the years. To leverage these efforts and encourage expansions of action and understanding, a corporately internal Green Team has been formed to implement consistent and beneficial practices across the corporation. Eleven staff, representing all areas of the Township, are involved in selecting and implementing collaborative initiatives and setting an example for the community. The Green Team is implementing several internal environmental actions. The initial list includes the following:

Recycling

The development of consistent recycling practices by staff across the organization with a focus on education to perfect sorting and increase beneficial collection. It should be noted that Staff utilize the Niagara Region's search engine to properly dispose of items - the search engine can be utilized on both a web browser or downloaded as an application. 

Composting

The development of a composting plan focusing on sorting education and providing consistent facilities to ensure success.

Battery disposal

Working with Niagara Region Solid Waste Management, the Township collects single use batteries to ensure that they are properly disposed of and diverted from the landfill.