Green City
Environmental sustainability is a top priority in Moncton. We are proud of our many green initiatives, and continue to take action to reduce its environmental footprint and minimize negative impacts on the environment.
Sustainable Transportation
Greener Fleet
The City of Moncton is proud to have launched its Greener Fleet initiative in 2007. Our six Smart cars are being put to use for municipal purposes, such as parking enforcement, park maintenance and other functions. Smart move!
Smart car specs:
- 2.5 metres long and 1.5 metres wide
- 23.81 km per litre of fuel (67.23 miles per gallon)
- Average annual fuel cost: $563 per year
- CO2 emissions: 90 g per km
- Fuel capacity: 22 litres
- Maximum speed: 135 km/hour
- Qualifies for the EcoAuto Rebate Program rebate
Active transportation
The City of Moncton encourages all forms of sustainable transportation. Visit our Active Living section to find out how Moncton is healthy and green!
Vehicle and Equipment Idling Policy
Unnecessary vehicle idling wastes fuel and generates needless harmful emissions. According to Environment Canada, an idling engine releases twice as many exhaust fumes than a vehicle in motion. On March 1, 2006, the City of Moncton implemented its Vehicle and Equipment Idling Policy for all City vehicles. The policy requires that City vehicles not idle for periods exceeding one minute, except in certain health and safety conditions. In addition, drivers of City vehicles should not use drive-through services.
Roadwork projects
The City of Moncton invests in roadwork projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing traffic congestion, and cutting down idling time (i.e. the extension of Vaughan Harvey and Assomption boulevards).
Investing in transit
Emissions resulting from road transportation are a major contributor to air pollution and climate change. Public transit helps this situation by giving people an alternative to private vehicles. A single bus can carry as many people as 50 cars.
The City of Moncton continues to invest in public transit. Codiac Transit has added more buses and connections to residential routes. All buses have bike racks from spring to fall. Bus passes are eligible for federal tax rebates. For more information on our public transit, visit the Codiac Transit section on this website or call 506-857-2008.
Energy Conservation
Green roof on Moncton City Hall
A green roof is a layer of living vegetation that is installed on the top of a conventional flat or sloping roof. Green roofs conserve energy by moderating temperature on the roof and surrounding area, reduce water runoff, and create ecological and aesthetic value to urban open space.
LED traffic lights
All of Moncton’s traffic lights have been converted to more environment-friendly LED (light emitting diode) technology. This results in an annual energy consumption reduction of 715,000 kilowatts, an annual CO2 emissions reduction of 536 metric tons, and annual energy cost savings of over $87,000. In addition, the city is now running a pilot project to evaluate the use of the same type of lighting technology in streetlights, and is converting its decorative seasonal lights. View the LED Conversion Report-Summary.
Energy retrofits
The City of Moncton conducted energy retrofits of 16 municipal buildings in 1999, saving three million kilowatts of energy yearly. This produces savings of over $250,000 each year.
Waste and Recycling
Mandatory waste separation
The City of Moncton began the mandatory Wet/Dry Waste Separation Program on October 1, 2006, seven years following the successful introduction of the voluntary waste separation program. The program requires that residential waste be separated into transparent blue or green plastic bags throughout the city, and now boasts a 99.9 per cent participation rate.
The benefits of this program are irrefutable. It is extending the life of the Westmorland-Albert landfill and dramatically increasing the amount of material being reused and recycled. This not only reduces our community’s carbon footprint, but also reduces the overall cost of providing waste collection services. Presently, more than 51 per cent of residential waste collected is recycled or composted.
The Westmorland-Albert Solid Waste Corporation recycled more than 11,000 metric tons of materials in 2007, such as cardboard, paper, milk cartons, plastics, electronics, metals, and even old sneakers.
Water
Water conservation Kits
Water conservation kits are available at City Hall.
Shower Head: $5.40 (plus tax)
Full Kit: $15 (plus tax)
Includes an Earth Massage shower head, a kitchen swivel aerator, bathroom aerators and a toilet tank bank.
Lawn watering bylaw
The City of Moncton was one of the first municipalities in Atlantic Canada with a bylaw addressing lawn-watering restrictions as a way to help promote water conservation.
Water meters
Water meters increase water consumption awareness and help promote water conservation. During 2006-2007, the City's Automated Water Meter Reading System was updated to a Fixed Network Radio Frequency Reading system. The City of Moncton is the first in Canada to have completed a full installation of this state-of-the-art water meter reading technology. The new system consists of Meter Transmission Units installed in each home and a series of solar/battery-powered Data Collection Units located throughout the City. Readings are transmitted to a central computer at City Hall for analysis and billing, thereby removing transportation requirements.
The system is capable of multiple reads per day which helps identify leakage through nighttime flow monitoring. The system's high/low consumption reporting capability generates a list of exception reports, noting addresses where water consumption is above or below the norm which triggers a further examination. This project has had a significant positive impact on the environment by decreasing the amount of water that is consumed by customers and decreasing the amount of water that is wasted through leaks and breaks.
In late 2007, the City of Moncton used the AMR data to conduct its first official AWWA/IWA water audit and balance. By comparing water production to metered consumption, the city is able to calculate water loss and work toward further reductions.
Environmental Programs
The Partners for Climate Protection Program
The City of Moncton joined the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) in 2001. The PCP program is a framework used to guide municipal governments in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The framework contains the following five milestones:
- Milestone 1: Completing a GHG inventory
- Milestone 2: Setting a GHG emissions reduction target
- Milestone 3: Creating a Local Action Plan
- Milestone 4: Implementing the Local Action Plan
- Milestone 5: Monitoring Progress
The benefits to the municipality and the community are the reduction in energy expenditures, the reduction of air pollution and overall improvements in the quality of life.
Earth Day
Since 1996, the City of Moncton actively participates in Earth Day each year by organizing various activities, such as learning and awareness activities in schools, public displays, and much more.
This year, the City also launched its Active School Bus program and the EcoAction Teams program on Earth Day, and is supporting the Greater Moncton Earth Day Festival.
EcoAction Teams
In partnership with Earth Day Canada, the City of Moncton is the second municipality in Canada to launch the EcoAction Teams program, which is aimed at increasing awareness on energy conservation, water conservation, waste reduction, sustainable transportation and sustainable gardening. The community-focused initiative not only provides information about simple ways to conserve energy and reduce waste, but it also lets people track their progress.
The cornerstone of this program is an easy to use, Internet based calculator where citizens can find simple, realistic conservation actions they can do at home to help the environment and save money.
Residents who are interested in participating in the EcoAction Teams program can visit www.ecoactionteams.ca where they will find a link to the conservation calculator (My Calculator). Participants can challenge themselves as individuals, or can create a team with friends, family, co-workers or neighbours. The calculator will not only help participants see how they can reduce their environmental footprint but also compare their results to provincial or Canadian averages.
Information sheet- EcoAction Teams
Earth Hour
Since 2008, the City of Moncton has been supporting Earth Hour, an endeavour in which people and businesses in cities around the world turn their lights off for one hour to highlight the need for action against climate change. This initiative originated in Sydney, on March 31, 2007 and has now become a global movement.
As part of the Earth Hour initiative, the City turned off the non essential lights at several of its facilities and encouraged citizens and local businesses to also turn off their lights.
During the 2008 event, NB Power recorded a drop in energy of 8 Megawatts for the province of New Brunswick, which is equivalent to shutting of approximately 150,000 light bulbs.
Healthy Lawns campaign
The Healthy Lawns Moncton campaign encourages residents to reduce, and ideally stop, the use of non-essential pesticides on their lawns and gardens.
Other Initiatives
City Hall Green Team
It is important that the City of Moncton lead by example and ensures that its work environment is as green as possible. This is why, as of June 2008, a City Hall Green Team, which includes staff from various departments, was created. The Green Team’s mandate is to suggest simple cost effective initiatives to help achieve a greener City Hall and City administration. The Team’s is currently establishing a baseline and researching best practices that have shown positive results. Initiatives will include items such as reducing the amount of paper we use, reducing the amount of waste generated, reducing our energy consumption, and more. The implementation will be monitored using a results-based approach.
Street salting
Since 1997, the street-salting fleet has been using a more environmentally sensitive system known as pre-wetting. By wetting the salt at the time it is applied, more salt stays on the road, and goes to work faster. This has allowed for the reduction of the overall salt consumption by 15 per cent. In 2008, the City of Moncton commenced a pilot project for anti-icing. This method differs from the pre-wetting process in that a light film of saltwater is sprayed onto streets before a storm, thus preventing ice and snow from bonding to the pavement surface during the storm and allowing for easier cleanup after the storm. This not only uses less salt overall, it also saves in fuel, labour and cleanup cost.
Outdoor no-smoking policy
Since January 8, 2007, smoking is prohibited at all City of Moncton facilities. This includes many buildings and fields used by the public.
Trees, trees, trees
The City of Moncton’s Tree Planting Program increases the number of trees in the city, which helps absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air. Several arborists are employed to protect and enhance the city’s tree canopy. This is an important part of our vision to make Moncton a greener place to live.
Employee awareness
Protecting the environment is a priority throughout our corporation. We strive to create employee awareness on how we as a municipality can help the environment.
Environment report
The City of Moncton has been an environmental leader for many years. View the city’s Environmental Initiatives 2003. The City is currently working on an updated verion of this report.
Municipal Green Building Policy
The City of Moncton wants to take active steps to reduce its environmental footprint by ensuring the planning, design, construction and operation of municipal buildings is carried out in a sustainable manner. View policy