Energy Save New West Updates

As the program manager for City of New Westminster’s Energy Save New West (ESNW), Ecolighten is excited to share some of the recent program updates including service/offer enhancements and a summary of key results to date.”

To increase participation, deliver deeper energy reductions, and support the City of New Westminster program/policy objectives (e.g. Energy Step Code and Climate Emergency Declaration / Seven Bold Steps), ESNW has incorporated a number of new program initiatives in 2020 – 2021, including the following:

• Empower Me
  Empower Me is now onboard to support equity of New Westminster’s diverse multi-cultural communities. The primary role of Empower Me is to help the City increase engagement of hard-to-reach communities and improve access for those communities to City services, and program incentives and rebates.
• Program InfoSheet
  The Program InfoSheet was released in July 2021, to help communicating ESNW services and offers with local residents. This new resource is also available in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Punjabi to support equity and inclusion of diverse multi-language communities.
• Properate Service
  In collaboration with Lambda Science, this new pilot program for existing homeowner was launched to provide a customized report summarizing the cost analyses to identify optimal energy-saving opportunities and recommended energy upgrade pathway.
• Social Media Posts
  To increase engagement and support easy communication with local residents, ESNW has been sharing energy efficiency information on the City’s Facebook and Instagram sites on a more regular bases and communicating effectively through comments and replies.

Some of the key ESNW program highlights to date include:

• Homeowners who completed pre & post-retrofit evaluations indicated, on average, achieved 27% annual energy saving and 24% of GHG emissions reduction.
• Over 750 homeowners have registered for the ESNW Existing Home Program and 100% of the program participants who completed the 2020 survey would recommend the energy evaluation.
• Through the High-Performance Home Program, 62 new homes have been built in New Westminster above minimum BC Building Code requirements.
• Over 250 MWh of renewable energy has been generated through the City’s two (2) Urban Solar Gardens since installation, and the 3rd Urban Solar Garden is also currently under review.

If you’re interested in learning more about the ESNW services and offers, please visit ESNW website.