City of Dieppe, NB capital project
Indoor ice rinks are central to community life in many Canadian municipalities — and also among the worst GHG offenders. Enormous refrigerators, air conditioners or other cooling systems are required to keep arenas chilled at a hefty energy consumption price.
New Brunswick’s City of Dieppe is exploring innovative ways to make its Arthur J. Leblanc two-rink arena more sustainable. The facility has the city’s highest annual energy cost and accounts for about 16.5% of total emissions. When the building required substantial renovations, the municipal government applied for a sustainability study through GMF’s Community Building Retrofit (CBR) initiative to determine which energy-efficiency measures might best help reduce energy consumption and emissions. At the end of the assessment, Dieppe received a report and guide to base decisions on — and those resources could help other municipalities redesign their arenas to be more efficient as well.
Taking full advantage of GMF’s end-to-end offering, the city also received capital funding to retrofit the arena, with an action plan that seeks to reduce GHG emissions by 307 tonnes, representing a 46 per cent reduction. Once completed, the Arthur J. Leblanc arena will be a leading example of how net-zero carbon emissions are achievable for municipal ice rinks across Canada.
Anticipated results
46% GHG emissions reduction
44% energy use reduction