Cutting carbon footprint for Hydro One goal of Centre for Urban Energy project
Cory Searcy is heading a research project to help Hydro One assess and diminish its carbon footprint.
Canadians are increasingly concerned about how the carbon footprint of companies and individuals are impacting our environment. School children calculate carbon emissions, while nations debate how to stabilize or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere to prevent interference with the climate system. From the Kyoto Protocol to Oscar-winning documentaries to political debates about global warming, concerns about climate change have led to increasing global awareness of the human potential to harm the Earth's delicate environmental balance.
Ryerson's Centre for Urban Energy (CUE) is focused on helping Hydro One assess and diminish its own carbon footprint. As the province's major supplier of power, Hydro One is leading by example and has turned to CUE for help in determining best practices for the corporation and initiatives that other large organizations might follow to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
CUE's Cory Searcy has been funded to research "Reducing the Carbon Footprint at Hydro One". Professor Searcy is also an associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, and he will build on previous research related to urban energy and sustainability in his work with Hydro One. Many corporations have identified the reduction of their carbon footprint as a key business priority, though they struggle to develop scientifically-sound models. The goals of Searcy's CUE research are to develop a baseline of greenhouse gas emission sources from Hydro One Networks Inc. (HONI) operations, to quantify and project key emissions over the next ten years, and to develop practical options for reducing its carbon footprint over the next decade.
Research will present alternatives relevant to both direct factors, including construction and maintenance of transmission and distribution lines, and indirect factors, such as the effect of its purchased electricity on its overall carbon footprint. Using widely-accepted Greenhouse Gas Emission Protocols, Dr. Searcy will employ a life-cycle approach to structure the analysis.
Searcy will work with two Ryerson students on the project: Peter Moore who is pursuing his master's thesis on carbon footprint reduction opportunities, and Jonathan Pryshlakivsky, a doctoral candidate who will conduct the economic analyses to help Hydro One assess its options. Searcy applauded Hydro One's commitment to involving students in the project: "The majority of funding provided by Hydro One, after overhead expenses, will support these two students, whose imagination and enthusiasm will conjoin computer and brain power to enrich Hydro One expertise already at the table."