The city of Greater Sudbury’s green retrofits over the last 10 years have resulted in more than $2.6 million in savings, according to an engineer with the city.

Ontario’s Green Energy Act requires municipalities to track the energy consumption, size, age and usage plans of each building they own. Since 2012, the City of Greater Sudbury has tracked these numbers for its more than 600 buildings.

Sajeev Shivshankaran, the city’s energy and facilities engineer, said any new projects and renovations must also make efforts to meet net-zero emissions. Those are when a building either does not emit any greenhouse gases, or has projects in place to offset its emissions (such as green spaces with trees). 

The latest of these projects is the Junction East project, which will become the first net-zero building owned by the city.

The building will use solar panels, geothermal heating and upgrades such as triple-pane windows to both produce its own energy and cut back on what it uses.

“It’s important because buildings consume and emit a tremendous amount of energy and carbon dioxide when they’re burning fossil fuels,” Nicola Casciato, an architect behind the project with Toronto-based WZMH Architects, told CBC News.

While green buildings cost less to operate, the technologies needed to get to net-zero cost more upfront. The Junction East project, which will be the future home of the Greater Sudbury Public Library’s main branch, the Art Gallery of Sudbury and the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association, is budgeted at $98.5 million.

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