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West Kootenay businesses and organizations support renewable energy

Over 30 West Kootenay businesses & organizations are supporting the transition to renewable energy.
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Over 30 local businesses and organizations have signed-on to support the transition to 100 per cent renewable energy in their West Kootenay communities, with almost one third being Rossland-based businesses.

Over 30 local businesses and organizations have signed-on to support the transition to 100 per cent renewable energy in their West Kootenay communities, with almost one third being Rossland-based businesses.

“We’ve signed on to support the transition to 100 per cent renewable energy in Rossland,” said Tyler Merringer, owner of Revolution Cycles. “Getting people out of gas-guzzling cars and onto public transportation or bikes to get around Rossland and our neighbouring communities, like Warfield and Trail, means less pollution, healthier people, and a more fun and social culture of getting to work and doing errands.”

This effort is being led by the West Kootenay EcoSociety as part of their 100% Renewable Kootenays initiative. The initiative aims to build support from residents, businesses and organizations across the region to transition off fossil fuels and onto 100 per cent renewable energy no later than 2050.

“It’s important to show our municipal decision-makers that local businesses and groups support renewable energy and are already making steps to cut their fossil fuel use,” said Matthew Carroll, co-executive director of the West Kootenay EcoSociety. “When we combine the thousands of residents that want Rossland to commit to transition to 100 per cent renewable energy with the dozens of businesses and groups that are showing their support, I think it will be a realistic goal for Rossland to commit to achieving.”

These businesses and organizations have not only signed on to show their support for renewable energy, but they are actively working to reduce their carbon pollution and improve their community.

“Many people don’t think about the carbon footprint of an office,” said Sam Cowan, VP of sales and marketing and partner with RHC Insurance Brokers Ltd. “We wanted to do our part to reduce emissions so we launched the RHC Insurance Going Green Project. For example, we have substantially reduced our printing by emailing documents and policies to clients and transferring paper files to our new, online database. Imagine if all of our electronic services were powered by renewable energy sources. As a business we are committed to finding solutions that benefit our clients and our community.”

Groups that have signed on to support the transition to 100 per cent renewable energy are from diverse sectors ranging from retailers, restaurants, fitness businesses, green building and energy companies to health practitioners, faith groups and everything in-between.

“Earlier this year, local faith groups said they would transform their operations, including some very old buildings, to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050 and some want to do this even by 2035,” said Carroll. “There’s a lot of excitement locally to build our community around renewable energy and energy efficient solutions, I’m excited to bring businesses and organizations, showing this leadership, together with local governments at our regional energy conference next week. We’re going to make progress on moving to renewable energy.”

A regional conference on renewable energy and energy efficiency is being organized by the EcoSociety in Castlegar on September 7-9 and many of the businesses and groups supporting the transition to renewable energy will be attending. The conference is open to the public and more information can be found at EcoSociety.ca.

See the complete list of businesses and organizations that are supporting 100 per cent renewable energy no later than 2050 in their communities: ecosociety.ca/Renewable-KootenaysSupporters.