Clean energy, healthy communities & strong economies

This is your opportunity for your city and community to transition to 100% renewable energy. You can make a difference today.

100% Renewable Kootenays

We are working with communities across the region towards a renewable energy future for the Kootenays. The Cities of Trail, Castlegar, Rossland, Nelson; the Towns of Golden and Creston; the Villages of Slocan, Warfield, Fruitvale, Silverton, New Denver & Kaslo; the Regional District of Central Kootenay, and the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, have all committed to transition to 100% renewable energy no later than 2050 across all community energy uses.

We worked with local governments to develop The West Kootenay 100% Renewable Energy Plan.

Now, we need you to make sure that your local government adopts & implements the plan for your community.

Climate change impacts like wildfires, drought, floods, landslides, and extreme heat are already affecting the health and safety of people like you, our local economies, and our quality of life.

We need each city to transition to 100% renewable energy. This includes electricity, heating and cooling in buildings, transportation and industry. We need to transition off of polluting and wasteful fossil fuels.

This transition must also support low-income people, help Indigenous Peoples, and retrain workers from the oil and gas industry so they can continue to support their families.

Rural communities have unique challenges and also big opportunities. The clean energy transition is already happening. By working together and building on each community’s strengths, we can do this.

We’re building organized people power in local teams to show the overwhelming number of residents and businesses that want a solutions-based approach of 100% renewable energy and good, long-lasting jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Whether or not your community has already said yes to 100% renewable energy, adding your name to our petition is important. Our local elected leaders need to know that they have community support to invest time and money into creating and implementing a 100% renewable energy transition. Addressing climate change means protecting our livelihoods, our health and the things we love.

Together we make a difference! Who will be next?

Add Your Name

100% Renewable Kootenays

Our mission to help the Kootenays transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050 continues. We’re still working behind the scenes with the working group of nine local governments on the draft plan for a renewable energy future for the West Kootenays. The working group has told us this is still a priority.

Extreme weather events, like drought, floods, and wildfires will only worsen the effects of the pandemic. The health and safety of West Kootenay residents, our local economies, and our quality of life are at stake. We need the Kootenays to phase-out fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy at the community-level, including electricity, heating and cooling in buildings, transportation and industry, no later than 2050.

This transition must also support low-income people, provide justice and reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples, and retrain workers from the fossil fuel industry to green jobs.

We are winning!

Neighbours United is excited to announce 14 municipalities in the Kootenay region have committed to transitioning to 100% renewable energy no later than 2050. Who will be next?

Rural communities add a layer of complexity, as well as possibility. Working together and building on each community’s strengths, we can create a cohesive regional transition plan that encompasses all West Kootenay communities.

We’re building organized people power in local teams to show the overwhelming number of residents and businesses that want a solutions-based approach of 100% renewable energy and good, green jobs.

Whether your community has signed on or not, adding your name to our petition is important. Our local elected leaders need to know that they have community support to invest staff time and funds into creating and implementing a 100% renewable energy transition plan.

The West Kootenay 100% Renewable Energy Plan is Ready

The West Kootenay 100% Renewable Energy Plan focuses on transportation, heating and cooling buildings, and waste management, and potential for new renewable energy sources in our community and in the West Kootenays.

Together with other local governments, we’ve identified actions that can improve our community’s health, economic strength, and safety. We’ve built this plan with a lot of consultation and collaboration between local government staff, elected officials, renewable energy experts and members of the public.

Learn more about the plan and opportunities for your community at www.westkootenayrenewableenergy.ca. The plan describes our current energy use and shows how “Big Moves” can make a difference to energy use and the carbon pollution that contributes to global warming. The plan is going before councils for adoption, and we want them to hear from community members encouraging them to adopt and implement the plan without delay.

We asked you for your input to help improve the plan and set priorities through webinars, discussions and an online survey. Thank you to the hundreds of people who took part in these community input opportunities.

How We Got Here

Thousands of local community members, businesses, and organizations showed their support for their local governments to take leadership toward renewable energy. In response, communities in the West Kootenay region officially signed the Renewable Kootenays pledge to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Neighbours United worked in close collaboration with our nine partners to help make the pledge into a reality. The result is the West Kootenay Renewable Energy Plan, which identifies the actions that local governments will take and measures how much impact the actions will have on carbon pollution and energy use.

The plan includes actions to:

Accelerate the switch to electric vehicles
Help people move beyond the car with public and active transportation
Retrofit existing buildings to reduce their energy use
Adopt proven, available technologies to improve new buildings
Make our economy more circular by reducing, refusing, re-using and recycling
Generate more renewable energy in our region

We support 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

Is your group already a supporter and would like to double your impact? Click here to see how you can give today.

Castlegar

Creston

Kaslo

Kaslo Adventure Centre
Kaslo Chamber of Commerce
Kaslo infoNet Society
Figments Fine Canadian Crafts
Langham Cultural Centre
Periwinkle Children’s Centre
Sarah Lawless Pottery
Scarlett’s Electric
Sunnyside Naturals
The Sentinel Wellness and Retreat Centre

Nelson

Riondel

Yasodhara Ashram

Rossland

Salmo

Kootenay Roads Mobile Spa

Silverton

Slocan Valley

New Denver

Carmanah Strategies
Oso Solar
Silversmith Power & Light Corporation

Trail

West Kootenay

Winlaw

Gaia Tree Whole Foods

Add Your Business

We are doing it.

Over 100 businesses and organizations have signed on to the call to transition to 100% renewable energy. Local groups from hospitality to technology, consultants, health services, faith communities and many others recognize that the transition to 100% renewable energy is a crucial step to a cleaner, healthier and more responsible future.

When we get the support of residents, local businesses and organizations to transition West Kootenay towns to 100% renewable energy, then our decision-makers will have the support to be leaders in the climate crisis and make the necessary policy changes, allocate resources appropriately, and incentivize long term clean energy sector jobs.

We are organizing community leaders like you to be involved.

Will your business or organization be a part of the movement for a brighter, cleaner, more responsible future?

Resources

Implementing a Fair Transition to 100% Renewable Energy Report

Neighbours United conducted interviews with 105 low-income people, racialized, and other community members through autumn 2021 – winter 2022 across the West Kootenay region. Neighbours United aimed to learn about interviewees basic needs, especially housing and transportation, in implementing the 100% renewable energy transition.

Read our report.

100% Renewable Energy in Your Community Playbook & Toolkit

People are at the heart of the climate crisis. To avoid the worst climate impacts we need to make, implement & enforce policy that makes life better for more people.

The playbook is a guide to develop the bottom up support in your community for climate action. It provides the clear steps to develop a local government climate action plan for the residents and the decision-makers in your community.

100% Renewable is 100% possible!

Read our summary of what we are doing with our communities to achieve 100% renewable Kootenays by 2050.

100% Renewable Energy Model for the West Kootenays

The West Kootenays can transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. We did energy modeling to show what the energy mix looks like to achieve 100% renewable energy based.

Read the technical report to learn more about our methodology 100% Renewable Energy Model for the West Kootenays.

The West Kootenay Community Energy and Infrastructure Report

The West Kootenay Community Energy and Infrastructure Report outlines local communities’ residential carbon pollution, and what each community is doing to transition off fossil fuels and onto renewable energy.

We know that our communities want to move towards renewable energy. This report will be a tool for communities to look at where they are at with energy efficiency and renewable energy and help establish a baseline to measure progress moving forwards.

Want to know more about how we gathered information for this report? Read the Technical Report

Your Municipality & Climate Action

There is much your local government can do to mitigate the effects of climate change. To help local governments, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has created a series of videos called Climate in Focus. Featuring mayors, councillors and climate experts including our own Montana Burgess, these five videos outline the steps we can take to help their municipality become more climate resilient.

Watch the videos here.

Canadian Cities for 100% Renewable Energy

21 local governments have passed resolutions for the transition to 100% renewable energy at the community-level, including 14 in the Kootenay region. Who will be next?

Inventories of jurisdictions of cities with 100% renewable energy (RE) targets: