St. Albert residents saved water, cut carbon, and trimmed their trash last year, but were still pretty far from reaching some of the city’s environmental goals, a new report suggests.
The City of St. Albert released the 2022 Environment Report Card April 18. The annual report tracks the city’s progress toward meeting goals outlined in the city’s Environmental Master Plan.
City environment manager Meghan Myers said St. Albert made strides on its goal to preserve and manage parks, trees, and natural areas last year by adding new walkways and 2,000 white spruce seedlings to the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park. The city also awarded its 148th Environmental Initiative Grant, bringing it to within spitting distance of its 2020 target of 150.
Water, trash, and carbon
City residents used just 215 L of water per person per day last year, down from 228 L the year before. The city’s per capita water use target is 200 L/day.
Myers said last year’s drop in water use was likely due to the return of the city’s rain barrel program (which this year starts May 13) and continued use of its water conservation bylaw, which requires water-efficient fixtures in homes and bans daytime sprinkler use from May 1 to Oct. 1. A bylaw coming to council later this year proposes to make that daytime watering ban apply year-round.
Myers said new trends in landscaping may also be reducing water demand, particularly a shift to front-yard gardens.
“Instead of grass, you might have potato mounds or some carrots,” she said as an example, or flowering plants to support pollinators.
St. Albert residents sent 171 tonnes less trash to the dump last year than the year before while keeping their overall waste diversion rate steady at 46 per cent, the report found. While the city once aimed to reach 75 per cent diversion by 2020, it no longer has specific numerical targets for waste diversion.
City waste and diversion operations supervisor Katie Burd said residents appeared to be making better use of their green organics carts to divert waste, with a growing number of condo complexes joining the green cart program. The city recently expanded its Styrofoam recycling program at Mike Mitchell Recycling Depot, and plans to promote grasscycling this summer to keep more grass clippings (and nutrients and water) on lawns and out of the compost bin. City council will also get the results of last year’s curbside waste audit this year, which should give them insight as to what materials could be diverted from the landfill.
The City of St. Albert cut its corporate greenhouse gas emissions by three per cent relative to 2021, bringing them 21.5 per cent below the 2008 baseline and surpassing its goal of being 20 per cent below the baseline. (The city met this goal in 2020 but missed it in 2021.)
Myers attributed the city’s success here to its ongoing efforts to improve energy efficiency, the recent activation of the Servus Place solar array, and the shutdown of Fountain Park Pool. She expected the upcoming eco-retrofit to St. Albert Place to further shrink the city's carbon footprint.
St. Albert’s community emissions were two per cent above the 2008 baseline last year, or way above the city’s target of six per cent below the baseline. Myers said she hoped the city’s Clean Energy Improvement Program and Home Energy Efficiency Grant, both of which launched late last year, would soon start trimming the community’s carbon footprint.
The 2022 environment report card can be found at stalbert.ca/city/environment/reports/report-on-the-environment.
