‘Cool Neighbourhoods’ come together to cut emissions in B.C.

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It all started with a backyard cookout.

Screenwriter Tarah Stafford figured a fun, informal get-together was the easiest way to begin a conversation with her neighbours about slowing down the greenhouse-gas emissions of Eagle Island, a sleepy community of 31 homes about a seven-minute drive and 30-second barge ride south of Horseshoe Bay. She says she knew that, apart from cost, one of the main reasons people don't reduce their own energy consumption is because making the changes is "boring."

"So I said, 'OK, we're going to have a party,' and that way people can come, they can have a barbecue and a glass of wine – or however many they want – and it can be a convivial, nice experience for them," Ms. Stafford says from her lush garden on the tiny island. "It's not like going to a meeting."

From that initial dinner party in 2010 involving about eight neighbours plus the District of West Vancouver's sustainability guru and an energy auditor, a movement grew that eventually saw 26 homes in the community take concrete steps to greater energy efficiency.

The model first championed by the industrious Ms. Stafford now involves a total of 320 houses and 14 other "Cool Neighbourhoods," as North Shore governments have dubbed the block-by-block approach to retrofitting homes with the help of volunteers. Collectively they eliminate about 387 tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions a year, or the equivalent energy of about 900 barrels of oil, Ms. Stafford says.

Her neighbour Steve Follett bought a home about 3 1/2 years ago, when Eagle Island had already started becoming a Cool Neighbourhood. The lawyer has since spent about $30,000 retrofitting his home with a new heat pump, an on-demand water heater and a high-efficiency gas freezer. He is also the only resident with a solar-powered barge. He says the islanders may have a funky edge, but they are "not a bunch of hippies" and represent a wide range of people, from those on fixed incomes to an airline pilot and a retired mining executive.

Ms. Stafford concurs, saying Eagle Island's success can be replicated in different ways in other communities because there are many simple, cheap actions people can take – like caulking and sealing your house – that can reduce emissions by about 20 per cent.

This approach of co-operation and friendly competition between neighbours and family members was found to be one of the most effective ways to get Canadians concerned about global warming to change their own consumption habits, according to the lead author of a recent study.

Soon after Ms. Stafford's informative feast, the owners of 24 homes e-mailed her asking for a $100 energy audit that tested for drafts and leaking heat and also provided an energy rating for furnaces and hot water heaters.

Next, the West Vancouver Fire Department volunteered to visit each home with its thermal-imaging camera, a tool normally used to help firefighters see through dark, smoke-filled areas to find victims or the seat of a blaze.

"It was a very good benefit for the fire department because they also got to go in and do a little fire safety speech to people that they wouldn't normally get to do," Ms. Stafford says. "The fact that they do it for free is one of the reasons that people do [retrofit their homes], and it's the first step.

"Having a visual of something makes you think about it."

Utility company FortisBC donated 20 boxes of caulking, and Ms. Stafford then reached out to students in the B.C. Institute of Technology's construction program to volunteer and complete the sealing as part of their work experience.

It is very important in the beginning to make it as free as possible for a homeowner to join the movement, she says. "Very low-interest" loans from Vancity credit union help people pay for retrofits by accruing savings in their utility bills. And "buyers' clubs" of five or more people can get deals on expensive items such as high-efficiency furnaces, she adds.

"Lots of people who start off doing it aren't doing it because they're looking for an environmental thing to do or something to make a difference," she says. "They're doing it because the neighbourhood invited them."

Now Ms. Stafford and a handful of others sit on a volunteer advisory board for Cool Neighbourhoods that fields all sorts of questions from those in and outside the 15 participating communities. And she has almost finished writing a manual that will help curious neighbours come together to cut emissions on their block.

"There's just so little time for people to figure these things out, then either a lack of knowledge or way too much knowledge because of the Internet," she says. "People have told me stories of, 'Well, I had, like, 20 different options to choose from, and by the time I got through looking at all of them I just said: I can't do this, I'm giving up.' "