Sustainability

Buildings are the third‑largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, following the oil and gas and transportation sectors.

The Town of New Tecumseth’s 2025-2029 Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan outlines a long‑term commitment to reducing energy use, lowering costs, and building a culture of energy awareness across the organization.

Our Vision:

• To “reduce energy consumption and mitigate costs through the wise use of energy” and to “increase conservation awareness and a better understanding of energy management within the corporation.”

Our Goal: 

• Enhance overall staff understanding of energy and water conservation. 
• Implement building envelope upgrades and energy‑efficient retrofits at priority facilities to reduce overall usage and operating costs.
• Integrate this plan with the Town’s Climate Change Action Plan to better align climate and energy initiatives for stronger, more coordinated outcomes.

Energy Reduction Targets

To achieve the Plan’s goals and objectives, the Town has established the following targets:

• Energy Use: Reduce overall facility energy consumption by 2% over five years (2025-2029) and by 10% by 2035.
• Water Use: Reduce water consumption by 2% over five years (2025-2029) and by 10% by 2035.
• Fleet Fuel Use: Reduce fuel consumption by 1,520 litres per vehicle per year by transitioning fleet vehicles to hybrid/electric options over five years (2025-2029) — equivalent to approximately 3.38 tonnes of GHG emissions reduced per vehicle.

 Small Actions. Big Impacts - Do your part for New Tecumseth!

Save energy, save money, and shrink your carbon footprint by making small changes at home. By combining energy‑efficient upgrades with simple day‑to‑day conservation habits, you can lower your utility bills and reduce your environmental impact. Here are a few easy ways to get started:

• By 2051, the Town of New Tecumseth is expected to reach a total population of approximately 81,000, welcoming over 40,000 new residents and over 31,600 total jobs. This growth presents a unique opportunity to create healthy, prosperous and environmentally sustainable communities through community design.
• Community design encompasses all elements of our built and natural environment – our homes, commercial and retail properties, schools, neighbourhoods, landscaped spaces, streetscapes, parks and urban forests, and our infrastructure needs – transportation systems, water, wastewater and stormwater management systems and green infrastructure.
• Sustainable community design is holistic, maximizing social, economic and environmental benefits. It reduces the negative impacts of climate change and protects and promotes agricultural spaces and green spaces. It creates opportunites for local jobs and livelihoods.
• The way communities are designed can improve physical health and well-being, as well as mental health.For example, compact, complete and connected communities make it easier for people to use active and non-polluting forms of transportation, such as walking, cycling, wheeling or using mobility aids, to get around and to access the services they need. Health benefits include more climate-resilient communities and people!
• Complete communities include mixed-use neighbourhoods that offer equitable access to necessities for daily living for people of all ages and abilities. Complete communities promote walkability, foster social interactions, boost opportunities for local businesses, and increase environmental sustainability by reducing dependence on car transportation and encouraging sustainable mobility.

As we recognize and celebrate significant calendar events in the month of March – take some time to learn about New Tecumseth’s community design plans to create sustainable and complete communities, and consider actions you can take to foster environmental sustainability around your home and in your neighbourhood.

Resources:

Town of New Tecumseth Urban Design Guidelines

Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit. Healthy Community Design Policy Statements for Official Plans

Town of New Tecumseth Multi-Modal Active Transportation Master Plan

Government of Ontario. Provincial Planning Statement, 2024

• The creation of sustainable, complete, connected, and compact communities, through healthy community design principles, is a key focus of the Town policies and plans, including the Official Plan, Urban Design Guidelines, Strategic Plan, Community Climate Action Plan, and many more!
• The Official Plan recognizes complete communities as part of the Town’s vision to guide future growth and development.
• The overarching principle of the Town’s Urban Design Guidelines is to design new communities, sites and buildings to improve overall sustainability by integrating economic, social and environmental benefits.
• New Tecumseth’s Strategic Plan includes a commitment to create complete communities that are livable, environmentally sustainable, inclusive and contribute to a vibrant local economy.
• Town of New Tecumseth’s Community Climate Action Plan includes actions to promote sustainable communities, including promoting best practices for sustainable building and community design in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from development, ensure more efficient use of municipal infrastructure and achieve other community benefits including better health and wellbeing.

• Take advantage of the healthy community design features that make it easier for you to live more sustainably in New Tecumseth. Support local businesses. Use non-polluting forms of transportation as much as possible. If you have to drive, plan ahead to combine multiple errands in one trip.
• Get to know your community and examine the design elements of your neighbourhood. Do they support or detract from the concepts of healthy communities and environmental sustainability? Are there places for both formal and informal social interactions such as parks, street benches, community gardens? How many destinations (e.g., shops, public transit, parks, etc.) can you readily access by walking, cycling or using mobility aids?
• Practice healthy community design and environmental sustainability in your own backyard. Plant a native garden to attract pollinators and climate-resiliency. Create a rain garden to reduce stormwater runoff. Install rain barrels for watering the garden and reduce stress on municipal water systems. Install a compost bin for organic waste and feed your garden.
• Support and participate in community initiatives such as tree planting and “Pitch-in Canada” events to help clean up the community.

• There are many ways you can live more sustainably, and the Town of New Tecumseth is here to help!
• This year we are celebrating our third annual Earthfest – April 27to May 2!                      
• Greenspace such as parks, street trees, urban and rural forests, greenways, trails, community gardens and naturalized school grounds, to name a few, provide many benefits to the health and well-being of our communities.
• Greening our community through tree planting, preservation of parks and natural areas, green infrastructure projects, and related initiatives:
  • Provides protection from climate hazards including extreme heat, air pollution and flooding
  • Increases access to recreation, social connections and physical activity
  • Helps tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss New Tecumseth’s Official Plan includes several policies aimed at protecting natural heritage features such as wetlands, rivers and streams, woodlands, wildlife habitat and linkages, and fish habitat. For example, the Official Plan specifies the requirement for planting trees as a condition of development approvals.

• Earthfest 2026!
  
• With funding from the Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Town of New Tecumseth is embarking on several projects to increase tree canopy cover and build climate resilience, including planting microforests, food forests, and street trees.
• Trees and Urban Forestry: The Town recognizes the significance of trees as green infrastructure and what they provide for the community and environment. It further considers preservation, protection, and enhancement of the Urban Forest of the highest importance.  The three pillars of preservation, protection, and enhancement are significant initiatives to recognizing the benefits trees and the natural contributions they provide to the community.
• Urban Forest Protection: The Town has adopted a Tree Management Policy  along with a  set of Technical Tree Guidelines that provides both strategic goals and the details to protect and preserve trees with requirements for residents, developers, or anyone within the Town.  Complementing this is the Tree Bylaw which provides the “teeth” to ensure our urban forest is protected as it continues to provide benefits for our growing community. As well, there is a  Tree Permit Application for any resident who wishes to perform work on a Town tree. The permit is free for those who are looking to improve the tree while providing a compensation formula for those who may need to remove a Town tree.
• Urban Forest Preservation: The Town is constantly working towards enhancing its urban forest to reach a canopy cover of 30%.  Funds are available under the Urban Forest Enhancement Rebate Program for residents maintain and plant trees on private property.
• Urban Forest Enhancement: As part of its commitment to environmental stewardship, the Town has created a Microforest Program and Food Forest Program. It is revitalizing a portion of Hillcrest Park with a native-based Microforest, and plans are underway for a food forest.  Watch for future planting sites in Alliston and Tottenham coming this year!

• Commit to conscious consumption. Learn more at Earth Day Canada. Take at least one action every day to live more sustainably.
• Sign up for a community garden plot at the Alliston Community Garden – April 11 to 18.
• Join one of the three horticultural societies in our community. Find the one closest to you here.
• Volunteer to water a recently planted boulevard tree. Under the Watering Bag Program, and while quantities last, the Town provides street tree watering bags to residents willing to water a boulevard tree that was planted in the last two years.
• Install a rain barrel and save money! If you own or rent a home in New Tecumseth you can get up to $50 off when buying a rain barrel.
• Challenge yourself to get out in nature to discover a natural feature you haven’t experienced before.
• Fight Dirty! Participate in Spring Clean Up – April 12^th to 26^th . Watch for details about clean up events happening in your ward.
• Learn more about these important “healthy planet” concepts and start a conversation with family and friends about how we can all take action for climate resiliency and environmental sustainability – planetary boundaries, circular economy, carbon footprint, greenwashing, conscious consumption.

Check out the international observance days that celebrate and encourage action for living sustainably.

• • Buildings that are climate-resilient not only protect our investments and save on operation and maintenance costs, they also help protect people and the planet. Whether it’s our homes, offices, schools, recreation centres, shops or town halls, there are many ways to increase building resiliency.
  • A climate-resilient building has the capacity to continue to function and operate under extreme conditions, such as extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall events, tornados and other damaging windstorms, power outages, wildfires, sea level rise, and other climate-related disasters.
  • Building resiliency = climate resiliency. As the built environment increasingly faces climate change impacts, it is imperative that buildings are designed, constructed, retrofitted and maintained to provide protection from these climate hazards.
  • With the building sector contributing about 12% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions we have an opportunity to both mitigate and help adapt to climate change through new builds and building upgrades and retrofits. On the mitigation side, energy efficient buildings produce less greenhouse gas emissions. A net-zero-emissions building is highly energy-efficient by design and uses only non-emitting energy for heat and power. Learn more at the top of the page for our Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction! 
  • On the adaptation side, the structural integrity and durability of buildings increases resiliency to climate-related weather events – both extreme events such as heavy rainfall and incremental changes such as sea level rise. The building envelope (foundation, exterior walls, roof) provides the first line of defence from weather conditions, and an opportunity to incorporte energy efficiency and climate resiliency features. Energy efficient building systems (e.g., mechanical systems (HVAC), plumbing systems, electrical systems) increases climate-resilience, sustainability and cost savings.
  • Canada’s Green Building Strategy outlines actions to transform Canada’s buildings sector for a “net-zero and resilient future”, including actions to “accelerate retrofits” and “build green and affordable from the start.”

• New Tecumseth’s Official Plan and Urban Design Guidelines include policies that support climate mitigation and climate adaptation through building design.
• The Town’s Official Plan encourages sustainable building design when applications to develop or redevelop are submitted. Sustainable building design “pertains to the environmental performance of building elements and strategies”, for example energy use and emissions, energy and water conservation, sustainable use of materials, indoor environmental quality and ecological impact.
• The overarching principle of the Town’s Urban Design Guidelines is to design new communities, sites and buildings to improve overall sustainability by integrating economic, social and environmental benefits.
• The Urban Design Guidelines encourages building resiliency measures that have co-benefits of climate mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and climate adaptation. For example:
  • “Blue roof/green roof” systems to capture, store and slowly release rainwater to reduce the rate of stormwater runoff and mitigate flood events
  • “Cool roofs” (light coloured and planted green roofs) to reduce radiated heat (heat island effect)
  • Retrofitting buildings, recognizing the environmental and economic benefits of re-using existing materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, generating less waste and increasing the resiliency of existing buildings
  • Consideration of micro-climatic conditions such as solar access, wind and water management to minimize the environmental footprint of a project, generate renewable energy and maximize the comfort for users.
• The Town’s Engineering Design Criteria and Standards consider resilient infrastructure design that minimizes flooding risks and the impacts of intense heat e.g., green infrastructure such as green roofs and grassed swales. The Drainage Master Plan provides a long-term flood mitigation strategy to improve the Town’s drainage system and reduce flood risks to properties, public safety and the environment. These strategies also protect our homes, schools, commercial and public buildings from flooding. 

• Here are a few examples of measures to make your home more climate-resilient:
  • Flood prevention: Install a backwater valve, grade landscape away from the foundation, extend downspouts, test sump pump regularly, and clean out eavestroughs and nearby storm drains
  • Wildfire and wildfire smoke protection: Consider fire-resistant exterior cladding and fire retardant roofing material such as metal asphalt; consider upgrades to ventilation systems that are capable of filtering fine particulate matter and  controlling air exchange rate, clean roof gutters, replace worn weather stripping, fireproof around the home by clearing shrubs and other combustable material from around the foundation.
  • Extreme temperature protection: Maintain safe indoor temperatures with energy efficient cooling systems (e.g., heat pumps), install window shading, ensure adequate building insulation, consider cool (light-coloured) roofing materials to reduce radiant heat absorption.
  • Power supply: Consider a standby emergency battery backup system, or generator
  • High Winds/Storm protection: Install hurricane-resistant shutters, hurricane straps, fasteners to roof sheathing.
    
    

• Here are some helpful resources:
  • Climate Ready Homes. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. 
  • Climate-Ready Infographics – Extreme Heat, Flooding, Wildfire, Working with Nature. Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation.
    
  • Resiliency Measures to Protect Your Home. Natural Resources Canada
    
  • Climate Resilience Guide. Housing Design Catalogue, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
    
  • Climate Resilient Home Guide. City of Edmonton.
    
  • Climate-resilient homes and safer communities. Insurance Bureau of Canada.