Think Globally, Produce (and Reduce) Locally

April 22, 2020 │Steve Winkelman

This is the third in a series of blog posts exploring how lessons from the response to the coronavirus pandemic might help accelerate climate action. 1) We Pressed Pause. What’s Next? 2) Mobilizing against COVID 19 (by staying put), 3) Think Globally, Produce (& Reduce) Locally, 4) Prepare and Prevent, 5) Green Reboot?

As I noted in my introductory blog in this series, the coronavirus pandemic has given us a new perspective on what is essential (health, family, community, food, shelter, compassion…) and what we depend upon to survive and thrive (science, hospitals, jobs, electricity, water, internet, reliable information…). Many of us are thinking more carefully about our spending and consumption – what we can and can’t afford now, what we miss.

Waste not, want not. On this 50th Earth Day we have an opportunity to consider what we’ve actually been fine without, what we could use less of, what we can make ourselves and what can be produced locally.

Increasing local production, reducing consumption, increasing end-use efficiency and diversifying supply chains can help us weather the storm of the pandemic and enhance our resilience to the climate tsunami. In this blog I share some ideas, data and examples on: 1) Local Food, 2) Local Energy and 3) Local Manufacturing and Global Supply Chains.

Preparedness Not Protectionism
I am not calling for protectionism or a halt to international trade. We live in a connected world and international collaboration is essential for managing the pandemic and advancing a just transition to a climate-safe economy. Imports and exports each account for about one-third of Canada’s $1.7 trillion (CAD) economy — some $600 billion (CAD) of goods and services coming and going each year. Everywhere can’t specialize in everything: they can’t make maple syrup in Europe, we’re not going to grow a lot of pineapples in Quebec.

 What I am suggesting is that we:

• Reflect upon what we’re importing into our countries, provinces/states, cities and communities.

• Consider what we might be able to consume less of and what can be home grown.

• Adapt, prepare and plan for current risks, reduce known vulnerabilities and increase self-reliance.

Historically we’ve seen productivity efficiencies with geographic specialization – think Silicon Valley for computers and software, Detroit for cars. But that’s changing as tech companies flourish around the world — including e-commerce leader Shopify in Ottawa, and video gaming companies in Montreal (gaming is second only to online grocers in attracting consumer spending during the pandemic). LION is making electric buses in Quebec. And 3D printing is a growing market poised to make manufacturing of all sorts of products ubiquitous – and even has a role to play in personal protective equipment.

1. LOCAL FOOD: Produce, Reduce, Repurpose

Transportation emissions account for some 6% to 12% of lifecycle GHGs from food, but can vary greatly depending on the type of food growing conditions, transport mode, etc. Wasted food accounts for about 25% of lifeycle GHG emissions from food production. Another 24% of food GHGs arise from conversion of native habitats and forests to food production.

Local food production, such as Montreal’s Lufa Farms with year-round roof-top gardens and a network of local farmers, cuts transportation emissions and provides local jobs. And there is tremendous potential for increasing their contribution to local food supply.

“Our hydroponic rooftop farms are very efficient. We would only need to convert the rooftops of 19 average-sized shopping centres to grow enough veggies for all of Montreal. Every new greenhouse we build gets bigger, better, lighter, and cheaper, so that urban rooftop farms can become a must when building new structures.” – Lufa Farms

Looking beyond urban rooftops, Quebec Premier François Legault recently floated the idea of using excess hydropower to warm greenhouses to allow for year-round cultivation of fruits and vegetables and reduce imports.

Community gardens have been deemed essential services in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Just Food, the Ottawa Board of Health and Sustain Ontario are advocating for the same treatment in Ontario (as opposed to designation as recreational spaces). In the US, North Carolina has prepared COVID-19 FAQs for Community Gardens to safely maintain these essential services.

Climate Victory Gardens! Green America has put together a toolkit to support development of regenerative Climate Victory Gardens. They point out that during World War II victory gardens provided 40% of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the US. In Quebec, Équiterre has provided guidance for urban home gardening. And Victoria, BC has assigned Parks staff to start growing seedlings to give to residents.

Farmers face major challenges in the face of the pandemic: access to labour, loss of restaurant and wholesale buyers and getting their products to market. Some are resorting to destroying fresh food that they can’t sell and that food banks can’t accommodate. And some solutions are emerging:

• Quebec has a new $45 million provincial program that boosts farm worker wages to attract young people to help with cultivation in the absence of migrant workers.

• A number of wholesalers are opening up to the retail shoppers (e.g., Restaurant Depot in San Francisco) or home deliver (e.g., CanAm in Montreal).

• Some farmers’ markets are closed during the pandemic (e.g., Ottawa), while others have instituted mandatory hand-washing and social distancing policies (e.g., Montreal).

• And some restaurants are carrying  basic groceries, sometimes with curb side pick up. An Italian restaurant in my neighbourhood, Pasta Casareccia, has converted their dining space into a small grocery store with fresh produce, eggs, flour and, of course, pasta.

Food waste reduction can take a bite out of the 58% of food that is wasted in Canada (worth $49 billion/yr) and cut GHGs. Circular economy companies like LOOP rescue “perfectly imperfect” food industry discards to make juice, gin, beer, soap and even dog food. A Finnish grocery store has introduced happy hours with lower prices to get perishables off the shelf while they’re still fresh.

2. LOCAL ENERGY RESILIENCE

Electricity demand and risk of power outages. With most businesses and industries shuttered, global electricity use has declined by about 15% (10% in Ontario), despite increased residential and hospital energy use. While low demand takes pressure off the grid, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, points out that major blackouts can occur during periods of low demand (balancing supply and demand can be challenging when system operators lose flexibility such as dialing down industrial use).

Image: Noun project, NeMaria, RU 

We are fortunate that the pandemic and social distancing requirements have not coincided with peak seasonal demand for heating or cooling, or ice storms — which could increase both the potential for outages and their negative impacts. But the wildfire season is approaching in California, drought conditions persist and there are concerns as to how COV1D-19 may constrain firefighters. And climate change is a threat multiplier for power outages due to increasing extreme weather events, aging equipment and higher demand for cooling.

Distributed generation (DG) refers to decentralized electricity production that is closer to the end-user. Bringing supply closer to demand can decrease power losses and reduce the risk of disruptions. And distributed renewable energy sources also reduce carbon and air pollution. A recent study indicates that DG could reduce losses from power outages by 20% with a 5:1 benefit-to-cost ratio (Rose 2017).

Distributed energy resources refer to a broader set of strategies including generation, combined heat and power, efficiency, demand management and storage (thermal, battery). These can be integrated into neighbourhood or campus-scale microgrids and district energy systems which can further enhance resilience and cut GHGs.

Residential Energy Resilience

A combination of energy efficiency, rooftop solar and battery storage can significantly extend the amount of time that a residence can function during a power outage, with on-site generation supporting only critical loads such as refrigerator, lighting and internet.

Image: Noun Project, Laymik, UA

• Weathering power outages. Most of us are spending a lot more time at home. How long could you comfortably and safely stay in your house without electricity or heat? A sustained outage would be difficult for most of us. A traditional strategy is to use diesel generators targeted to critical circuits to power essential loads (e.g., refrigerator). But diesel generators emit pollution that harms our health and climate and should be phased out and replaced with low-carbon solutions such as solar. But before you climb up on your roof to install PVs don’t forget to insulate it first — the cheapest kilowatt hours are the ones you displace though energy efficiency.

• Energy efficiency measures, such as better insulation and heat pumps, can significantly cut our energy bills and reduce GHGs. When implemented community-wide they can reduce stress on distribution systems, thereby enhancing overall system resilience.

• Passive solar design refers to the use of the sun’s energy for heating and cooling by designing spaces to maximize exposure to the sun during the heating season, and minimizing it during the cooling season. In northern latitudes, windows can be design to allow sunlight to enter in the winter when the sun is low on the horizon, but block it in the summer when the sun is high in the sky. (In southern latitudes buildings have been designed passively-solar for millennia, but with the availability of air-conditioning, modern designs often fail to include this low-cost strategy.)

• Deep energy retrofits entail comprehensive building overhauls to improve thermal and HVAC system efficiencies and can cut energy use by more than 50%. Even with deep retrofits residences are still vulnerable to power outages, but more efficient buildings can maintain tolerable temperature for longer periods of time.

Ralph Torrie and Céline Bak have put forth an exciting proposal for deep retrofits of Canadian homes and workplaces: Build Back Better. Their bold idea is to retrofit 60% of Canadian buildings, creating 220,000 jobs, cutting 87 million tons of CO2. The price tag? $26 billion. The energy savings? 30 billion. (For context, they point out that Canadians currently spend $60 billion per year renovating their homes and $30 billion to heat, cool and power them.) This critical federal investment in efficiency would cut energy costs, increase home values and enhance resilience.

• Roof top solar. Adding on-site renewables (or connection to a community solar garden) can further enhance resilience, especially when targeted to critical circuits. But without battery storage, PV systems are automatically switched off to prevent utility workers from being electrocuted.

• Battery Storage systems, such as the Tesla Power Wall, on their own can only power a house for about 10-15 hours, so would be targeted to critical loads (fridge, lights, internet – not heating and cooling).

• Solar + Storage. But combining solar and storage can buy you more time. Tesla claims 7+ days.  NREL and the Clean Energy Group have examined the economics of solar + storage solutions for commercial buildings and have developed a tool to optimize sizing of PV and battery systems.

• Net-zero homes produce as much energy as they consume through a combination of measures high energy efficiency (up to 80% > conventional homes), on-site renewables (e.g., PV and/or passive solar) and energy management systems. They can provide full resilience to power outages. Rocky Mountain Institute indicates a modest 7-8% incremental cost for these homes, which are starting to hit the US housing market. For more information, check out the new Zero Carbon Building Standard (2.9) from the Canada Green Building Council.
  

3. LOCAL MANUFACTURING & GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS

Image: Noun Project, Gregor Cresnar

Global Supply Chains: Embedded Carbon and Risks
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted vulnerabilities of single-sourcing (e.g., from China) and global supply chains. Global market “efficiencies” predicated upon short-term profits, cheap fossil fuels and cheap labour cost us dearly – especially at times of crisis. All of the associated movement of ships, planes, trains and trucks exacerbates the climate emergency, and can cloak embedded carbon (C40 found urban GHGs to be 60% higher when the upstream emissions of imported goods are taken into account). (Imported food and products can also carry a high water footprint, essentially exporting water from areas with scarce water supplies thereby exacerbating their climate vulnerability.) 

• "When COVID-19 comes around, disrupting that flow of goods around the world, we are faced with a reckoning that the ‘cheap’ goods may not be so cheap after all." — Noah Goldstein, Guidehouse (quoted in GreenBiz).

• “’If we shrink supply chains, if countries are going to produce more of their own goods, I think that is structurally going to reduce oil demand’ and shrink shipping’s carbon footprint.” — Amy Myers Jaffe, Council on Foreign Relations (quoted in Yale E360).

We may need to shift from “Just in Time” acquisition to “Just in Case” contingency planning (as Marco Rubio put it) – looking beyond quarterly corporate earnings and putting greater emphasis on long-term, collective resilience.

When we import goods we export money and import embedded carbon. So why not minimize the dollars we’re expatriating and reduce the associated emissions?

• Experts at organizations such as Recast City help communities foster small-scale, local manufacturing as an economic and community development strategy.

• Buy Local. Initiatives such as Quebec’s Le Panier Bleu and lists of local buying opportunities (e.g., La Presses’s #achetezlocal) help local consumers and producers find each other.

• Share, Reuse, Repair. Building upon, and moving beyond the classic thrift shop model there are numerous local initiatives, to repair, reuse, exchange and sell used goods that help reduce the need to manufacture and transport new goods. Some examples include ShareReuseRepair and a zero-waste asset map in Vancouver, and the DonateNYC program, which includes an on-line tool for donating or finding a wide variety go goods.

• DIY Face masks. With the recent US CDC recommendation to wear face masks in public, advice is flourishing on how to make your own face mask, with information on designs and materials from a wide variety of DIY, media, health and science websites, including: Pinterest, CDC, New York Times, Johns Hopkins University and Georgia Tech. There has also been call-to-arms in the “Maker” world to 3D-print face masks and shields for health care workers – as well as some caveats about their risks. Chances are good that you’ve made your own mask or know someone who has (just please don’t make it out of hoarded toilet paper.)

• Medical equipment. Canada is a net importer of medical equipment and supplies (-$5.6 billion). Producing more N95 respirators and ventilators in Canada would be a great example of Just-in-Case preparedness.

• Food. Canada is a net exporter of oilseed and grains ($17 billion) and a net importer of fruits and vegetables (-$8.5 billion).  While I can certainly survive without cheap access to tropical fruit I’d rather not eat canned peaches all winter. But, as discussed above, there’s a whole lot that can be grown year round, even in the frozen North.

• Motor vehicles. Canada is a net exporter of motor vehicles and transportation equipment: we export $100 billion and import $135 billion per year. If we import and manufacture higher-efficiency vehicles and more electric vehicles, we can reduce oil expenditures, cut GHGs and be better positioned to compete in and accelerate green economy. And if we redesign our cities to be more people-centered and less car-dependent we won’t need to import as many cars and SUVs.

• Energy Imports. Canada imported $41 billion of oil and gas in 2019. Quebec imported a net $10 billion in fossil fuels in 2019 from domestic and international sources. As Philippe Dunsky points out, shifting those expenditures to energy efficiency investments (building retrofits, electric vehicles, transit, walk, bike, 15-minute communities) would help us cut energy costs, restart the economy, and position workers and companies to thrive in the growing green economy.

• Energy Exports.

  • Oil and gas. Canada exported $120 billion of oil and gas in 2019. With the global reduction in oil demand and collapsing global oil market (and even negative oil prices) we need to quickly transition away from fossil fuels — and create new low-carbon, high-quality jobs (including clean-up of abandoned wells). [See my forthcoming Green Reboot blog for more ideas.]

  • Hydro-electricity. On a greener note, Quebec exported about $1 billion of electricity to the US. Premier Legault hopes to increase exports and Quebec as the green battery of North America. Major energy efficiency improvements will be essential for increasing electricity exports while also preparing for growing demand due to electrification of vehicles and buildings.

• HVAC. Canada is a net importer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment (-$4.8 billion). Why shouldn’t Canada be a world leader in producing heat pumps that even in cold climates can cut home heating energy use by 30% to 50%, reduce air conditioning bills and cut GHG emissions?  We’re not talking rocket science here — this is 19th century technology of heat exchangers and compressors (albeit with more sophisticated electronic controls and better refrigerants). The Atmospheric Fund has some helpful resources on heat pumps, including this introductory video.


14-day Communities
We’ve all been reminded how important it is to have a couple weeks of basic supplies, food, clean water, soap, medicine, etc. Reducing consumption by increasing end-use energy efficiency, reducing waste, consuming less and producing more locally makes it easier to sustain a community if external supplies are disrupted. Travel-efficient “15-minute neighbourhoods” in which people can live, work, shop, and access basic needs by foot or bike are a core ingredient.

I’ll explore this idea further, as well as infrastructure resilience, in my next blog installment: Prepare and Prevent, which considers how better planning, design and spending can reduce vulnerabilities and help us to survive and thrive in the face of health and climate crises.

Keep it local.

This is the third in a series of blog posts exploring how lessons from the response to the coronavirus pandemic might help accelerate climate action. 1) We Pressed Pause. What’s Next? 2) Mobilizing against COVID-19 (by staying put), 3) Think Globally, Produce (& Reduce ) Locally, 4) Prepare and Prevent, 5) Green Reboot?