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Sustainability

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Sustainability

Empowering our communities means looking to the future and protecting the environment for future generations.

We partner with Alveole, an urban beekeeping organization, to maintain a pair of bee hives at our Country Squire office. The 48,000 bees provide benefits to local plant life, and our environment provides a safe space for honey bees. The two hives produced almost 200 pounds of honey last year.

48,000

bees call the two hives at our Country Squire office home.

The ongoing conservation efforts at our Country Squire office resulted in a 38 per cent decrease in electricity consumption since 2014. Both Enova offices are committed to conservation through energy-saving building features, solar arrays, and regular system maintenance.

38%

decrease in electricity consumption.

Our solar arrays at our Victoria Street and Country Squire offices returned 81,866 kWh to the grid. That’s enough electricity to power nine residential homes for a year.

81,866

kWh exported to grid from our solar arrays.

Enova employees participated in SWR’s 2023 Carbon Cleanse, a month-long employee campaign focused on sustainability. Enova employees showed their support throughout the month by eating plant-based meals, taking active transit to work (walking or cycling) and reducing their waste and water consumption.

26

employee participants and 57 submissions in the 2023 Carbon Cleanse.

Enova’s vehicle fleet includes five electric vehicles. Typical Enova vehicles travel less than 100km each day, making EVs an ideal transportation method.

4

Electric vehicles added to our fleet

Our Country Squire office is LEED Silver certified and Enova is a bronze member of Sustainable Waterloo Region (SWR). Our Country Squire office surpassed its Greenhouse Gas Emission target of 20 per cent in 2022 and reduced water usage by 76 per cent. We met our 2025 waste diversion goal of 80 per cent, as 88 per cent of our waste from the Waterloo office had been diverted from landfills by 2023. Enova is working with SWR to evaluate our future targets for emission reduction across both our facilities.

Both offices are equipped with solar arrays, which generated 612,931 kWh of electricity in 2023. That’s enough energy to power 73 homes.

Our offices have comprehensive recycling programs, including battery recycling, electronics, construction materials, cardboard and more. We also provide annual reforestation grants of $50,000 each to the City of Kitchener, the City of Waterloo, and the Townships of Woolwich, Wilmot, and Wellesley to compensate for the impact of our vegetation management program on our community tree canopies.

In 2023, we replaced four gas-powered vehicles with four new Hyundai Kona electric vehicles as part of our regular fleet management program. This expanded our electric vehicle fleet from one to five in 2023. The vehicles help decrease our fleet emissions and lower our operating costs as Kona’s cost approximately $0.02 per km.

We also expanded our available charging stations. Enova has six level 2 chargers available for public charging at our Country Squire office, with the infrastructure to expand to as many as 16 chargers in the future if demand continues to increase. 

Mike Schout Wetland, a 55-acre wetland preserve, opened to the public in summer 2023. Enova played a small role in helping the project move forward, with the donation and installation of 60 foot poles for an osprey, heron, and eagle rookery.

Fault Location, Isolation and Service Restoration Project (FLISR)

FLISR allows SCADA-controllable devices to automatically activate when a fault is detected. This activation automatically reroutes power to restore as many customers as quickly as possible after an outage. Later this year, the system will also monitor the network for sudden loss of voltage and attempt to isolate the cause and reroute power to as many customers affected as possible.

For more information on FLISR and its impact on reducing outage minutes across Enova’s service territory, visit enovapower.com/innovation.