Overview

Columbia Power takes pride in working to develop a culture of Corporate Sustainability with initiatives to encourage awareness and opportunities for staff and community engagement. We are actively involved with stakeholders on environmental issues associated with our projects. Columbia Power also supports local environmental groups and initiatives.

Corporate Sustainability Initiatives

White Sturgeon Recovery

The population of White Sturgeon in the Columbia River is listed as Endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act. Potential project impacts on sturgeon were a focus of the environmental assessments of our projects. Columbia Power is an active member of the Upper Columbia White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative and has programs to monitor sturgeon in the vicinity of our facilities. Some of our facilities are pioneering mitigation measures to minimize any impact our facilities may have on sturgeon.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification

Columbia Power completed a renovation of its office in Castlegar, BC in 2010. In keeping with the commitment to sustainability, the renovations were done to the LEED Gold standard and were certified in 2011.

Slocan Pools Conservation Property

Columbia Power owns approximately 18.5 hectares on the west shore of the Kootenay River near South Slocan known as the Slocan Pools property. The land was acquired from Cominco (now Teck) along with expansion rights to the Brilliant and Waneta dams in 1994 by the Province, and was then given to Columbia Power to manage in 1998. The site has a rich cultural history and is home to a diverse number of plant and animal species. It is maintained in an essentially unaltered state with walking trails that are heavily used by the public.

Carbon Neutral Reporting

Under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, the BC public sector must be carbon neutral in its operations for 2010 and every year thereafter. As a result, a Carbon Neutral Report is prepared by Columbia Power that calculates the amount of Greenhouse Gas emissions are produced by the corporation and the necessary offsets required for that reporting year. Columbia Power also undergoes energy and biomass conservation efforts and awareness to reduce its ecological footprint and the amount of offsets required each year.