Climate Change

The Town of Aurora has an Anti-policy that limits idling to five minutes. 

Learn more about an Idle Free Aurora now.

But why not take it one step further and turn your vehicle off if you are going to be stopped for more than 30 seconds? Greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles account for 37% of Aurora’s community emissions. For every 10 minutes of idling you cut from your life, you’ll save one pound of carbon dioxide — a harmful greenhouse gas and major contributor to climate change — from being released into the atmosphere.

The Ontario’s Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) program requires owners of large commercial, industrial, multi-unit residential and other prescribed types to report their building's energy and water consumption data to the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines.

It allows building owners to benchmark their building's energy and water consumption usage against industry trends, identify energy and water efficiency opportunities, and save money by tracking usage. Benefits of benchmarking your building’s energy and water include the ability to:

• Reduce operating costs over the long term

• Establish a baseline for measuring improvement in consumption

• Set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

• Improve energy and water conservation awareness among building owners, tenants and visitors

• Participate in green building certificate programs and other sustainability initiatives

Find more information on who needs to report and how to report it.

 The third annual Electric Vehicle Showcase was a huge success with 1700+ attendees checking out the latest options for electric vehicles and micro mobility. Visitors had the opportunity to take a test drive, a zoom around the micromobility track, chat with EV owners in our Owners' Showcase and learn about the different aspects of EVs at our Speakers' Stage.

The Community Go Green Challenge encouraged individuals, families, schools, organizations, and businesses to challenge themselves to reduce their environmental footprint. Participants had the chance to earn prizes and be inspired to make sustainable life changes.  

Aurora joined the ClimateWise Building Challenge to take action on climate change. This friendly competition amongst other York Region municipalities and local businesses supported the implementation of the Town’s corporate energy plan and its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 60 municipal buildings and 15 commercial buildings joined this friendly award and recognition competition.

Under the challenge, Aurora staff met regularly with other local municipal staff, share building operations best practices, learning from each other and receiving training on new tools available to help reduce energy consumption from municipal operations. 

The ClimateWise Building Challenge was a York Region wide,- friendly- awards and recognition competition created to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve building energy efficiency through collaboration, education, and innovation.

The Town joined the Blue Dot movement in 2016. The Blue Dot movement is a campaign based on the idea that everyone in Canada deserves the right to a healthy environment, including clean air and water, and a say in decisions that affect our health and well-being.

Town of Aurora is building a robust network of electric vehicle charging stations. Providing charging infrastructure in public spaces incentivizes the shift toward zero-emissions vehicles in Aurora and the greater GTA.

Locations:

• Joint Operations Centre, 229 Industrial Parkway North
• Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, 1400 Wellington Street East
• Aurora Town Hall, 100 John West Way
• Aurora Family Leisure Complex, 135 Industrial Parkway North
• Aurora Community Centre, 1 Community Centre Lane
• Aurora Armoury, 89 Mosley Street

An additional four chargers are also set to be installed at Aurora Town Square. The date of installation has yet to be confirmed.

Cost: $2.50 per hour

For more information and on how to access these chargers, visit: aurora.ca/evcharging.

All new facilities owned by the Town are being built to the LEED® standard (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). It is an internationally recognized green building certification system. It ensures that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving environmental performance: energy savings, water efficiency, GHG emission reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, etc.

The Joint Operations Centre (JOC) received a LEED® Gold Standard.

The Town joined the PCP program in 2018 with a Council Resolution. The program fills a five step milestone framework for the Community-level and Corporate-level GHG emissions. The Milestones include: completing a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory and forecast, setting a GHG reduction target, developing a local action plan, implementing the plan, and monitoring progress and reporting results. 

Community-level status: Milestones 1-4 completed.
Corporate-level status: Milestones 1-3 completed.

The Town achieved PCP Milestones 1 to 3 for the Community-level through the development of Aurora’s Community Energy Plan (CEP), endorsed by Council in January 2021. Developed in collaboration with a Stakeholder Working Group and feedback from the public, Aurora’s plan is progressive and wide reaching. The CEP outlines a series of strategies that achieve a 22 per cent reduction of community-level greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from 2018 levels and a 65 per cent reduction by 2050. These levels put Aurora on the path towards an 80 per cent emissions reduction by 2050. For more information visit, the Town's Community Energy Plan

The Town of Aurora is a member of the Clean Air Council (CAC), a network of municipalities and health units that work collaboratively to combat air pollution and climate change. Since 2001, CAC members have worked to make our communities more livable, competitive, and resilient through actions that reduce energy use, minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollution emissions, and make the movement of people and goods more efficient..

Ontario municipalities are working to address climate change and air pollution while also strengthening their economies. The policies needed to fight air pollution and climate change can also produce health benefits and economic growth, reduce costs, and improve social equity in our communities. The CAC presents an opportunity to take a cohesive approach, pooling research findings, expertise, and lessons learned, while enabling actions that benefit our communities and beyond.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been installed at a total of four Town facilities as a means of renewable generation and reducing the Town’s carbon footprint. Agreements are in place using the Microfit, Net Metering and lease agreement models.

Solar PV generation summary:

• Aurora Town Hall: 10 kW

• Aurora Public Library: 10 kW

• Joint Operations Centre (JOC): 36 kW

• Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex (SARC): 500 kW

The Natural Capital Asset Management Plan (NCAMP) represents an important step forward towards the continued protection and conservation of the Town’s natural areas. Natural ecological areas within Aurora provide numerous benefits that have economic, environmental, and societal value. These areas of natural capital provide benefits such as clean water supply, natural filtration of contaminants, water flow stabilization, greenhouse gas mitigation and climate resiliency, erosion control, nutrient cycling, habitat, recreation, health benefits and cultural pursuits. The NCAMP takes on a long-term outlook in the sustainability of Town-owned natural assets by incorporating them into existing asset management planning processes.

The Town renewed its ECDMP in 2024, focusing on energy conservation at Town’s owned facilities, fleet vehicles, corporate waste, streetlights and water/wastewater facilities and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2029, from a 2018 Baseline. The Town has a reduction target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This includes the Town Hall, community centres, library and other facilities that the Town owns and operates. Fleet vehicles include over 250 vehicles, heavy and light equipment for all operational divisions. In addition, the Town has been annually monitoring its energy consumption and GHG emissions since 2011. 

• Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan Update 2024-2029
• Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan Update 2019-2023
• Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan 2014-2019

The community-wide energy plan is a GHG emission inventory. It forecasts and sets GHG emission reduction targets, and developed strategies on reducing those emissions. The analysis looked at residential, commercial and industrial energy use in the Town, and estimates different energy consumption scenarios in the future.
The Town engaged a stakeholder working group to support the development of the plan, which includes experts in the field, an Aurora Town Councillor and an Aurora resident.

For more information the Community Energy Plan

The Town of Aurora has a Corporate Environmental Action Plan (CEAP), a five-year plan that will allow the Town meet its environmental goals. The plan serves to protect and enhance the natural environment, promote environmental sustainability, integrity and conservation of resources and create a practice of environmental stewardship within the community. 

 Fiver-Year Action Plans and Annual Progress Reports

• Corporate Environmental Action Plan - Progress Report 2023
• Corporate Environmental Action Plan - Progress Report 2022
• Corporate Environmental Action Plan - Progress Report 2021
• Corporate Environmental Action Plan - Progress Report 2020
• Corporate Environmental Action Plan 2018

The Town Fleet Division is electrifying the corporate fleet to produce zero emissions by 2051. The goal produces challenges that will need to be addressed through proper planning and innovation. Aurora’s GFAP focuses on shifting towards “green” operations, including strategies to purchase vehicles that have lower emissions, green maintenance products and options to reduce fuel consumption. This plan is intended to be a living document that will be reviewed every five (5) years with updates to access progress, technological advancements, and future opportunities. For more ways the Town is greening its fleet, see GFAP

Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected effects of climate change. It is one of the ways to respond to climate change, along with greenhouse gas emission mitigation. The Climate Change Adaptation Plan guides future actions to reduce risks associated with climate change and public infrastructure.

In addition to managing climate impacts to Town infrastructure, the plan helps the Town better integrate climate resilience into design, operations, planning, and decision-making with respect to asset management.

The adaptation plan builds upon work done locally by York Region and the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) and helps Aurora align with provincial and regional directions on climate change including the Ontario Regulation 588/17, and the Town’s Asset Management Policy and climate change initiatives.