Government policy has to catch up to available technology as we try and move towards using less fossil fuels, says the head of eMERGE Guelph.
Evan Ferrari, director of the energy-efficiency non profit that promotes and facilitates energy savings and renewal, is excited the city is formalizing its desire to switch to electric buses and other energy-efficient changes in its buildings.
Ferrari said now the challenges are to get the general public on board and get policies to catch up to the new green technologies that are becoming available at an increasingly fast rate.
"Technology is happening faster than policy can catch up to it," said Ferrari. "How quick can we get society ready for it and get the policy there?"
Ferrari said that "policy at the federal, provincial and municipal level has to play catch-up because technology is changing so quickly."
eMERGE is at the forefront of a movement to have
While the city hasn't gone that far in its commitment, it did formalize its mandate to have its own car and bus fleet and new capital projects be greener moving forward where it makes fiscal sense.
At last week's meeting of council's Committee of the Whole a motion by Coun. Dan Gibson was approved that formalized the city's efforts to become greener.
"Exploring pathways for aligning Guelph's corporate assets with the low carbon economy" moves the city one-step closer to having an electric-powered bus fleet and making sure future city-owned capital projects are low carbon.
"It's an excellent move towards 100 per cent renewable energy in
"It's a small piece of the puzzle."
It shows leadership, which is one of the keys towards a lower carbon community, he said.
Ferrari said that the big step is continued engagement with the general public to get them to shift to less use of fossil fuels.
It's a marathon, not a sprint, Ferrari agrees.
"But by the end of 2018 we will have 50 net zero homes in
