By Laragh Dooley
Energy efficient light bulbs are being delivered to Ottawa residents but the Centretown area is presenting a particular challenge due to the large number of apartment buildings, says Stuart Hickox, founder of Project Porchlight.
Project Porchlight is a not-for-profit organization that has been going door-to-door in Ottawa delivering free compact, fluorescent light bulbs to residents. The campaign began last year in Ottawa South and was expanded citywide this fall. Changing one old-fashioned bulb to an energy efficient CFL bulb can reduce a person’s energy bill by $50 over five years. The group plans to hand out 200,000 bulbs to Ottawa residents by the end of November. The collective savings for Ottawa residents, once all the new lights are installed, will be about $10 million.
The Project Porchlight team will be knocking on doors in Centretown during the last two weeks of November.
“Unfortunately, delivering the bulbs to Centretown residents is going to be a unique challenge,” says Hickox. “It is much harder to deliver the bulbs to multi-residential units.”
He says his group cannot distribute the bulbs to apartments unless they have an advocate on the inside to get them in the building.
In the coming weeks, Porchlight will be contacting each highrise in the downtown area in an attempt to gain support.
“Soon we are going to be putting posters up in the lobbies of the Centretown buildings asking for help from the people who live there. If we don’t get a response from any of the tenants or from the management company, we can’t go there,” he says.
Richard Tennant is the director of security and emergency services for Minto Development, a property management company with several multi-residential units in the Centretown area.
He says that tenant safety is the most important aspect of building access and that is why groups such as Project Porchlight are not permitted in the building without permission from either the management or a resident.
“We can’t physically sit on each building watching who goes in and out,” says Tennant. “There is a procedure and protocol to follow when seeking permission to deliver flyers or products to the building. The length of time it takes to be granted permission varies greatly depending on the request.”
He says that Minto assesses the product and if it is something they really like, they run with it. Tennant was unaware of the Project Porchlight campaign.
Nicole Gaffney lives in a highrise downtown. While she says that Project Porchlight is a positive initiative, she is happy they must follow procedure so they can enter her building.
“I like knowing that everyone coming into my apartment [building] is being monitored. Besides, it cuts down on the junk flyers.”
While the name Project Porchlight implies that these light bulbs are intended for porches, Hickox says this is not necessarily the case. Many of the multi-residential units found in Centretown do not have porches but the lights can be used anywhere: the kitchen, the bathroom or the bedroom, he says.
Brian Gilmer is another Centretown resident living in an apartment. He does not want to miss out on the campaign simply because of his living accommodations. He says he would gladly take responsibilty for ensuring residents in his building receive their lights because he learned about the benefits of energy saving bulbs while working at a hardware store.
“Energy conservation is crucial today,” says Gilmer. “More people will be willing to take responsibility for their building once they know how big an impact each of these [light bulbs] have on the environment.”
Hickox says people like Gilmer must touch base with the Porchlight group.
“It is not very economical for us to deliver just one bulb,” he says. “Yes, we can bring a bulb to you, but please help us by delivering a few more bulbs in your building.”
He says it takes one hour to deliver 50 bulbs.
“We want everyone to benefit from this and in Centretown we need some extra help.”