Sensing the urgency to act for the planet, a Bouchervillois challenged his fellow citizens to take simple actions to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as making sure they have a well-insulated residence. or reduce its consumption of products from industrial agricultural practices.
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To achieve this, André Lafrance suggested that families in Boucherville follow an individualized plan and be accompanied by environmental specialists for a year. This idea was immediately adopted by the City, which instructed the organization Fous de nature to deploy this pilot project called “For the climate, let’s act now!”.
“This is exactly the project we needed since we were trying to mobilize our citizens to environmental issues,” says the municipal councilor responsible for environmental issues, Anne Barabé. If citizens, but also businesses and industries, make an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, that can make a difference. ”
The natural disasters of recent years and especially the recent flood in British Columbia made the project initiator aware of the urgency of the situation.
“The consequences of climate change are accelerating from year to year. We see it with heat waves, drought, erosion, forest fires and floods. Scientists tell us this is directly related to GHG emissions. As citizens, we have our part to do to reduce our GHGs, ”explains André Lafrance.
Simple and accessible solutions
Currently, the organization Fous de nature is recruiting 40 volunteer families for the first edition of the project. When the participants are chosen, the organization will calculate the GHG emissions in each household and create a personalized plan according to the needs and reality of each, from February to December 2022.
“We want to offer them simple and accessible solutions. We’re not going to tell everyone to go buy an electric car! We believe that they can succeed in reducing GHGs by taking simple actions ”, underlines the project manager of Fous de nature, Émilie Caputo.
For example, reducing your consumption of red meat – industrial livestock farming is a major source of GHG emissions -, opting for energy efficiency at home, carpooling and insulating your home are some of the solutions. within the reach of citizens to reduce GHG emissions.
In addition to the personalized plan, participants will be well supervised since they will benefit from conferences, meetings and an online exchange platform to succeed in reducing their ecological footprint.
A project that promises!
City councilor Anne Barabé is thinking big for this project which, according to her, is very promising. “The first year will be our laboratory, but then we could increase the number of families to 4000 and maybe even more,” she says.
The elected representative hopes that if this innovative experience is positive in Boucherville, it could be repeated elsewhere in Quebec.
André Lafrance goes in the same direction, saying that there has been a momentum for the implementation of environmental projects in municipalities in recent weeks. “There is a favorable wind for this kind of project there since with the elections, we see new teams who are very open to tackling environmental issues.”