What's Pembina Doing?

Ontario is making major decisions about its future sustainability.

• Will its electricity system rely on large, high impact centralized generation — like coal and nuclear — or will it embrace a sustainable energy path?
• Will cities continue to sprawl outwards, driving ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions, or will they adopt an efficient, transit friendly, smart growth model?
• Is the province making the investment needed to put it on a path to energy and environmental sustainability?

The Pembina Institute is addressing all of these questions and more through its work in Ontario.

Shaping Ontario's Electricity Future

The Pembina Institute provided the first comprehensive assessment in more than a decade of energy efficiency and low-impact renewable energy potential in Ontario in its report Power for the Future. Our team subsequently identified strategies for implementing efficiency measures in A Quick Start Energy Efficiency Strategy for Ontario.

What are the environmental impacts of using nuclear energy for electricity generation in Canada? Is nuclear power a safe, clean or reliable energy option? Pembina explores these issues in Nuclear Power in Canada: An Examination of Risks, Impacts and Sustainability. [More]

Promoting Smart Growth

The Pembina Institute promotes "smart growth" policies to limit sprawl and produce more sustainable urban communities. Urban sprawl is a key driver of Ontario's increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Review the Pembina Institute's series on smart growth in Ontario, Building Sustainable Communities, which assess the government's overall progress on urban sustainability. [More]

Using Waste for Energy: Does it Work?

Ontario municipalities are being aggressively pushed to burn their municipal waste in "energy from waste" plants. The Pembina Institute in cooperation with a coalition of organizations — including Sierra Legal, Great Lakes United, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Toronto Environmental Alliance — to produce a series of fact sheets on why using waste makes no sense in terms of energy conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution or costs when compared to waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

Tracking Ontario Budgets and Legislation

The Pembina Institute produces commentaries on the province's annual budgets as well as legislation and other initiatives affecting the sustainability of Ontario's communities and energy systems.