<div>Wastewater energy recovery systems (WWERS) cycle residual heat from sewers back into a space for temperature conditioning. Using recovered energy instead of fossil fuels is a sensible direction towards a circular economy. Existing literature, while rich in technical considerations, does not analyze the decision-making process related to the wastewater infrastructure changes. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to bridge this gap in the literature through the development of a planning guideline, targeted to municipal owners of wastewater infrastructure. The proposed planning guideline was then applied to the Regional Municipality of York, a two-tier municipality in Ontario, Canada as a case study. The case study demonstrated the efficacy of the guideline, using publicly available municipal data to discern feasibility of centralized WWERS. Results may aid municipalities or WWERS proponents in advancing to a more widespread use, as an effective first step in bridging academic literature with often-stated municipal goals of increased sustainability of infrastructure systems. </div>

<div>Wastewater energy recovery systems (WWERS) cycle residual heat from sewers back into a space for temperature conditioning. Using recovered energy instead of fossil fuels is a sensible direction towards a circular economy. Existing literature, while rich in technical considerations, does not analyze the decision-making process related to the wastewater infrastructure changes. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to bridge this gap in the literature through the development of a planning guideline, targeted to municipal owners of wastewater infrastructure. The proposed planning guideline was then applied to the Regional Municipality of York, a two-tier municipality in Ontario, Canada as a case study. The case study demonstrated the efficacy of the guideline, using publicly available municipal data to discern feasibility of centralized WWERS. Results may aid municipalities or WWERS proponents in advancing to a more widespread use, as an effective first step in bridging academic literature with often-stated municipal goals of increased sustainability of infrastructure systems. </div>