Canada exhibits high per capita energy consumption. This paper examines energy use in Canada by region and sector, focusing on four sectors most relevant to civil engineering activities: residential, commercial–institutional, construction, and transportation. Environmental impacts associated with major energy sources including coal, petroleum products, natural gas and electricity are reviewed. The relationships between energy consumption and infrastructure design are analysed. Opportunities for reductions are identified in building design, water and waste-water systems, urban form, and transportation. Large improvements in commercial and residential energy efficiency can be achieved through the implementation of existing technologies in building upgrades, retrofits, and rebuilds. Increasing surface albedos and more extensive use of vegetative shading and consideration of the geometric properties of urban canyons and their microclimatic effects also allow for considerable energy savings. The incorporation of mixed-modal transit, walking and cycling paths, and community-scale design as elements of long-term transportation planning and the development of alternative transportation technologies have the potential to considerably reduce per capita energy use. The development and implementation of alternative energy supply technologies include energy recovery from waste-water treatment.Key words: energy, infrastructure, urban, sustainability, sustainable development.

This research examines how each of the design variables associated with the design of residential curbside recycling programs affects the participation rate, as well as the effect of interactions between the variables. The evaluation of each design variable includes a literature review and an analysis of the results of six published surveys of curbside recycling programs. The results of this research show that there is no single ideal design for residential curbside recycling programs, but that a variety of combinations of design variables have proven to be successful. This suggests that when designing a recycling program, the costs, needs and goals of the community should be significant factors while taking into consideration the effect of some design variable options on participation. Based on these results, four residential curbside recycling programs were designed: two to maximize participation rates without significant regard to cost; and the other two with the goal of achieving a balance between participation rate and program cost. © 1997 ISWA

While climate change has become an important concern at both regional and global levels, its inherent uncertainties have often been cited as the main reason for delaying many actions to mitigate its potential impacts. Reviews of environmental assessments (EAs) have shown that impacts from climate change have been inadequately addressed within them and that the corresponding uncertainties have been addressed even more poorly. This paper describes several basic approaches for addressing and analysing climate change within the EAs of individual projects with a focus on its uncertainties. Subsequently, the paper describes how the results from this analysis can be effectively and comprehensively communicated to the EA's disparate set of technical and non-technical decision-makers and stakeholders. Based upon this overall approach, the paper proposes a general set of guidelines that enables proponents to incorporate climate change and its uncertainties into project EAs.

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