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Bow Valley Clean Air Society (BVCAS)
BVCAS is a volunteer run, non-profit Society based in Canmore that envisions the Bow Valley to have excellent air quality free from air emissions negatively affecting people, the environment and the climate.
Our Mission – is to improve and protect the air quality in the Bow Valley and minimize regional contributions to climate change.
The factors below are placing increasing pressure on the air quality of the Bow Valley:
- The Bow Valley is a unique and beautiful valley characterized by clean, crisp mountain air and clear views of glorious mountain peaks. These attributes continue to attract more people to the Bow Valley and result in expanding residential areas and tourism in the valley.
- The Bow Valley is also a major transportation corridor and industrial center.
We work to understand air quality issues in the Bow Valley and respond to and address these issues.
Local Air Quality is available here.
Some more recent activities:
- Closed Door By-law - we recently submitted a detailed report to the town of Canmore in support of a closed door by-law. Our members conducted 12 surveys through downtown adding up the number of doors propped open in cold weather and the corresponding outside temperatures. We then calculated the GHG's being emitted as a result of the energy lost through all of the open doors. This was extrapolated to a full year basis. The end result was that open shop doors on Main Street only resulted in the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions as 53 return passenger flights between Calgary and Toronto!
- PurpleAir Monitors - we now have our own air quality monitors! See our local air quality monitoring page.
- Anti-Idling Campaign - we have begun our 2021 anti-idling campaign in conjunction with Bow Valley Climate Action. We are working with the town to develop an idle free education plan and have prepared a number of posters some of which the town of Canmore has utilized in their spring idle free campaign. In the past, we gathered vehicle idling data at the Canmore Rec Centre during four Eagle's Hockey game events. The results were interesting. For more info, see here.
- Electrical Vehicle Summit - BVCAS prepared graphs of carbon emissions from conventional vehicles vs. electric vehicles. More info available here.
- Local Green Power! - The Bow Valley Green Energy Co-op continue to develop a solar co-op project in the Bow Valley where home and business owners can join a solar co-operative and reap the benefits of the sale of solar power! More information available here.
- Industries Updates - click here.
- BVCAS participated in convincing the Alberta Government to phase out Alberta’s coal-fired power plants. For more information click here.
Due to Covid-19, we continue to conduct our meetings online. Once physical distances measures have been relaxed, we will resume our meetings in person at the Mine Shaft Tavern in Spring Creek in Canmore, Alberta.
Our BVCAS regular Monthly Meeting are usually held on the first Tuesday of the month but not always so check back to confirm. For the winter of 2022, our meeting dates are as follows: Feb 1, Mar 1, Apr 5, May 3 and Jun 7 commencing at 7:00 pm. There are no meetings over the summer.
We encourage our members and anyone interested in our Society to attend. If you would like more information about our meetings, feel free to contact us via our contact page here.
To join our Society, click here.
