Jeremiah and Marina Pauw are continuing their mission to make their business operations more eco-friendly, with the addition of solar panels and new hot water tanks and heat pumps at Evergreen Peaks apartments.
The couple own and manage Evergreen and the Fernie Fox Hotel through their company Peacock Hospitality. The latest upgrades to Evergreen follow years-worth of work on the Fernie Fox, including the installation of solar panels on the roof of the hotel and the addition of electric trucks to its fleet of operational vehicles. The hotel is on track to become fully sustainable by 2025.
Jeremiah said two Evergreen apartment buildings will have solar panels installed, each providing 27 KW of energy to the building, which is enough to power the common areas, as well as the laundry rooms and staff apartments. Tenants have their own individual B.C hydro accounts, so they will continue to have their apartments powered through standard means. The project is currently underway and will be finished in the next few months.
The largest scale project of the past year was the installation of ductless heat pumps in each of the apartments to replace less-efficient electric baseboard heating.
Two hot water tanks have also been installed at the apartments, which Jeremiah said would save approximately 20 per cent of natural gas usage throughout the year.
The hotel has seen a few small-scale improvements as well, including the addition of two new broilers which supply the hot tub and guest hot water. Jeremiah mentioned the broilers would save approximately the same amount of natural gas as the water tanks. They’ve also taken steps to upgrade small-scale machinery to more electric models, including lawn mowers, weed trimmers, saws and pressure washers.
“We are very proud of our environmental accomplishments over the past few years and will keep doing as much as we can to achieve our sustainability goals,” he said.