6 | Halifax
and the remaining 25% in what Duncan
calls the “exurbs,” residential areas outside
the suburbs.
Partnered with this long-term develop-
ment is a self-sustainability initiative that fo-
cuses on retrofitting existing buildings with
environmentally sound technology, whether
in the form of LED lights or solar heating.
Duncan is quick to point out that they’re
not merely changing the light bulbs, though.
Rather, the more than 280 buildings that are
owned by the HRM are individually audited
as to what retrofits would best suit the par-
ticular building. Once the retrofit has taken
place, the building’s energy savings are then
monitored, providing a clear, calculable,
cost-benefit analysis.
This bipartite system – municipal growth
matched equally with environmental sus-
tainability – is an indication of the kind of
progressive thinking that characterizes Hali-
gonian development. For example, the Al-
derney 5 GeoThermal vault is, according to
Duncan, the first large-scale application of
geothermal seasonal cold-energy storage that
doesn’t use a heat pump or refrigeration cy-
cle anywhere in the world. Funded by a joint
initiative between the HRM, provincial gov-
ernment, and federal government’s Technol-
ogy Early Action Measures (TEAM) pro-
