Things are getting cleaner in the Capital Regional District.
Emterra Environmental opened its first state-of-the-art compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station on Vancouver Island Thursday.
The roughly $2-million, made in B.C. fuelling station at the corner of John and Pleasant streets in Victoria will help fuel the 16 new CNG recycling collection trucks in the CRD.
The CNG-fuelled trucks reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 per cent compared to diesel-fuelled engines, which will help cut carbon emissions in the regional district by an estimated 2,800 tones during the life of the truck.
“Like any gas station, you don’t want to drive an hour to find a gas station to fuel. We added the infrastructure to the whole CRD network. We’re helping to build that link,” said Emmie Leung, founder and CEO of Emterra Group. “I’m very pleased and very proud. We’re having our cake and eating it too.”
The station will also be open to the public for other CNG fleet owners and operators to refuel, something Leung hopes will encourage other businesses to convert to lower-emission CNG options.
“In the CRD, one of our priorities is a strong economy. We have 13 municipalities, three electoral areas and we strive to make everyone prosperous,” said CRD chair Nils Jensen.
“But there’s a balance. We work collaboratively to address not only the increase in economic development, but at the same time addressing climate change . . . It really is a model for others to follow.”
The station is the largest CNG station in B.C. and is the third Emterra has built in Canada.
Emterra Group is a family-owned and operated company that provides integrated recycling resource management and waste disposal solutions to commercial and industrial sectors, and municipalities across the country.