ATCO Gas has a long history of being an active corporate citizen in the communities we serve, work and live in. Each year we work with different organizations to bring some of our flagship programs to your community.
ATCO Gas is committed to the protection and stewardship of the environment. This strongly held value is embedded in our staff training, reflected in our corporate decision making, and integrated into our business strategies. Our Environmental Policy outlines this commitment and our Environment Operating Principles incorporate practices that limit greenhouse gas emissions.
ATCO Gas collects meter readings and uses this measurement information to calculate how much natural gas has been used each charge period. Our company passes this information to your retailer, along with our delivery charges and your retailer passes these costs on to you.
Pipe fusion ceremony during the opening of the Airdrie Operations Centre
ATCO Gas delivers safe, reliable, cost-effective natural gas to Alberta -- and has since 1912. That's why we say we're "Alberta-made". An investor-owned, rate regulated utility, ATCO Gas helps to build communities across the province because our people live, work and volunteer in the communities we serve.
At a ceremony in Wels, Austria on Nov. 25, the Drake Landing Solar Community project in Okotoks won the international Energy Globe World Award. The project, operated and partly owned by ATCO Gas, won the “Fire” category as well as the top prize overall.
Drake Landing Solar Community is Canada’s largest subdivision of energy-efficient and environmentally-responsible homes, and the continent’s first major implementation of seasonal solar thermal energy storage. This technology overcomes a longstanding obstacle facing the widespread use of solar heating: the cold, dark winter season. The community’s innovative design allows solar energy absorbed in the summer months to be stored underground and returned to the homes as heat in the winter. The community consists of 52 single-family homes.
It is the first solar community in the world to receive 80 per cent of its yearly space heating through solar energy. This number is expected to rise to 90 per cent by the community’s fifth year in operation. The average Canadian home produces approximately six to seven tonnes of greenhouse gases per year; in contrast, each home in the Drake Landing Solar Community produces an estimated one to two tonnes per year.
The project has been operational since 2007. That year, the project won an Energy-TV Award, which recognizes the “best of the best” in Canada’s oil and gas industry. ATCO Gas won the award for Best Project in the Alternative Energy category.
The Drake Landing Solar Community was a project conceived by Natural Resources Canada, which then established partnerships with environmentally conscious companies, like ATCO Gas. Doug McClenahan of Natural Resources Canada travelled to Austria to accept the award.
This is a landmark project for ATCO Gas, and one that solidifies the company’s reputation as an environmental steward!
ATCO Group is a worldwide organization of companies engaged in Utilities, Energy, Structures & Logistics and Technologies. More information about ATCO can be found on its website at www.atco.com.