Public involvement helps us engage our community in meaningful conversations as we learn to better serve our customers and support Kingston’s goal of becoming A Smart and Livable 21st Century City.

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Community Engagement and Public Participation

• Proudly participated in the 2015 Greater Kingston Santa Parade, made possible by the dedication of many talented employees.
• Supported our community partners through participation at their events, including the City Of Kingston's Public Works Day and Kingston Blooms, United Way Success by Six events, and many more.
• Proud supporter of Sustainable Kingston, helping to make Kingston Canada’s Most Sustainable City.
• Support for Queen’s University, Royal Military College of Canada (RMC)  and St. Lawrence College through research collaboration and class presentations.

We’re part of the fabric of our community and proud to serve on these boards and memberships: 

• SWITCH – Board of Directors
• GridSmartCity Initiative
• Sensus Partner and Advisor Network – Canadian subcommittee Chair
• Plug’n Drive – Board of Directors and Advisory Board
• Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance – Kingston Region  Geographic Council Co-Chair
• Electricity Distributors Association – Upper Canada Metering Subcommittee Organizing Committee
• Electric Vehicle Power Providers Working Group (Ministry of Energy) – Member
• Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR‎) Municipal Advisory Committee

 Through local sponsorship, we give back to the community we serve:

• In 2015, Vincent O'hearn, an energy systems engineering technology student at St. Lawrence College, received the Kingston Hydro Scholarship for Sustainable Energy Leadership.
• Founding sponsor of the SWITCH Sustainable Energy Awards – Kingston Hydro Conservation Award. In 2015, Kingston General Hospital received the award in recognition of its water and energy conservation accomplishments.
• Continuing sponsor of the “Kingston Unplugged” Earth Hour concert in Market Square.
• Sponsorship of the annual Kingston Blooms Utilities Kingston Water Smart Gardening Award. In 2015, Norma Javier won a hand-painted rain barrel for her beautiful water smart corner garden.
• Sponsorship of a Queen’s University TEAM - a multidiscipline team from engineering, marketing and economics who looked at the value of water re-use and the development of a tool to assist in the identification of costs.
  

Continued improvement and innovation are our focus in these recent research partnerships. Thanks to our partners for these opportunities!

• Evanco Environmental  to advance the use of an innovative approach to water main cleaning and relining that prevents corrosion and material build-up to improve reliability.
• Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) and University of Western Ontario on their project “Lot-Side/Backwater Valve Research Project”, studying the reliability and maintenance of plumbing components.
• Queen's University on their Natural Sciences and Research Council (NSERC) funded project “Bio-oil Recovery & CO2 Recycling by Waste Stream Enhanced Microalgal Growth & Low Energy CO2-Related Extraction” to use municipal wastewater and waste industrial heat to grow algae and produce a low carbon, greenhouse gas free fuel.