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.

Community Engagement in 2018 Click to enlarge
Employees raised $27,328 for our United Way, building our local community. We attended 9 local events, providing 4585 products to help you save water, energy and money. We provided the water buggy at 53 local events, over 79 days, promoting quality drinking water. We hosted 31 free public tours.

Community Involvement

Highlights

Our visitor from Trinidad poses in front of the Ravensview sign.
Nishana Ramsawak, Quality Control Supervisor with WASA, became aware of Utilities Kingston through her involvement with Waterlution, a Canadian organization concerned with water issues.

Awards Received

Utilities Kingston is proud to be recognized in the utility industry for our work in building a better community. We were pleased to accept the following awards in 2018:

Chair's Citation, from the Electricity Distributors Association (EDA), presented to Jim Keech, president and CEO.
Jim Keech, centre, is joined by staff members at the EDA’s annual awards gala.

Boards and Memberships

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

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The Kingston Region Geographic Council of the ORCGA held its annual meeting at Utilities Kingston’s main offices in November, 2018.

Sponsorship

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

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The Kingston Hydro Award for Sustainable Energy Leadership was presented to Caroline Kirkwood in 2018.

Innovation through Research Partnerships

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 Microalgael 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.
  • Low Carbon Building Skills Program with St. Lawrence College – developed a case study highlighting the work on identifying the embedded cost of electricity in water, which was used to leverage conservation funding in support of the Utilities Kingston Water Loss Reduction Program.
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We're connecting with the people in our community and helping to make it an even more awesome city! Thanks for your support, everyone.  Left to right: bucket rides at our United Way Success by Six event, the water buggy at the Children's Water Festival at Lake Ontario Park, receiving a TSSA safety award in Ottawa, fundraising for the United Way workplace campaign, and a wastewater treatment tour for Aqua Hacking conference goers.