Empowering Communities
Indigenous Communities
In Cedric’s work with Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE) he has supported Indigenous communities across Canada with several of their programs, providing both technical expertise and mentorship.
ICE focuses on capacity building of local energy champions through their Catalysts 20/20 program, youth mentorship through their ImaGENation program, and energy efficiency retrofit project support through the Bringing It Home Program.
In support of these programs, Cedric teaches the project design process, conducting feasibility studies using the RETScreen Expert energy modelling software. Cedric also acts as an ongoing project mentor and coach, supporting through one-on-one meetings throughout the design, proposal, and implementation phases of the programs.
The experience Cedric has gained working with Indigenous communities and the challenges they face have made Indigenous Clean Energy a critical part of Cedric’s career.
ImaGENation: Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program
ICE’s ImaGENation program is a capacity-building program that supports teams of Indigenous youth (ages 18-30) from across Canada in implementing clean energy projects by providing ongoing professional mentorship and up $50,000 in funding.
Cedric has been an ImaGENation program mentor and technical advisor since the program's inception in August 2022 and has supported over 15 teams of indigenous youth complete various clean energy projects such as Greenhouses, Solar, and Energy Efficency.
Focus Forward for Indigenous Youth
From 2017 to 2022, Cedric served as the Founding Director of Operations, Project Manager, and Design Team Lead for Focus Forward for Indigenous Youth. In its first year, the organization raised over $1,000,000 through grants, corporate sponsorships, donations, and the Dunin-Deshpande Queen's Innovation Centre’s pitch competition. Cedric won $10,000 in funding to help the organization achieve charitable status within its first year.
The organization successfully completed two major projects: a net-zero solar-powered, 4-season greenhouse at Camp Hope in the Montreal Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, and another solar-powered, 4-season greenhouse for the board of education in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, Manitoulin Island, Ontario
20/20 Catalysts Program
ICE’s 20/20 Catalysts program is an intensive clean energy capacity-building initiative offering practical learning in renewable energy projects, community energy planning, energy conservation, business management, and advanced energy systems. Participants, called 'Catalysts,' receive support to advance clean energy projects.
Cedric has been a 20/20 Catalysts program mentor since June 2019 and has supported over 60 communities in completing various clean energy projects such as Solar Farms and large scale commercial energy efficiency projects.
Bringing it Home: Enabling Energy Efficiency - Now and for Future Generations
ICE’s Bringing It Home program supports Indigenous, community-scale energy efficiency projects through planning and implementation. The program focuses on strengthening capacity across six key domains: Governance & Leadership, Asset Management, Maintenance, Skills, Design & Construction, and Financing.
Cedric has been a Bringing It Home program mentor since its inception in the summer of 2023 and has supported over 18 communities to complete various Housing projects related to creating healthy and energy efficient homes.
Community Energy Financing
Increasingly common, community energy financing programs offer grants and low-to-zero interest loans to homeowners to help improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
As Chief Operating Officer for Sustainable Kingston, Cedric was able to secure a contract with the City of Kingston to deliver Kingston’s community energy financing program, Better Homes Kingston. The program provides Kingston homeowners with individual energy coaching sessions to guide them through the energy audit and home retrofit process.
Since launching in April 2022, participants of the Better Homes Kingston program has completed over 200 projects with an average emissions reduction of 64%. Cedric Merged Red Squirrel Conservation Services with Sustainable Kingston in order to develop and deliver the Better Homes Kingston program.
Through his work on this program, Cedric joined the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) community of practice group for Community Energy Financing. This group brings together Canadian municipalities and program delivery agents to share insights and best practices on creating, launching, and delivering community energy efficiency financing programs.
Seeing the demand from homeowners for these types of programs, Cedric partnered with EnviroCentre, the program delivery agent for Ottawa’s Better Homes Ottawa program, to support other Eastern Ontario municipalities in implementing community energy financing programs.
Youth Programming
In addition to being a sustainability champion himself, Cedric is a gifted educator who seeks out opportunities to mentor the next generation of sustainability champions.
Cedric’s 5 years as an instructor for St. Lawrence College’s Energy System Engineering Technology (ESET) program and 8 years of mentorship with Enactus Canada have honed his ability to engage and inspire today’s youth.
Cedric’s newest youth programming endeavor is the innovative Heat Loss House workshop.
The Heat Loss House workshop is an interactive educational activity to help youth better understand the heat loss in buildings.
The goal of the workshop is to get students to minimize the heat loss of the model house by using different configurations of building materials such as the number of windowpanes and amount of insulation in the walls and attic.
The challenge exists in balancing the different costs of building materials and the amount of heat loss in the home in an attempt to build the most cost effective, energy efficient home.
This workshop was designed to be integrated into math classes where students learn basic budgeting, introductory heat loss calculations and the ability to leverage basic coding using graphing calculators.
Heat Loss House
The Heat Loss House (HLH) is an innovative educational tool designed to teach students and community members about energy efficiency, heat loss, and sustainable building practices. Developed by Cedric Pepelea, the HLH emerged from a desire to create a hands-on, engaging experience that could make complex energy concepts accessible to learners of all ages.
This workshop features the Heat Loss House, a 3D printed, and laser cut wood set of parts that is put together to build a house. The house can be configured in many ways, including selecting how thick the walls will be, the number of windowpanes in each window and choosing the type of insulation to be used inside the walls and attic.
The various building materials have different costs, encouraging workshop participants to work together to maximize the HLH’s energy efficiency while minimizing the cost of materials.
Beyond teaching energy efficiency, the kit cultivates critical skills. It challenges students to solve problems like managing a budget while reducing heat loss, promoting critical and creative thinking. Group work, reflecting true scientific and engineering teamwork, emphasizes communication and collaboration, equipping students with many transferable skills.
By sharing knowledge and empowering both youth and professionals to achieve the greatest impact possible, Cedric serves as the “in-between” acting as the catalyst in empowering communities.
