Commercial and Institutional Consumption of Energy Survey, Summary Report, 2005

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5. Establishment Age

This edition of CICES gathered data on the year that establishments were built. In the case of establishments comprising several buildings or units (e.g. a university campus or hospital complex), the OEE selected the year in which the majority of buildings comprising the company or institution were built.

As shown in Chart 9, the average year of construction for Canadian establishments is estimated at 1975. There are relatively few regional differences, except that establishments in the Atlantic region tend to be older (1971) and those in British Columbia tend to be younger (1980).

Table 6

Principal characteristics of establishments, based on year of construction

Construction period	Number of establishments	Energy consumption (GJ)	Floor area (m2)	Energy intensity (GJ/m2)
Prior to 1920	20,584 A	33,527,522 B	24,194,636 A	1.39 A
From 1920 to 1959	53,715 A	133,956,378 B	84,743,212 A	1.58 A
From 1960 to 1969	53,231 A	173,568,127 B	96,475,167 A	1.80 A
From 1970 to 1979	85,408 A	269,760,130 A	176,948,729 B	1.52 A
From 1980 to 1989	92,860 A	157,461,130 A	94,454,615 A	1.67 A
From 1990 to 1999	83,125 A	190,888,013 A	135,301,511 A	1.41 A
From 2000 to 2004	51,939 A	77,616,649 A	59,560,832 A	1.30 A
TOTAL	440,863 A	1,036,777,949 A	671,678,701 A	1.54 A

The letter to the right of each estimate indicates its quality, as follows: A – Very good, B – Acceptable, C – Use with caution, F – Too unreliable to be published or eliminated for reasons of confidentiality.

Due to rounding, the numbers may not add up to the total shown, and some numbers may differ slightly from one table to the next.

Table 6 presents the principal characteristics of commercial and institutional establishments, based on the year they were built. These data are presented for Canada as a whole, since the quality of regional estimates did not permit a more detailed analysis.

More than half of these establishments were built after 1980. Only 5 percent of these establishments were built before 1920, while nearly 12 percent are very recent, having been built after 2000. The period between 1980 and 1989 saw the greatest number of these buildings being built, namely 21 percent.

The data gathered through this survey allowed the OEE to compare an establishment's year of construction with its energy intensity. Chart 10 details the energy intensity for each construction period. The least-intensive establishments can be found at either end of the spectrum. Establishments built after 2000 had the lowest energy intensity, at 1.30 GJ/m², a ratio that is slightly less than that of those built in the preceding decade (1.41 GJ/m²). Establishments built before 1920, with an energy intensity of 1.39 GJ/m², ranked second.

However, it is important to examine the relative impact of the construction period on energy intensity in a larger context. For example, the establishment's activity sector plays a fundamental role in its energy intensity. This survey has demonstrated that universities and hospitals are among the most intensive (as seen in Chart 2). Moreover, nearly three quarters of Canada's universities and half of Canada's hospitals were built before 1980. The relatively low intensity of younger establishments could be due to their activity distribution: certain establishments that are inherently intensive, due to their activity sector, are found in greater numbers during certain construction periods.

Furthermore, new buildings tend to be built to increasingly rigorous standards and equipped with energy-efficient technology and materials, while the oldest establishments may have undergone extensive renovations to improve their energy performance. These factors could partially explain why the oldest establishments are among the least energy intensive.

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