Heads Up Energy Efficiency Newsletter

July 2011

• New and existing building owners, operators and developers – How can we help you?
• NRCan facilities now BOMA-certified
• New National Energy Code for Buildings 2011
• Toronto building competition fuels energy efficiency
• ASHRAE publishes Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small to Medium Office Buildings
• ISO launches 50001 energy management standard
• The Zerofootprint Prize
• Calendar of events
• Let us know what you think

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New and existing buildings owners, operators and developers – How can we help you?

A new national needs analysis of commercial and institutional building owners, operators and building developers is being conducted from July to August 2011. MHPM Inc. is carrying out the survey on behalf of the Office of Energy Efficiency’s (OEE’s) Buildings Division of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).

Targeted to building facility managers, the survey aims to identify your energy management needs so that we can re-evaluate and improve service offerings to better meet your needs. We want to provide the particular tools and services that will help you manage your energy more wisely and reduce energy consumption, save money and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The survey will be used to identify the gaps that exist between services we provide, services that already exist in the marketplace and what you need to get the job done.

This research aims to capture the widest range of information possible in a cost-effective manner, and your input will be invaluable. As a subscriber to HUEE, you or someone in your organization may be contacted by telephone. So, if you are invited to participate, don’t hang up!

The results of the new national needs analysis will be announced in future editions of HUEE. Stay tuned.

If you would like more information, contact us.

NRCan facilities now BOMA-certified

A year ago, two teams at NRCan decided to use the department’s energy efficiency expertise themselves to make their buildings greener, and the results have been impressive. Greening efforts at the OEE’s Building # 3 on the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa and at the Laurentian Forestry Centre in Ste-Foy, Quebec, recently achieved the environmental performance equivalent of a gold star: BOMA BESt certification.

The Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada’s Building Environmental Standards (BOMA BESt) program gives certification for Level 1 through 4 to buildings that meet benchmarks for environmental management and performance. The benchmarks are in six categories: energy conservation, water conservation, waste reduction and recycling, emission and effluent reduction, indoor environment and environmental management and awareness.

Building #3 received seventy-eight points – earning a BOMA BESt Level 2 certification, just two points shy of Level 3.

“We’re keen on doing things that we ask the marketplace to do, both in the private sector and within federal departments through our Federal Buildings Initiative,” said Mark Newman, senior technical advisor at the OEE, who was involved in the project. “So it made sense to turn the spotlight on ourselves.”

Getting that rating was no easy task. Operating with a budget of $15,000, representatives of SNC-Lavalin O&M (a facility management company), NRCan’s Real Property and Environmental Management Division, the OEE and the Central Experimental Farm Green Teams created an environmental plan with targets and action items in each of BOMA’s six environmental categories.

All these activities, however, are just the beginning. “Certification promotes continual improvement,” said Mark. Along the lines of continued improvement, the building team plans to have the heating and ventilation systems commissioned in the next year and to install separate electrical meters in the building.

“Success will come in the years to come, especially as we look forward to getting re-certified and getting that Level 3,” added Mark.

With an overall rating of 80 points, the Laurentian Forestry Centre (LFC) greening team managed to get a Level 3 certification.

“That was such a great surprise and a result of a great team and a lot of hard work,” said Jacinthe Leclerc, Director General of LFC. “From the operational side, we defined governance structures and formed six technical committees related to the BOMA categories.”

Along with operational actions, initiatives such as the composting program and lighting and faucet changes put them in the running for the BOMA certification. The LFC’s Environmental Management Committee and building operations personnel worked with a budget of around $60,000 to make this happen.

Next up: re-certification at Level 4.

“It’s very ambitious,” said Jacinthe, laughing. “It’ll require more targeting and, of course, it will depend on our capacity to invest in some of those required green operations.”

“Those will be much harder to implement but, in the long term, they will make our workplace more aligned with employees’ requirements for a clean and green environment,” she added. “The good thing is that, since we’re one of the first three buildings to get certified, others can learn from our experience.”

Neither Jacinthe nor Mark can talk about learning from experience without mentioning the pioneer of NRCan building greening efforts: CanmetENERGY Varennes. Two years ago, the Varennes team paved the way for everyone when the building received its Level 3 certification.

NRCan is committed to reducing energy use in its buildings to help meet the goals of the Government of Canada Sustainable Development Strategy. The department plans to certify more buildings in the years to come.

National Energy Code for Buildings 2011

The new National Energy Code for Buildings (NECB) 2011 was officially announced by Canada’s energy and mines ministers at their annual meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, on July 17, 2011, as part of the ongoing commitment to work collaboratively on energy efficiency as a means of helping Canada’s economy and the environment.

The NECB 2011 was updated using an extensive consensus-based process involving stakeholders from all segments of Canadian industry, federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, as well as the public in general. The National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Canadian Codes Centre and NRCan provided funding and collaborated on the development of the NECB technical requirements.

The updated NECB will provide an opportunity to significantly reduce energy costs and emissions in Canada and will save an average building $1.7 million in energy costs over its life span – placing Canada on an equal footing with many other OECD countries.

The NECB 2011 provides an overall 25 percent improvement in energy efficiency over the previous 1997 Model National Energy Code for Buildings establishing minimum requirements for energy efficiency in new buildings. The development of a more stringent national energy code for buildings was one of the objectives of ecoENERGY for Buildings and Houses.

An important characteristic of the NECB 2011 is its flexibility. The new technical requirements accommodate new technologies and construction practices, reflecting the changing needs of Canadian society. The updated code also offers compliance flexibility – that is, engineers, architects and designers can follow three different paths to ensure that their proposed building designs are compliant, including a prescriptive path, a trade-off path and a performance path – each achieving the same overall energy reduction goals. Lastly, as with all other national model codes, provinces and territories will be able to adopt the NECB 2011 as is or adapt it to better suit particular jurisdictional needs.

The NRC expects to publish the NECB 2011 in November 2011. Free online presentations explaining the major changes will be made available on the National Codes Website in early 2012. For additional information and updates, visit the NRC Website.

Toronto building competition fuels energy efficiency

Toronto’s office building landlords and tenants are becoming involved in a challenge to significantly reduce energy use by entering the Race to Reduce.

Developed by CivicAction’s Greening Greater Toronto, Race to Reduce is a collaboration between building landlords and tenants to bring about smarter energy use. It is open to all landlords and tenants of office buildings across the Toronto region. CivicAction works to improve the region’s social, economic and environmental future. Greening Greater Toronto is CivicAction’s strategic environmental initiative.

The goal of the four-year program is for landlords and tenants to work together to reduce total energy use in participating office buildings by at least 10 percent. Office buildings account for close to 20 percent of the Greater Toronto Area’s carbon emissions, 37 percent of its electricity consumption and 17 percent of its natural gas consumption.

Even before the program’s official launch in May 2011, 36 major landlords and tenants had already entered 33 buildings, representing about 2.1 million m² (22 million ft²) of office space, or 10 percent of Toronto’s office building space.

Over four years, a 10 percent reduction in these buildings alone could reduce carbon emissions by 31,000 tonnes – equivalent to taking 20,000 cars off the road for a year.

The Race to Reduce will run through to 2014, which coincides with the Ontario government’s timeline for energy conservation targets and supports the delivery timeframe for gas and electricity utilities’ financial incentive programs that promote energy efficiency improvement projects in the office building sector.

“The Race to Reduce is a great way for any office building landlord or tenant to implement environmentally sustainable practices in their day-to-day operations,” says Michael Thornburrow, Senior Vice-President of Corporate Real Estate and Strategic Sourcing at BMO Financial Group and voluntary co-chair of Greening Greater Toronto’s Commercial Building Energy Leadership Council. “The Race will give participants the tools and resources to set goals, improve their energy efficiency and save money.”

The Race to Reduce will recognize team collaboration among building landlords and tenants, encouraging them to reduce energy use together. Annual awards will be presented for outstanding participation and engagement, innovative conservation measures and performance achievements. The 2011 Awards Event will be held in the fall of 2011.

For more on the Race to Reduce, or to join the challenge, visit www.racetoreduce.ca.

ASHRAE publishes Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small to Medium Office Buildings

Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small to Medium Office Buildings: Achieving 50% Energy Savings Toward a Net-Zero-Energy Building is the first book in a series of Advanced Energy Design Guide (AEDG) publications that provides recommendations to achieve 50 percent energy savings when compared with the minimum code requirements of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-2004 “Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings”.

The book was developed by a committee representing a diverse group of energy professionals from ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), the Department of Energy (DOE) and the USGBC.

The series follows the earlier six-book series that showed how to achieve 30 percent savings. The ultimate goal is to provide guidance to achieve net-zero-energy buildings, that is, buildings that produce more energy than they consume.

“This guide will help in the design of new office buildings and major renovations that consume substantially less energy compared with the minimum code-compliant design, resulting in lower operation costs,” said Bing Liu, chair of the 50 percent AEDG project committee. “Of equal importance is that energy-efficient buildings offer a great possibility to enhance the working environment, including indoor air quality, thermal comfort and natural lighting.”

A significant addition to the new 50 percent guide is the inclusion of a performance path; specifically, offering guidance for early-stage energy modelling.

“Whole-building energy modeling programs can provide more flexibility to evaluate the energy-efficient measures on an individual project,” Liu said. “Simulation programs have learning curves of varying difficulty, but energy modelling for office design is highly encouraged and is considered necessary for achieving energy savings of 50 percent.”

The group that developed the book notes that meeting the 50 percent energy savings goal is challenging and requires more than doing business as usual. The Guide offers eight essentials to achieve advanced energy savings:

• Obtain building owner buy-in
• Assemble an experienced, innovative design team
• Adopt an integrated design process
• Consider a daylighting consultant
• Consider energy modelling
• Use building commissioning
• Train building users and operations staff
• Monitor the building

Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small to Medium Office Buildings: Achieving 50% Energy Savings Toward a Net-Zero-Energy Building is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg. A print version is also available for US$82 (US$69 for ASHRAE members).

ISO launches 50001 energy management standard

On June 17, 2011, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) officially released its ISO 50001 standard on energy management systems. ISO believes the standard could have a positive impact on about 60 percent of the world’s energy use.

According to ISO, the new standard will provide public and private sector organizations with management strategies to increase energy efficiency, reduce costs and improve energy performance. The standard is available on the ISO website.

In support of the development of ISO 50001, Canada has undertaken three pilot projects under the Global Superior Energy Partnership Initiative. The new standard will allow energy users to identify savings and to develop and implement actions to maximize energy performance. These pilots also further the Canada-U.S. Clean Energy Dialogue.

The projects are:

• A pilot project with the Ontario Power Authority to help five Ontario manufacturing facilities implement the ISO 50001 energy management standard;
• A U.S.-Canada pilot program with the global technology firm 3M to identify energy performance improvement opportunities and to develop and implement actions to maximize energy performance in a Canadian plant; and,
• A buildings pilot project to test the implementation of the standard for energy management in NRCan buildings. The project is in two phases; the first to develop a site-specific Energy Management System (EnMS) that is ISO 50001-compliant and the second to implement it. The implementation of the EnMS is currently underway.

These pilots will improve understanding of the development and implementation of energy management systems for buildings and industry, and will draw on Canada’s benchmarking, data collection and reporting expertise. The knowledge gathered from these initiatives will be shared with other countries.

Stay tuned for an update on the results of the pilot projects in a future edition of HUEE.

For more information on NRCan’s role in the development of the ISO 50001 standard, see the news release: Government of Canada Continues Global Leadership on Energy Efficiency Improvement.

The Zerofootprint Prize

Zerofootprint is offering the annual Re-Skinning Awards to showcase the most successful holistic retrofitting projects of the year. These are projects that update older buildings to bring their carbon, energy and water performance to sustainable levels, improve their aesthetics and make them “smarter.”

Zerofootprint is a Toronto-based, not-for-profit organization with a mission to apply technology, design and risk management to the massive reduction of our environmental footprint. Zerofootprint works collaboratively with schools, cities and governments to enable universal benchmarking of environmental impact and to inspire large-scale reductions.

For more information on this initiative, see the entry criteria and submission guidelines. The deadline for entries is August 31, 2011.

Calendar of events

The Calendar of Events for Buildings is updated monthly. It lists energy efficiency conferences and training opportunities across Canada, including dates and locations for the 2011 Dollars to $ense workshops.

The following list highlights key events:

• 2011 FCM Sustainable Communities Mission – La vie en vert: Live the experience, August 7-12, 2011, Montréal – Sherbrooke – Victoriaville – Quebec City (QC)
   
• BOMEX^® 2011: BOMA Canada’s National Conference and Exhibition, September 25–27, 2011, St. John’s (NL) http://bomexnl.com/
   
• Greenbuild NEXT 2011: International Conference and Expo, October 4–7, 2011, Toronto (ON) http://www.greenbuildexpo.org FIRST TIME EVER IN CANADA!

Let us know what you think

Heads Up Energy Efficiency is published by NRCan’s Office of Energy Efficiency and distributed monthly to 18,000 subscribers. Our goal is to deliver meaningful news and information about programs, services and events related to energy efficiency in commercial and institutional buildings – and to share the success stories of those organizations that have benefited from positive change. Help us spread the word by sending this web link to your colleagues, and consider subscribing to our sister publication that looks at energy efficiency in industrial facilities, Heads Up CIPEC.

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