The case for energy efficiency
“Decarbonization” isn't a movement – it’s Business 101
By Peter Love and Chun Liang
Although the detailed science of climate change is complex, we can boil it down to five simple statements:
It’s warming
It’s us
We’re sure
It’s bad
We can fix it.
With ever more devastating forest fires, floods, heat waves and droughts, the ravages of climate change have arrived all over Canada. The only question for business leaders now is, how fast can we do our part to reduce CO2 emissions?
Put on your running shoes. In Canada, 81% of our anthropogenic (human-made) greenhouse gas emissions come from the production and use of energy. Thus, the focus of most organizations’ solution should be on reducing energy use and embracing decarbonization. Or to put it more positively, “How can we increase our energy efficiency and decarbonize throughout the organization?”
The good news is that there are seven key ways to decarbonize and boost your energy efficiency:
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Optimizing the use of existing technologies;
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Basically conservation behaviour, but engineered specifically for large buildings and complexes;
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Simply modifying your heating systems can reduce energy use and grid demand;
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e.g., LED lights or Energy Star appliances, or designing LEED-certified buildings;
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Shifting your electricity use to non-peak times;
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e.g., heat using pumps instead of natural gas boilers, and shifting to electric vehicles;
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Energy from the ground or the sun, using geo-exchange or solar photovoltaic systems, or small wind generators. While geothermal energy has generally been limited to low-rise buildings, newer approaches are changing that equation.
While renewable energy is a must-have (although still mainly for low-rise commercial buildings), and a crucial pathway to a sustainable-energy future, there are complexities when deciding what form of renewable energy to embrace, and how much. Harnessing new energy sources can be capital-intensive, but they can also reduce infrastructure costs in concert with a fuel switch to electricity.
Systems makeovers can also reduce energy use when combined with equipment upgrades, such as adding higher-efficiency radiators to compensate for heat loss along your facility’s perimeter. This newer technology promises more efficient heat transfer, which can significantly reduce heat required from central heat-pump systems.
More good news: Since nearly two-thirds of the primary energy used in Canada goes to waste, the costs for options 1, 2 and 5 on the above solutions list is zero, or nearly so. And even most measures for addressing the other approaches are now cost-effective for most organizations – especially with the growing number of incentive programs that offer lower-cost loans for green projects, and the grants available for non-profits and municipalities.
Result: Across all sectors, the potential for energy efficiency in Canada is huge. There’s no excuse not to dive in, experiment, and start counting your savings.
Most commercial/institutional buildings consume energy for heat, cooling and ventilation. With today’s solutions, many building owners and managers can now legitimately aim for the most carbon-friendly building status: Zero Net Carbon (ZNC). This ideal state can be achieved through development of energy-efficient envelopes (walls, roof, windows and doors), which reduce leakage using a continuous air barrier, powered by an on-site energy source such as geothermal or solar.
Examples of ZNC buildings in Ontario, as certified by the Canada Green Building Council's Zero Carbon Building Standard, include the Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation at Mohawk College in Hamilton, and Toronto's first net-zero police station, which will boast a geothermal heat exchanger, solar panels and a green roof when it opens next year in Scarborough. While the costs of achieving ZNC may still exceed many current budgets – with paybacks taking up to 20 years – conscientious builders can make many cost-effective changes at the design phase to reduce their projects’ carbon footprints.
With existing buildings, achieving anything close to carbon neutrality will be even harder and more expensive. But upgrade we must, as today’s buildings will still represent about 75% of Canada’s building stock in 2050.
Still, a few existing buildings have already been certified to the GBC Zero Carbon Building Standard. In Ontario, examples include Scotia Plaza, Toronto (contractor: Kingsmet), the largest building in Canada to achieve zero-carbon certification; Amped Sports Lab in Ottawa (Modern Niagara); and Toronto’s Royal York Hotel (Kingsmet).
To build market confidence for ambitious retrofits, the City of Toronto launched its 2022 Deep Retrofit Challenge, a competition-style incentive program. To see what’s happening today, you can follow its six showcase projects through the links below. Also included in this list is a just-completed $21-million sportsplex retrofit in Brampton, Ont., that uses ground heat, solar heating, roof-top solar panels and AI to slash the high costs of operating ice rinks and swimming pools.
723 Bloor Street West (Dream Unlimited)
1-15 Field Sparroway and 2-10 Tree Sparroway (Toronto Community Housing)
633 Northcliffe Boulevard (Northcliffe Inc.)
177 St. George Street (Dream Unlimited)
145 Woodward Avenue (145 Woodward Ave Inc.)
61 Yorkville Avenue (Minto Apartment Limited Partnership)
Susan Fennell Sportsplex (Brampton, Ont.)
Regardless of where your organization stands in terms of exploring these opportunities, you can’t go wrong if you follow the PDCA Cycle pioneered by productivity legend W. Edwards Deming:
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This includes identifying opportunities, defining goals and establishing process for changes. Many energy-efficiency plans start with a clear understanding of current energy use as well as industry best practices;
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Implement the plan, sometimes starting with a smaller-scale test for new initiatives;
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Compile data to enable a full evaluation of the results, comparing them to initial objectives, and identify potential improvements;
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Incorporate the potential improvements in the next cycle, and launch the process again.
To summarize, climate change is happening now, and every organization must play a role in confronting this challenge. Reducing your organization’s energy use is the most important step you can take. Rarely has economics been more aligned with executive action. Or as Nike might say, “Just Do It.”
Peter Love provides strategic advice on climate/energy issues for energy-service companies, governments, and advocacy organizations. He is the author of the free online textbook Fundamentals of Energy Efficiency.
Chun Liang has led decarbonization and deep energy-savings projects for built environments that have resulted in millions of dollars of cost recovery – and net-zero emissions.