A new year just begun. It’s already 2020, almost at the halfway point of the Building Energy Challenge and a few months from the awards ceremony for our first annual winners. You’ll receive the date of the awards night shortly!
I wish all of you the best of luck, and I encourage you to pursue your ongoing efforts in this cause, one that has become a timely necessity.
Just before Christmas you received an initial compilation of your results. Surprise! With your 2018 personalized results (see ESPM), you now know whether your performance is in the top percentiles… or at the bottom. In the next edition, we will present a short analysis of these results.
No need to panic, but rather a moment to step back and set objectives after looking at your colleagues’ results. It is the nature of a challenge, a competitive flame that pushes us to do even better.
As the new year gets underway it’s time to do an appraisal of your capacity for action (budget, projects underway, access to grants, capital project opportunities). Discuss your ambitions with your collaborators and tenants, and then get back on track for the year ahead.
It’s also a chance to review the opportunities of entering other buildings in the BEC. Why not enter all your buildings in the challenge? I’m convinced that there is potential for reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) and for reducing energy consumption in all your buildings.
Remember that registering your buildings in the competition is FREE of charge. Compile your energy data with Energy Star Portfolio Manager. You’ll see how your buildings compare with similar structures and thus get an idea of the potential for reducing GHG and energy consumption. Even better, it will encourage you to optimize energy management in your real estate projects.
The BEC team is starting the year with big ambitions.
We are actively working on increasing participation in the competition even more, so as to increase the stratified sampling of results, and thus improve analysis of the potential for reducing GHG and energy use in a Quebec real estate industry currently in transition. It is one of our top priorities.
Supporting participants is a major focus of ours. Training and technical information are important tools that help everyone improve their energy-saving projects. The technical committee established last year is very dynamic, and you will be impressed by the great diversity of participants, no matter what the level of your involvement in the BEC.
Additional efforts to provide assistance to participants will be developed. You have no doubt noted the new Web Directory of Energy Efficiency Firms and the new awards category aimed directly at suppliers. We want to include them in this initiative.
In 2020 we will be on the lookout for opportunities to refine our approaches, as an economic sector that can influence energy management.
Slowly, bit by bit, our industry is changing – with you, and thanks to you.
Keep up the good work!
Mario Poirier
Program Director
