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NRCan presents Energy Star Canada Awards for commercial and institutional buildings

Photo courtesy Horizon Health Network.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) recently announced the winners of the 2022 Energy Star Awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and protecting the environment. The following are this year’s energy-efficiency champions in the commercial and institutional buildings sector.

Building of the Year: Hospital

• Horizon Health Network’s Saint John Regional Hospital (Saint John, N.B.) for optimizing its chiller plant via sequence-of-operation changes and prioritizing the reduction of energy consumption in daily operations (facility pictured).

Building of the Year: K-12 School

• Bliss Carman Middle School (Anglophone West School District, Fredericton, N.B.) for upgrading cafeteria lighting and using heat recovery systems and building management controls to incorporate energy management into day-to-day operations.

Building of the Year: Multi-family Housing

• 2001 Bonnymede Drive (Mississauga, Ont.) for installing electricity submetering on the 120 and 220-V supply in and for every unit, installing energy-efficient lighting and mechanical equipment and participating in provincial energy and water benchmarking and reporting.

Building of the Year: Office

• Brian Canfield Centre (Burnaby, B.C.) for making direct digital control schedule adjustments to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems to reflect building occupancy.
• Commerce South Office Park – Building B (Edmonton) for light-emitting diode (LED) retrofits and energy audits.
• 55 Commerce Valley Drive West (Markham, Ont.) for upgrading lighting fixtures to LEDs on three floors and optimizing air-side free cooling through building automation system (BAS) controls.
• 6985 Financial Drive (Mississauga, Ont.) for unannounced reasons.
• 351 King Street East (Toronto) for Implementing curtailment procedures—including non-essential equipment shutdowns—during peak demand periods and using BAS controls to improve pump staging and operations systems.
• Sun Life Waterloo King (Waterloo, Ont.) for installing variable-frequency drive (VFD) motors.

Building of the Year – Senior Living Community and Residential Care Facility

• Sunrise of Windsor (Windsor, Ont.) for diligent monitoring and maintenance practices and efficient systems.