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INSIDE + Making the case for retrofits + IAQ in academic environments + Modelled efficiency vs. performance realities + Data centre cooling strategies

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High-efficiency heroes

Meet our EM Honours Class of 2026.

Ready, set, retrofit

Breathe easy

Taking the LEED

Playing it cool

How energy managers can move retrofits from readiness to implementation.

Rewriting the rules on school air quality with integrated building systems.

Navigating modelled efficiency versus performance realities.

Selecting a liquid or hybrid cooling strategy for data centre projects.

2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

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ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

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HIGH-EFFICIENCY

HEROES

Congratulations to this year’s honourees!

Meet the EM Honours Class of 2026. BY JACK BURTON

his year, Energy Manager Canada’s EM Honours program turned the spotlight toward the hard-working leaders driving the country’s building transformation, and we couldn’t be more excited to share this year’s line-up of honourees. The pursuit of efficiency across Canada’s building stock takes many forms, and one of the goals behind this year’s EM Honours program was to not just capture outstanding examples of energy management, but also reflect the range of what excellence can look like across the sector. energy-manager.ca

Our showcase of the people behind the projects moving Canada’s built environment forward. With portfolios that span a range of building environments, and major project wins that illustrate the variety of measures, approaches, technologies, and solutions informing energy management excellence in the sector’s current moment, it’s my pleasure to share Energy Manager Canada’s EM Honours Class of 2026 .

Aman Hehar Associate director of energy and climate change, Humber Polytechnic – Toronto, Ont.

While open-heart surger y usually isn’t part of the job description for energy managers, Humber Polytechnic’s associate director of energy and climate change, Aman Hehar, found himself exercising a comparable level of precision as he led the school’s Project SWITCH initiative. “I’ve heard it described as being like open-heart surgery on the campus heating system. I think it goes beyond that, as we weren’t just replacing the heart, we were replacing the veins and arteries as well,” he said. Project SWITCH, which

2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

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looked to transition Humber’s largest campus from a steambased district energy system to a new, low-temperature hot water network – all while keeping the campus operational – is just one of many initiatives Hehar has spearheaded as the leader of Humber’s energy management efforts. As the institution’s first energy manager hire back in 2015, Hehar’s influence extends beyond projects and initiatives, having also shaped the school’s philosophies and approaches toward managing the campus’ building portfolio. In building Humber’s energy management team from the ground up, Hehar’s foremost goal was ensuring that the department’s role and function were seen as more than just facilities management personnel. Hehar kept this clarification in mind as he put together Humber’s Integrated Energy Master Plan (IEMP), a roadmap of the directions and processes behind the goals of the team and its functions while drawing from perspectives across the school, including Finance, faculty representatives, the student federation, and senior leadership. “We spent a lot of time together understanding the risks of doing nothing, agreeing on where we wanted to go, and 6

figuring out what it would take to get there,” he said. “The plan had broad support because people across the institution had been part of developing it. So, when we got to the point of identifying significant capital investments, we weren’t starting from scratch and trying to convince people why these investments mattered. There was already a shared understanding of the challenges and the opportunity.” Since its development, the IEMP’s focus on collaboration, open-mindedness, and longterm perspective has guided the team through multiple successes across campus. Beyond Project SWITCH, this also includes transforming Humber’s least-efficient building through the NX Building Deep Energy Retrofit project, upgrades to the Barrett Centre for Technology “If we Innovation and the Humber Cultural Hub, along with the can give development of Humber’s [students] Green Building Standards. some Managing an academic institution’s building portfolio also practical has the benefits of providing experience, Hehar with unique opportunspark their ities to approach Humber’s buildings not just as part of his curiosity, team’s building stock, but also and show as living classrooms for students them what in related fields. is possible, Humber students enrolled I think the in relevant programs are given impact can the opportunity to work on capstone projects structured as extend well parallel versions of real, on-campus projects, allowing teams beyond from across different programs Humber,” to interact directly with the - Aman Hehar projects’ actual architects and engineers as they develop their own solutions, an approach that Hehar believes has been just as beneficial for his team as it has for the students. “We’ve found that the learning can go both ways: students bring a fresh perspective that can lead to interesting discussions and ideas, and these projects

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

create a stronger connection between the classroom and what is happening on campus,” he said. “What I find most exciting is the potential impact beyond Humber. If we can give them some practical experience, spark their curiosity, and show them what is possible, I think the impact can extend well beyond Humber.”

Gregory Tarasov Energy manager, Warrington PCI Management – Vancouver, B.C.

As a certified energy manager and energy auditor, Gregory Tarasov is a driving force of decarbonization across Warrington PCI Management (WPM)’s 17.2 million sq. ft. portfolio. From his work alongside consultants to his efforts helping property managers turn building data into practical, owner-ready action plans, Tarasov has developed an approach over his 15 years in the field that is rooted in equal parts practicality and collaboration. “My approach has stayed practical: understand the building, look at the data, work out what needs to change, and check whether the change actually helped,” he said. “I [also] place a lot of importance on working with building operators. Their knowledge of the equipment, tenants, and day-to-day issues is essential. Any improvement needs to make sense for the people running the building while supporting comfort, reliability, and the owner’s goals.” Tarasov’s approach has a proven track record, with 2025 alone seeing him deliver 1.4 GWh of savings against a technical target of 800,000 kWh, complete 11 continuous optimization projects, and help enroll more than half of WPM’s eligible buildings into continuous optimization programs. On top of his successes, what distinguishes Tarasov’s work is energy-manager.ca

“I’m trying to make energy management part of how we run buildings every day,” - Gregory Tarasov

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the value he places on creating systems built on long-term, sustainable value that set the standard for energy’s role in everyday building management. “I’m trying to make energy management part of how we run buildings every day,” he said. “Once a project is finished, someone still needs to watch the performance, catch problems, and make sure the improvements last.” A number of Tarasov’s solutions toward navigating energy management across WPM’s portfolio reflect this goal, from a monthly benchmarking tool to his introduction of building-specific energy scorecards. The latest of his efforts has Tarasov in the midst of formalizing a company-wide energy policy regarding the role of efficiency in WPM’s everyday

operations. No matter the task at hand, Tarasov shared that his not-sosecret ingredient to success is data, which he sees as key in not only illustrating the problems that need to be solved, but also highlighting where past attempts at solving those problems have succeeded or come up short. “Data has been essential in helping us understand where energy is being used and what we can do about it,” he said. “Looking forward, I expect data to play a larger role in daily operating decisions. I want operators to have information they can act on, with a clear understanding of what needs attention and whether the building is performing as expected.” Tarasov highlighted his work at Vancouver’s 1090 West Georgia St. as an example of data-driven success. Across that project, Tarasov said that “utility data and building automation trends helped us identify opportunities to adjust HVAC schedules, heating operation, and chiller use.” From this, WPM’s work on the building led to a 31 per cent total energy reduction, a resulting $100,000-plus in annual utility savings, $52,000 per year in avoided bylaw penalties, and an ENERGY STAR score increase from 33 to 75.

required timeframe,” he said. “The analysis should not aim for unnecessary perfection, but it also should not depend entirely on assumptions.” For Coraca, this consistency begins with the development of a deep understanding regarding the contracts and service agreements in play, with this knowledge then used as a foundation to prioritize the actions needed for success. “Not every task has the same value or urgency, so it’s important to distinguish between what is critical to the outcome and what is not, and to focus effort accordingly,” he said. While a solid technical understanding is a key part of Coraca’s approach to problem solving in the world of buildings, he places equal weight on practical, handson experience with the facility itself to witness the operation and interaction of equipment firsthand. “Getting away from the computer and seeing systems in operation helps bridge the gap between theory and reality,

Gustavo Coraca Energy manager, BGIS – St. Albert, Alta.

The efforts of energy management can often extend beyond buildings, requiring the navigation of both complex, project-level problems and a range of perspectives across stakeholder teams. For Gustavo Coraca, carving out a path to success through all of these responsibilities is just as much a matter of consistency as it is competency. “Success is not about who knows the most; it is about who can consistently solve problems with quality and within the 2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

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while also making it easier to communicate with everyone, from field personnel to senior management,” he said. “Whenever possible, I recommend visiting sites, observing equipment, and asking technicians and operators questions.” This approach to energy management was reflected in a client project that saw Coraca test the feasibility of his client’s equipment spaces running at warmer temperatures for increased periods of time across a portfolio of roughly 2,000 facilities, with Coraca helping identify approximately $1.5 million in potential annual electricity savings. After successfully developing a business case, Coraca approached a project of such scale with a conservative pilot, rather than rolling out immediate, portfolio-wide changes. The pilot began in Alberta and has since expanded to British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec, largely confirming the original engineering assumptions around HVAC energy usage. The pilot allowed the team to validate assumptions made during business case development, while also providing time to observe system behaviour instead of making a one-time, portfolio-wide temperature increase. Results were verified through the development of site-specific regression models, built with data from the utility, outdoor air temperature, and heating and cooling degree days. From planning to pilot, Coraca’s consistency-based approach to finding solutions through a balance of technical knowledge and hands-on experience is reflected in the project’s success. “Setting realistic expectations from the outset, acknowledging uncertainty, and being prepared to investigate site-specific results were critical to the initiative’s success,” he said. 8

Ivan Filipic Director at Ecofit Canada/ site leader, Schneider Electric Canada – Mississauga, Ont.

Ivan Filipic understands that sustainability is much more than just marking off a compliance checkbox or good PR – to him, it is both a philosophy and business strategy that has helped guide his career through a number of notable results and achievements. These accomplishments range from significant emissions cuts across various projects to leading a facility transformation that he said has become a blueprint for industry success. “My guiding philosophy is simple,” Filipic shared. “Sustainability must create value for both the environment and the business. The most successful energy innovations are those that simultaneously reduce carbon emissions, improve operational efficiency, enhance reliability, and deliver measurable financial returns.” Integrating technology and business in equal parts into his approach to efficiency has allowed Filipic to stay curious in a field where there’s currently much to be curious about, including mass electrification, building trends, and climate resilience efforts. “Energy management is no

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

longer just about reducing kilowatt-hours – it is about understanding how energy strategy influences operations, capital planning, resilience, sustainability, and long-term business performance,” he said. As director of Schneider Electric’s Ecofit Canada operations, Filipic has leveraged this perspective to help the company realize its goals of electrical infrastructure modernization. Beyond helping clients extend asset life, protect investments, and meet sustainability goals, his efforts have also driven results at Schneider Electric’s headquarters and Ecofit Centre in Milton, Ont. Filipic sees his leadership in the relocation and retrofitting of his employer’s operations building as a standout example of the impact his holistic approach to sustain“My guiding ability can have: “Beyond the philosophy metrics, the project demonstrated that environmental responsibility is simple: and business performance can be sustainability successfully aligned,” he said. The project included the must create deployment of microgrid-ready value for electrical infrastructure and both the built-in electric vehicle charging, environment ultimately leading to a 98 per cent reduction in the site’s fossil fuel and the consumption while cutting down business,” overall energy costs by roughly 30 - Ivan Filipic per cent. Successfully delivering results at such a large scale requires a foundation of organizational buy-in rather than just technical know-how, Filipic shared. Building this foundation, he said, means understanding how to speak every stakeholder’s language: framing financial impacts in business terms for executives, emphasizing reliability and practicality for facility teams, and setting clear objectives for external partners involved. “I focus on building a business case based on measurable outcomes, including energy savings, lifecycle cost reductions, resilience improvements, regulatory energy-manager.ca

readiness, and risk mitigation,” he said. Beyond a commitment to results-driven energy management, Filipic also prioritized staying up-to-date with the fast pace of Canada’s regulatory landscape as another hallmark of his leadership values. Filipic sees his active participation in industry associations and technical forums as directly translating into increased preparedness to lead his team to design for tomorrow’s requirements, not just today’s. “The organizations that succeed in the energy transition are those that view regulatory changes not as obstacles, but as opportunities to innovate and create competitive advantage,” he shared.

Jay Makhija Senior project engineer, EcoGrid Technologies – Toronto, Ont.

Of all the lessons learned through his work leading more than 30 retrofits across heavy industry, advanced manufacturing, institutional, and commercial sites, there’s one principle that stands out for EcoGrid Technologies’ Jay Makhija: understanding the needs of the project and client starts with in-field experience. “I regularly work on site with crews and program networked lighting controls myself,” he said. “This approach helps with having direct context to any challenges we run into over the course of a project.” A certified energy manager and electrical engineer working toward his P.Eng, Makhija has emerged as a specialist for building automation and energy efficiency efforts in industrial and large commercial facilities. These environments require a deep understanding of the buildings’ process demands and production schedules, along with appropriate coordination with energy patterns and any energy-manager.ca

major or critical loads across the facility. Makhija’s approach relies on the use of Energy Management Information Systems (EMIS) to bridge any gaps that emerge around optimizing energy use across facility operations. “An EMIS provides insight into individual loads, peak demand, equipment running outside production hours, and energy use relative to production,” he said. “I have used EMIS with many facilities to guide decisions toward Smart LED retrofits and HVAC improvements – relatively more cost effective than other solutions they may have been looking at – allowing the clients to make informed decisions based on their needs.” Makhija’s milestone accomplishment was the SMART LED retrofit of Husky Technologies’ five-building Bolton, Ont. campus, which was recognized in EM Honours’ 2025 program. After more than 10 months of on-site work, the LED conver-

sion resulted in more than 1.75 million kWh in annual savings, roughly 500,000 kWh more from occupancy- and daylight-based controls, a combined demand reduction above 300 kW, and approximately 94 tonnes of CO2e avoided in the first year. The retrofit was piloted in isolated test zones, using three months of baseline demand and consumption data to demonstrate the project’s effectiveness before the full rollout. After early results showed reductions of up to 74 per cent in demand and 83 per cent in energy use, it was off to the races. “The biggest lessons carried across the whole project: establish a credible baseline, prove performance in a pilot area before committing the full scope, stay organized and ahead of the schedule, keep close to operations and installers, and always verify results after commissioning,” he said. “That sequence is what turns a lighting upgrade into a measurable, trusted energy outcome.” 2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

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While Makhija’s range of project wins have acted as his own energy management masterclass, he also credits the momentum of his career to the guidance of his mentors. Makhija continues to pay this momentum forward through his own mentorship efforts with junior members of his team. “My approach is to give them meaningful ownership early, while staying available to review plans and work through site issues,” he said. “Projects rarely go exactly as planned, so developing PMs who can adapt to changing technology, client needs, and site conditions is what delivers consistent results.”

Kori Jones Director of energy and emissions, Vancouver Coastal Health – Vancouver, B.C.

Healthcare buildings remain a high-stakes area for energy managers, presenting distinct needs such as round-the-clock operation and the integration

of complex medical technology when compared to traditional buildings. Despite these sensitive variables, Kori Jones, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH)’s director of energy and emissions, is up for the challenge. “Healthcare is one of the most complex environments for energy management, because reliability and patient care always come first,” he said. “Unlike many commercial buildings, hospitals operate 24 hours a day, support life-safety and clinical systems, often require high ventilation rates to maintain indoor air quality, and must remain operational during emergencies.” Jones has applied his energy expertise across the utility and industrial sectors, but it’s his work across one of Canada’s largest and most geographically diverse healthcare portfolios that has provided him with many of the opportunities and experiences that he considers part of his highlight reel. These include the advancement of low-carbon resilience planning across VCH, the

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

development of an internal working group alongside facilities operation and maintenance teams to optimize Vancouver General Hospital (VGH)’s heat recovery, and working alongside the project leadership of an acute tower in North Vancouver to change local district energy bylaws to allow for the design of active heat recovery equipment at his facility. While these initiatives have already led to promising impacts – including identifying 47,000 GJ of annual energy savings potential from his work with VGH’s facilities and maintenance teams, along with the bylaw adjustment allowing for the installation of “Healthcare a heat recovery chiller that has is one of reduced both facility energy use the most by 50 per cent and emissions by complex over 300 per cent – Jones sees the long-term foundation provided by environments these projects as equally importfor energy ant to any immediate impact. management, “Many highlights of my career are not about the single project because impact, but rather shaping the reliability and long-term vision of the organization through energy emissions patient care programs that can be sustained and always come scaled out; driving lasting system first,” change that benefits the patients, - Kori Jones staff, and communities served by the health system,” he said. This long-term vision for VCH that Jones is working to build out through his projects extends beyond energy savings, with adaptation to climate change and its resulting risks or hazards across the resiliency of VCH’s buildings weighted as an equal priority. Jones cited extreme heat, wildfire smoke, electrical reliability concerns, and changing energy systems as among the new building resilience realities presented by climate change, with solutions coming from efforts such as infrastructure renewal, low-carbon resilience, and clinical service planning. “Climate adaptation and energy management are increasingly interconnected. There has been a growing priority on managing energy-manager.ca

our climate risks in parallel with our decarbonization planning and projects, normalizing a low-carbon resilience lens on all infrastructure investments,” he said. “The more efficient and flexible our cooling and heat recovery systems are, the less backup power is required to maintain services.” For Jones, the potential obstacles to building resiliency associated with climate change are not wholly negative. Instead, he sees them as presenting a moment of opportunity and beneficial changes across VCH’s buildings and the patients they serve. “Ultimately, the goal is not simply to reduce energy use,” he said. “It is to create healthcare facilities that are safer, more reliable, more resilient, and capable of delivering high-quality care regardless of the challenges posed by a changing climate.”

Reza Babaei Energy engineer, BGIS – Toronto, Ont.

When Reza Babaei looks at a building, he sees it as more than a sum of its parts – rather than just a collection of building materials and mechanical equipment, Babaei said his approach to buildings involves treating them as a dynamic system. This perspective bridges Babaei’s background in mechanical engineering into his current role, where he works with building performance and decarbonization engineering as an energy engineer for BGIS. “My approach has always been to combine engineering analysis with a strong understanding of how buildings actually operate,” he said. “I believe successful energy management is about translating technical analysis into practical, measurable improvements that create lasting value.” Babaei’s most recent successes came from a portfolio-wide study on summer natural gas consumption that flagged buildings across his client’s nationwide facilities displaying evidence of gas use that energy-manager.ca

stayed stubbornly high during the summer months, when heating demand should be minimal. To identify the source of the problem, Babaei took a multisource approach that combined quantitative findings with firsthand feedback from on-site personnel: “Utility data tells us where to investigate, BAS data helps tell us what is happening, and conversations with operators and technicians often explain why it is happening,” he said. After analyzing three years of May-to-September building data, Babaei’s investigation then turned to the site level to examine factors such as utility data, relevant BAS trends, heating system information, operating schedules, and control strategies. This process flagged dozens of buildings that exhibited summer gas usage trends worth addressing, with Babaei categorizing these findings into buildings equipped with BAS and those without it before developing distinct strategies for each category. At sites without BAS, local technicians performed seasonal shutdowns of heating equipment during the cooling season and restored operations in the fall. BAS-enabled sites had corrective programming and optimized control sequences developed based on factors identified in the review, including missing outdoor air temperature lockouts and seasonal schedules. This new programming was then deployed to disable unnecessary heating operation in the summer. The latter’s success was built on Babaei’s approach to BAS optimization, which is aimed at “ensuring building systems respond to actual operating requirements rather than relying on static schedules and setpoints that may have been established years ago,” he said. Even after a big win on the project level, Babaei took his work a step further with the development of a Summer Gas Burning Sites

Guidance Document to clearly share the site evaluation criteria, BAS programming requirements, override management, and restart verification protocols necessary for repeatable, sustained results across future facilities. “One of my main principles is that an engineering recommendation should be clear enough to implement and measurable enough to verify,” he said. “Identifying an opportunity is only the first step: the documentation should explain what needs to change, why it should change, what the expected benefit is, what operational risks need to be considered, and how performance will be verified afterward.” From data collection to documentation, Babaei’s work on this project reflects an energy philosophy that prioritizes longevity and sustainable results as key in navigating the many shifting variables on the path to efficient building operation. “Occupancy patterns, equipment performance, and operational requirements change over time,” he said. “Optimization should not be a one-time exercise.”

“Optimization should not be a one-time exercise,” - Reza Babaei

2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

Retrofits

READY, SET, RETROFIT How energy managers can move retrofits from readiness to implementation. BY KEVIN LOCKHART

Early retrofit action reduces risk exposure

Retrofits can be both costly and complex. As a result, delaying, deferring or making smaller, fragmented upgrades is often framed as a conservative choice when compared to deeper retrofit activity. While avoiding capital spending and waiting for clearer policy signals or deeper incentive offerings may have been the safer option in the past, this logic no longer holds true: the Pembina Institute’s research and convening platform, the Reframed Initiative, shows early and deeper retrofit action is becoming more needed to mitigate risk and capture an array of non-energy benefits. Through the design and retrofit of six multi-unit residential buildings in Metro Vancouver, the Reframed Initiative has shown firsthand the impact more frequent and severe climate events are having on existing buildings 12

By recognizing the value of retrofit outcomes, energy managers can ensure their organizations maximize operational savings and avoid undue risk, says Kevin Lockhart of the Pembina Institute.

and occupants. Whether it is the ability to withstand extreme weather events like wind, hail, and intense temperatures, or in protecting occupants during those events, buildings are expected to take on new roles beyond providing basic shelter. These events are also driving rising insurance rates and premiums at the same time owners are faced with increasing energy and operational costs. This means the time to retrofit is now. Early retrofit action can also help avoid the compounding costs of poor performance and reduce the risk of increased exposure to outages, equipment stress, tenant complaints, and the potential for stranded assets that may not align with future standards. In this context, retrofit activity is increasingly about risk avoidance. The most expensive projects that many organizations will face are not well-planned

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and coordinated deep retrofits, but rather rushed and reactive upgrades forced by regulatory requirements or premature equipment failures.

Retrofits as risk-reduction

As data from the Pembina Institute’s Reframed Initiative has shown, a shift away from business-as-usual upgrades to deep retrofits is underway. This is largely due to the range of benefits retrofits can bring, from reducing emissions and energy waste, improving health and safety, and increasing occupant resilience. Building on these benefits, demand-side management (DSM) tools like smart technologies, load management, efficient equipment, and renewables and storage can also help building owners lower upfront costs and reduce financial risk, as well as energy purchasenergy-manager.ca

Photo: © Eoneren / E+ / Getty images

nergy managers are uniquely positioned to connect building performance and operational risk with capital planning decisions. When called upon to recommend a whole-building retrofit or more incremental performance improvements, energy managers find themselves balancing both short- and long-term impacts associated with aging buildings. These include variables like rising utility costs and regulatory or reporting and disclosure requirements and, increasingly, additional considerations like building electrification, grid constraints, climate risk, performance standards, and the pressure to maintain insurability. As these inputs into the retrofit decision-making process converge, it is becoming clearer that whole-building retrofits make good business sense.

es and peak demand charges, while also creating new opportunities for revenue generation. Alongside this shift, the benefits of building electrification are also gaining ground. Individually or combined, grid-interactive buildings, on-site renewables, thermal or battery storage, and smart load shifting are being recognized as an effective approach to reduce peak electricity demand while lowering operating costs. For owners and operators, this translates to additional savings that can offset retrofit capital costs and support tenant retention. Realizing these benefits demands an integrated approach that reframes retrofit activity as the enabler of electrification, rather than a competing priority. Building retrofits that treat electrification as a primary goal and as part of an integrated retrofit are better positioned to avoid unnecessary electrical upgrades, maintain occupant comfort during grid stress or outages, and prepare to meet future performance requirements.

Making the case with nonenergy benefits

When faced with the decision to recommend a deeper retrofit or not, energy managers often struggle to advance projects based on energy savings alone. That challenge, however, becomes easier when the value of retrofits is considered across a wider area of business priorities. Well-designed retrofits deliver a range of benefits, including: • Reduced exposure of building components to extreme temperatures and moisture damage. • Fewer operational disruptions during extreme weather or grid disruptions. • Fewer tenant complaints and less risk of reputational damage. • Better management of deferred maintenance backlogs. For decision-makers, these nonenergy benefits broaden the justification for retrofit activity and create new ways to reduce risk and the costs associated with those risks, while also contributing to increased operating income. This refined business case creates opportunities to build support energy-manager.ca

across finance, risk, operations, and asset management teams. Broader benefits, and the resulting base of support those benefits create, drive increased coordination across retrofit projects, and is essential to overcoming persistent challenges related to constrained capital and project complexities. Based on a broader interpretation of the business case for retrofits, energy managers can position retrofits as long-term asset renewal and work to integrate energy generation, storage, and mobility services seamlessly and cost-effectively within broader retrofit projects, while shortening payback periods and improving long-term capital planning.

“It is becoming clearer that whole-building retrofits make good business sense,” says Kevin Lockhart. The resulting lower operational costs serve to free up resources that can be redirected to deferred maintenance issues, making buildings more affordable to operate over time. Energy managers play a pivotal role in building internal capability, data, and trust. Increased focus on a long-term plan and a highly integrated approach can be used both in retrofits conducted all at once or in phases over time. This means retrofits can be delivered more effectively both in cost and complexity. For example: • Building envelope assessments can be aligned with major upgrades and long-term capital planning. • Less invasive tools like controls and load management can be implemented quickly and deliver immediate value. • Major equipment replacements, such as heating systems, can be aligned with the equipment’s end of useful life and future electrification plans. • Organizations can build institutional capacity through an incremental and phased approach across their portfolio.

The increased durability of occupant-centred retrofits

One of the most encouraging shifts noted in the Reframed Initiative is the growing focus on tenant and occupant outcomes, including comfort, daylighting, air quality, and thermal stability. These factors help drive retrofit activity, particularly in multi-unit residential buildings, as evidence continues to show that buildings that perform well for occupants are easier to operate, garner broader support, and more likely to deliver savings over time. The occupant experience is essential to scaling retrofit activity, as improving how occupants interact with the building leads to greater project credibility and increased external support. Through incorporating occupant considerations from the outset, energy managers help accelerate retrofit activity across their organization’s portfolio by taking a deliberative and holistic approach. In practical terms, this means: • Embedding retrofit readiness into asset management plans. • Using envelope and systems assessments to inform sequencing. • Piloting DSM and controls upgrades as near-term wins. • Framing retrofits as risk-reduction measures in leadership discussions. • Leveraging case studies to show local, real-world feasibility.

Energy managers as retrofit champions

When the benefits of retrofits are valuestacked, their financial case becomes stronger and more actionable. Deliberative and integrated whole-building retrofits are increasingly the best way to protect buildings, occupants, and business operations in an uncertain future. By recognizing the value of these outcomes, energy managers can maximize operational savings and avoid undue risk. Kevin Lockhart is the director of the Pembina Institute’s buildings program and is based in the GTA. Kevin uses his experience and knowledge of building science, policy and regulatory tools to contribute to the development and implementation of net-zero, tiered construction codes for new buildings, municipal green development standards, and building performance standards for existing buildings.

Digital Edition 2026 · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

Building automation

BREATHE EASY Rewriting the rules on school air quality with integrated building systems.

or decades, the approach to measuring indoor air quality (IAQ) across Canadian school boards was simple: “Basically, if no one complained, the air was assumed to be fine,” said Wissam Ghoussaini, building automation leader for ABB Canada. This longstanding method was one of the procedural casualties to come from the many shifts introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the decade, with indoor air quality now having emerged as a top priority in buildings, especially ones of an academic nature, as part of this new normal. For energy managers overseeing institutional and academic portfolios, this shift has grown into a prominent building management trend, with indoor air quality management continuing to reshape how ventilation, electrical, and even lighting and controls systems are designed, procured, and operated in academic environments.

Reframing performance

The infection control central to pandemic-era indoor air quality management now stands as just one of the many goals these measures look to achieve, having expanded in breadth to include considerations such as the impact of air quality on learning outcomes of the students who use these buildings every day. Ghoussaini highlighted a 2025 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which found a correlation 14

between indoor carbon dioxide levels and student performance; the study associated lowered indoor CO2 in university lecture halls with higher cognitive test scores among its student subjects. “We’re not talking about air quality that could just address infections or health reasons,” said Ghoussaini, “but also academic performance and concentration levels in schools.” Policies do exist to address this relationship, with Ontario’s funding rules directing a substantial share of school renewal dollars toward major building systems: the province’s Education Capital Policies and Programs Manual requires school boards to direct 70 per cent of their School Condition Improvement funding toward major building components and systems such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, rather than leaving those upgrades to compete against cosmetic repairs. This priority is also reflected in the province’s investment of more than $600 million toward school ventilation improvements since 2020. “There’s real acceleration, backed by policies,” Ghoussaini said. “This is a structural shift, in my opinion: shifting everything into an opportunity for the electrical industry to deliver an intelligence layer that makes all of this a reality.”

Bringing it all together

As the goals behind IAQ management in academic environments have expanded, so have the solutions used to achieve

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · Digital Edition 2026

these goals. Amid this evolution, though, Ghoussaini refrains from pointing to any single product, instead believing the highest-impact shift to be the overall trend toward integration across once-separate building solutions, and the resulting disappearance of walls and boundaries between a whole suite of technologies. “The most important shift is actually the convergence of all these technologies,” he said. “We used to talk about different systems, including HVAC systems, the electrification infrastructure, the lighting, and the metering. All of those now are speaking together, being integrated together as a unified solution.” This convergence first shows up at the sensor level. Where a classroom once required separate devices to track factors such as occupancy, temperature and air quality, multi-sensor units now bundle CO2, temperature, humidity and monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into a single product. This change has also emerged at the network level. The industry-wide move toward open protocols – Ghoussaini cites BACnet, Modbus and KNX as examples – is allowing decades-old equipment to talk with modern building automation energy-manager.ca

Photo: © lisapics / E+ / Getty images

BY JACK BURTON

Schools behave differently from other building types, with integrated building systems presenting a potential solution to serve the needs of their high-traffic, fluctuating occupancy.

platforms, without the need for a full rip-and-replace. “A 1985 legacy product with 2010s-era solutions can now all be talking to the latest, top-notch intelligent building automation systems,” he said. As these integrated systems have become more prominent, so has their impact on data availability, with Ghoussaini sharing that this change has created new demand from occupants when it comes to understanding the behaviour of their buildings. “Teachers, administrators – they want to have visibility on what’s going on in real time,” he said. “They want transparency, and this is now part of the design, rather than an add-on.”

Anatomy of a modern retrofit

For Ghoussaini, a well-executed upgrade of a building’s indoor air quality should never be reduced to a single purchase, energy-manager.ca

but rather approached as a sequence: “It is a layered integration; it is a sequential approach,” he said. Ghoussaini explained that these upgrades are not a single product map, but rather a layered integration; starting with sensor deployment across zones and followed by controller upgrades that connect existing equipment to modern data aggregation and integration platforms through those same open protocols. The automated nature of these solutions is considered by Ghoussaini to be perhaps the most impactful design decision offered by this technology. “Rather than running ventilation at fixed rates, regardless of the occupancy, those sequences and algorithms will increase the airflow when the CO2 levels rise, and they will reduce it when spaces are unoccupied,” he said. These algorithms help building managers pursue both sustainability targets and improved air quality as a single goal, said Ghoussaini, who believes that a proper demand-control strategy provides a path for success for both objectives in tandem. “When occupancy and carbon rates are monitored in real time, you can actually deliver fresh air exactly when and where it is needed, so in practice, those demand-control algorithms and ventilation algorithms can reduce the air conditioning energy consumption,” he said. This mechanical automation does not have to exist in isolation – in fact, Ghoussaini recommends compounding this system’s integration with other building solutions such as lighting for increased overall savings. “If you’re using the same occupancy sensors to drive the operation of the mechanical equipment, and you’re using the same sensor to drive lighting controls, then you’re delivering aggressive energy savings in your building,” he said. “You’re not just tackling one problem, you’re also handling multiple problems and integrating them all together.”

Academic distinctions

From occupant needs to energy usage, schools behave differently than typical commercial buildings, with Ghoussaini believing these differences to be an

important consideration when it comes to technological operations and system design. “When we talk about academic environments, we’re talking about a very particular institution that warrants the need for a purpose-built approach when compared to what we do usually in commercial buildings,” he said. “You will have rooms that are occupied, and in 50 minutes they are empty, compared to offices, where basically, you’re working eight or nine hours.” That volatility in occupancy requires systems built for rapid, frequent swings in demand, rather than steady-state operation. This need puts a premium on solutions capable of integrating mechanical, electrical, and controls infrastructure into one coherent system, rather than treating air quality as an isolated sensing project. With these unique demands come distinct priorities for energy managers evaluating potential automation and integration solutions for managing these spaces. While interoperability and scalability are key considerations, Ghoussaini also highlights cybersecurity as an essential factor to prioritize. Beyond the wealth of sensitive student and operational data contained in their systems, schools also sit on networks connected to government systems – making data privacy and security a requirement, not an afterthought. Effective programs combine rolebased access control with hardware encryption, and comply with recognized security frameworks that often require expertise spanning the domains of both software and building technology, said Ghoussaini. Beyond technological solutions, however, he believes that closing any gaps – whether they be around scalability or cybersecurity – comes down to collaboration and communication between building operators, IT teams, and vendors that begin at the earliest design conversations, rather than after installation. “Adoption of these technologies is the result of collaboration and alignment and making sure that those parties talk and deliver together what the market and the industries are expecting from us,” he said. “It’s not just one party that is going to offer the end-to-end service without communicating with others.”

Digital Edition 2026 · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

Energy modelling Energy efficiency doesn’t end at the certification of a building, shared Melvin Newman of Patabid.

Taking the LEED BY MELVIN NEWMAN

eadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification has been part of the construction conversation for decades. It’s widely recognized, frequently specified, and carries real weight with developers, investors, and public institutions. But underneath the certification prestige, there are some persistent

questions the industry tends to sidestep: Does LEED in construction actually produce greener buildings? And are the compliance requirements worth the cost? After working through a significant number of LEED building construction projects, I’ve found that the honest answer is more complicated than the certification level suggests.

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

What LEED gets right

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s a third-party certification program that evaluates building projects against a defined points matrix across categories like energy efficiency, materials, and site sustainability. Certification levels range up to platinum, depending on total points achieved. The program has gone through multiple versions and is currently on version 5. LEED gained momentum in the late 1990s and early 2000s, peaking in adoption around the 2010s. It remains the most widely recognized green building standard in the world, though its domenergy-manager.ca

Navigating modelled efficiency versus performance realities.

inance has softened as questions about real-world performance have grown louder. LEED did something meaningful: it made green construction a mainstream conversation. It gave clients, investors, and regulators a shared vocabulary and a reference point for sustainability expectations. And the data does show real upside in some cases – a peer-reviewed analysis of 100 LEED-certified commercial and institutional buildings found they used 18 to 39 per cent less energy per floor area than conventional counterparts at the point of construction. That’s a meaningful result. But raising awareness and producing measurable outcomes are different things over the long run. The environmental impact of a building over its operating life, typically 50 to 100 years, vastly outweighs the footprint of its construction. A 2025 review of LEED energy performance research found significant variability in outcomes across certified buildings, reinforcing that certification level and building performance are not the same metric.

Estimating risk on LEED building construction projects

From an estimating standpoint, LEED jobs don’t necessarily take longer to price. The risk, however, is higher than it appears on the surface. Compliance requirements extend beyond the products themselves to their packaging. Bulk material orders need to arrive in LEED-compliant or reusable packaging, and when that’s impractical, the common workaround has been to unbox product at the warehouse and transport it to site without packaging. That workaround, ironically, often consumes more energy than a direct site delivery would have. For trades like painting, the implications are more severe. VOC restrictions on paints under LEED building design and construction requirements mean that standard products aren’t an option. Missing that line item in an estimate can be a serious problem before work even begins. These hidden compliance costs are where construction LEED jobs have caught contractors off guard – and energy-manager.ca

they’re worth understanding before you price your next LEED building design and construction project.

The performance gap

The more significant concern is what happens after a building receives its certification. Research published in the Journal of Green Building documented LEED certified buildings on university and college campuses performing roughly 44 per cent worse than their projected energy models. These weren’t construction failures in any conventional sense: the buildings were completed and certified, but they simply didn’t perform the way the design indicated they would.

“Treating a certification level as a reliable indicator of long-term green performance is a misconception the industry is slowly working through” Part of the explanation lies in how LEED certification is structured. There is no meaningful ongoing performance requirement after certification is awarded. While a certificate can be challenged and revoked, that process is rarely pursued in practice. The result is that a building’s certified status reflects what it was modelled to do, not what it actually does over its operating life. A study of LEED certified academic buildings in Ontario found that while certified buildings showed energy benefits in aggregate, a number of individual buildings were performing below both the provincial average and their own campus-wide energy intensity benchmarks. The research concluded that accountability mechanisms were needed to ensure certified buildings operate as intended.

Energy modelling and incentive misalignment

One of the less-discussed problems with LEED in construction is the gap between modelled performance and actual performance, and the incentive structure that allows that gap to persist.

Energy models are produced during the design phase to support certification. There is real financial and reputational incentive to produce favourable models: a higher certification level supports premium positioning for a building on the market, particularly for developers or institutional investors who intend to sell. Because there’s no long-term performance accountability built into the program, that incentive goes largely unchecked. Construction LEED may also struggle to keep up with advances in building technology. Some of the most thermally efficient construction methods available today, including certain foam sandwich assemblies, aren’t recognized within the points matrix. Even version 5 operates on assumptions that don’t account for newer innovations in materials and methods. This can create a real problem for a program intended to push the industry forward. A contractor using genuinely innovative, high-performance materials may receive no certification credit for it, while a project using older, well-catalogued materials scores cleanly within the system. This can be a particularly frustrating reality for anyone operating at the leading edge of LEED building construction today. What’s missing is a broader incentive structure tied to actual energy performance over time, something like operational energy credits that reward buildings for how they perform across decades, not just at the point of completion. That kind of program doesn’t exist at meaningful scale yet. LEED remains the most recognized standard available, and for projects where it’s specified, understanding the compliance requirements in detail is essential to pricing and executing the work accurately. But treating a certification level as a reliable indicator of long-term green performance is a misconception that the industry is slowly working through. Melvin Newman is the CEO and co-founder of PataBid. With nearly two decades of experience in construction estimating, Newman has provided his expertise in AI, ML, and systems development to the construction industry through PataBid since the platform’s launch in 2018.

2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

DATA CENTRES

PLAYING IT COOL Selecting a liquid or hybrid cooling strategy for data centre projects. BY CHRIS FLOOD

Chris Flood believes that establishing how heat will move from the IT equipment to the final heat rejection system is an essential first step in data centre cooling projects.

the final heat rejection system before comparing cooling options. For many projects, the resulting design will combine liquid cooling with air cooling, which makes understanding the duty assigned to each system essential to selecting equipment and avoiding problems when the facility expands.

Establish the equipment requirements

Start with an agreed IT equipment schedule and deployment plan that establishes the expected operating load, maximum rack load, and likely changes over

the next hardware refresh. A hall-wide average can conceal a small number of heavily loaded racks. In an existing facility, use measured loads alongside the equipment suppliers’ design requirements. Obtain the permitted coolant supply temperatures, required flow rates, pressure limits and fluid specifications for the proposed hardware before confirming its remaining air-cooling requirements. These inputs determine what the building systems must deliver, and also must remain compatible as equipment from different suppliers is introduced.

or facilities and energy managers, cooling selection depends on the IT heat load, the coolant conditions and how the complete system will operate throughout the year. A data centre can have enough total cooling capacity and still struggle to cool a particular rack. The limitation may be the airflow reaching the equipment, the coolant flow through the cold plates, or the temperature available from the cooling plant. My recommendation begins with establishing how the heat will move from the IT equipment to

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

energy-manager.ca

Define the liquid and aircooling duties

Direct-to-chip cooling circulates coolant through cold plates attached to processors and other selected components. Components outside that liquid circuit can still reject heat to air. The proportion depends on the hardware, so ask the supplier for the heat split at the proposed operating conditions. For example, NVIDIA’s CS8500 switch uses a stated 90 per cent liquid and 10 per cent air split. That is a requirement for a particular product, not a design assumption for every rack. A rear-door heat exchanger transfers heat from the server exhaust air into a liquid circuit, with the servers themselves remaining air-cooled. This can be a useful option when retaining compatible air-cooled equipment, provided the door’s thermal performance and resistance to airflow are acceptable. Access for servicing and the loads imposed on the rack also need checking. Immersion cooling involves the placement of electronics in an electrically insulated fluid. This changes how equipment is installed and serviced, making the compatibility of the hardware and fluid, maintenance procedures, and warranty arrangements part of the selection. Evaluate it as a complete equipment system. Consider a 1 MW IT load with an assumed 80 per cent of its heat captured by liquid. The liquid circuit carries 800 kW, leaving 200 kW for air cooling before other room gains are added. A simple ±20 per cent load check changes the residual IT air load to 160–240 kW, assuming the heat split remains constant. If liquid capture falls to 70 per cent at the original load, the air duty rises to 300 kW. The air system must also serve that heat where it is released. Retaining capacity elsewhere in the hall does not establish adequate rack cooling. energy-manager.ca

The cooling needs of data centres demand a range of considerations, with tolerable levels of pipework debris among them.

Specify the CDU at the actual operating conditions

A liquid-to-liquid coolant distribution unit, or CDU, transfers heat between the technology cooling system serving the IT equipment and the facility water system. Its heat exchanger separates the two fluids, allowing their treatment and operating conditions to differ. Specify the required duty using the actual coolant, both circuits’ temperatures and flow rates, and the pressure available to circulate coolant through the racks, and include losses through manifolds, hoses and quick disconnects. Performance data at those conditions should also be requested, including operation with the intended redundant equipment unavailable. The CDU’s approach temperature is the difference between its technology-loop supply temperature and facility-water supply temperature. For an illustrative 30 °C technology-loop supply and a 5 K approach at the design duty, facility water needs to be approximately 25 °C. That requirement carries through to the heat rejection plant: a warmer facility supply cannot

be assumed acceptable because a CDU has a sufficient nominal kW rating. Keep the fluid specification consistent across cold plates, seals, hoses and other wetted components. Confirm water treatment, filtration and sampling requirements, and assess condensation wherever cold surfaces could fall below the surrounding air’s dew point, including during start-up and changes in room humidity.

Compare performance throughout the year

Canadian weather can provide substantial opportunities for compressor-free cooling. Dry coolers and waterside economizers can reject heat without operating chillers when outdoor conditions and required coolant temperatures permit. The number of usable hours depends on the location and the temperature differences across the complete system, so check summer operation as carefully as winter operation. Outdoor circuits also require freeze protection. Where glycol is used, account for its effect on heat transfer and pumping performance at the specified

2026 Digital Edition · ENERGY MANAGER CANADA

DATA CENTRES

concentration and fluid temperatures. The outdoor facility circuit and indoor technology circuit may need different formulations. This is where modelling should inform equipment selection. Compare each option using the same hourly IT load and local weather, with equipment performance curves and proposed control sequences, and include room air cooling, CDU pumps, distribution pumps, heat rejection fans and compressor energy. Model the first deployment phase as well as the eventual build-out, as equipment selected for the final capacity may operate inefficiently while the hall is lightly loaded. Electricity use, peak electrical demand, water consumption, and operating cost should all be reported, with capital expenditure and maintenance costs compared over a common assessment period. Power usage effectiveness, or PUE, expresses total facility energy relative to IT energy, and should be used alongside the absolute energy figures and water use. A reduction in evaporative cooling water may involve different fan or compressor requirements, with a comparison of the complete plant revealing whether that trade-off suits the site. Predicted savings should be treated as provisional until loads, supplier data, and controls have been verified.

Evaluate a practical use for recovered heat

Warmer coolant can improve the opportunity to supply heat to another building or a district system. Establish the receiving system’s temperature requirement, distance and hourly demand. Where a heat pump is needed, include its electricity consumption and the heating energy it displaces in the comparison. Space-heating demand varies 20

seasonally, which means that a useful winter heat load does not establish a year-round outlet. Quantify the heat actually delivered to the user and retain adequate heat rejection when that user is unavailable. That operating case belongs in the original design.

Prove the maintenance and failure sequences

Redundancy needs to extend through the heat removal path. Evaluate a pump or CDU outage, loss of facility cooling, failed sensors and power transfers against the required service continuity, while also establishing how the system detects a leak, isolates the affected section and protects the equipment. Room air cooling should be counted only as backup for liquid-cooled components where the IT supplier confirms that capability. Include pressure testing, cleaning, flushing, and documented fluid acceptance criteria before connecting the racks, as debris that is tolerable in conventional

ENERGY MANAGER CANADA · 2026 Digital Edition

building pipework can obstruct narrow cold-plate passages. During integrated commissioning, verify coolant delivery and rack inlet conditions at representative loads, and demonstrate the agreed alarm and failure responses, while also giving the operating team usable procedures for isolating equipment, replacing filters and sampling fluid. I would expect the final selection to be supported by a heat balance for both cooling systems, supplier-confirmed operating limits, an annual energy and water comparison, and demonstrated maintenance and failure sequences. Those results allow a facilities manager to assess whether the proposed system can support the equipment being installed, along with the next stage of expansion.

Flood shared that outdoor circuits require freeze protection, which may require different formulations than indoor technology.

Chris Flood is VP, Canada at Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), a global climate tech company delivering building performance simulation software and consultancy services to the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. He is a mechanical engineer and building energy modeller with a background in HVAC system design and building performance simulation. He also teaches HVAC Load Analysis at BCIT.

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