Terry YoungVice-President, Conservation and Corporate RelationsIndependent Electricty System Operator

ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN RETAIL Brought to you by the Independent Electricity System Operator and your local hydro company.

A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Conventional wisdom used to be that increased demand for electricity was a great indicator of economic growth. The logic was simple - the more we produce, the more energy we must need. Not anymore. Today, businesses throughout Ontario have embraced energy efficiency as a key to greater competitiveness. For them, using less energy actually powers new business opportunities. Between 2011 and 2014, Save on Energy business programs saved 4,077 GWh of energy and 389 MW of demand in the province.

With energy efficiency, businesses can realize substantial energy savings, but also improve their cost structures, processes and overall competitiveness. Some businesses see improved employee engagement, for others it means reinforcing ties with their community, and for others still, it translates into a better customer experience. And perhaps most of all, many value the opportunity to contribute to the health and well-being of their communities by using energy wisely.

To help businesses continue to move forward toward greater efficiency and competitiveness, the province has introduced a new approach that puts energy efficiency ahead of all other supply options. This approach, “Conservation First”, is designed to take us to the next level of energy savings.

With ambitious new energy reduction targets in place, the bar is set higher now than it’s ever been. Save on Energy programs delivered by local hydro companies have been re-designed to ensure that, together, businesses can meet provincial goals while at the same time reaping the rewards of sound internal energy management practices. Looking ahead, there will be even greater opportunities for businesses to reduce their overhead through retrofits, energy audits, lighting and equipment upgrades.

This publication will help you find ways to take advantage of the many benefits of using energy wisely. In reading about different approaches to energy management, and business leaders’ determination to turn great ideas into great results, perhaps you’ll find the inspiration to do the same. To find out more about what energy efficiency can do for your business, visit saveonenergy.ca or contact your local hydro company (ieso.ca/findutility).

Round Table Participants

ROBERT EDWARDS, Business Manager, Private Sector, IESO JOHN BURCHELL, Account Executive, Mercor Lighting ANDREW TYRRELL, Project Manager, Nedap DAVID PIOTTO, Technical Sales Representative, Industrial Air Division, Atlas Copco HARRI MAKIVIRTA, Virta Energy Consultants MARK PASINI, Energy Manager, Giant Tiger YISELA LORION, Laser Controls

PETER ROWLES, Principal, DSM, ICF Canada IAN CROOKSTON, Manager of Energy Management, Sobeys JENNIFER GRADO, Commercial Sector Lead, Toronto Hydro LISA TAYS, Project Engineer, Canadian Tire

SPOTLIGHT ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY

There’s no doubt about the growing relationship between sustainability and business profitability. It comes as no surprise, then, that an increasing number of companies in a variety of sectors are now developing formal energy management strategies.

This realignment of sustainability practices, initiatives and goals with business strategy is especially evident in the retail sector, an industry in the midst of significant change when it comes to energy efficiency. Operations, business models and supply chains are all experiencing massive changes that reflect the sector’s renewed focus on reducing its environmental impact. With the introduction of new technologies and incentive programs, there have been plenty of opportunities for retailers to make advances in energy efficiency. But what has proved most effective?

To address this question, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) held a roundtable discussion with a group of retailers, energy managers and equipment vendors – “energy champions” who gathered to discuss the successes and challenges they have experienced in managing their businesses’ electricity costs. The insights shared at this event are outlined in the pages that follow.

STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN RETAIL

Energy management is fast becoming one of the retail sector’s largest areas of focus, for good reason: energy use is a major operational expense. Energy costs for a grocery store typically account for approximately 1% of sales, which is the same as some stores’ net profit margin.

Customers are becoming more environmentally aware and are increasingly supporting retailers that embrace sustainability. However, the retail stores they frequent are often intense users of energy. Lighting is often left on 24 hours per day, refrigerators continuously chill large product displays, and heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems are left operating at full capacity in an attempt to create a pleasant shopping experience for customers.

Taking all these factors into consideration, it simply makes good business sense to invest in initiatives that reduce energy consumption, energy demand and maximize profits. However, some retailers are unaware of energy management best practices and the benefits that greater sustainability can offer.

By becoming more energy-efficient, retailers can improve the comfort of customers, increase the productivity of their employees and achieve cost savings that enhance corporate profitability – it’s a win-win situation.

The retail sector is undoubtedly taking significant steps to improve its energy efficiency, but many of those who are spearheading sustainability initiatives encounter barriers – especially in large organizations where endorsement at all levels is required before moving forward.

STARTING AT THE TOP

Most retailers agree that customer service and satisfaction form the number one priority in the retail sector, and key decision-makers may be hesitant to approve energy efficiency projects that could potentially affect the brand experience.

However, by making improvements in energy efficiency, retailers can increase customer comfort, demonstrate social responsibility, add value to their brand, enhance customer loyalty and potentially increase revenues, all at the same time. Retailers can reap all these benefits while reducing their operating expenses, but before improvements can be made, endorsement by top-level leadership must be obtained. A commitment to energy efficiency from senior managers creates the foundation for establishing energy performance goals and fully integrating energy management practices into a company’s culture and operations.

“It’s important for organizations to consider specifically how energy efficiency would impact profitability, because a successful business is more about how much money you have at the end of the year – not about how much you sold,” says Ian Crookston of Sobeys. “Would you rather have a $1 million business and only $100 worth of profit, or a $10,000 business and $1,000 worth of profit? People often focus too much on the top line, when the bottom line is what you get to keep at the end of the year.”

MEASURE TO MANAGE

Energy audits are often the first step for a business to take to improve its energy efficiency. They can identify opportunities for improvement and provide business cases in several areas, including prioritizing projects that yield the best return on investment.

Building energy benchmarking is the ongoing review of an organization’s energy consumption to determine if a building’s energy performance is getting better or worse in comparison to its past consumption, to other buildings in a portfolio or to its peers. Benchmarking allows organizations to identify energy-inefficient buildings and establish a baseline for measuring improvement in energy consumption across all their buildings.

FACTElectricity costs for retail stores can range from $3 to $6 per square foot, depending on the amount of refrigeration in the store.

If we can reduce our energy costs, those savings then get passed on to our customers because we won’t have to increase the price of the product to pay operating costs.

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Lisa Tays, Canadian Tire

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Many large retailers have invested in building automation systems that allow operators to easily identify potential areas for improvement. “We have real-time data that is uploaded every few minutes to a dashboard,” explains Andrew Tyrrell of Nedap. “So you have all the information you need coming in. We can monitor demand, consumption, control systems and equipment remotely, and do schedule changes, maintenance monitoring and maintenance scheduling through the building automation system.” Building automation systems also help to manage peak demand and participation in demand response initiatives can reduce energy costs or generate a new source of revenue.

52% of electricity used by food retailers is for refrigeration. High-efficiency refrigeration can dramatically reduce supermarket energy consumption.

(Source: Retail Council of Canada’s Energy Bright Report)

You need to measure before you can manage. Once you understand how you’re running your business, where you’re using electricity and what your worst offenders are in terms of consumption, then you can start effectively managing your energy usage.

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Andrew Tyrrell, Nedap

Small retailers may not have access to this kind of system, making identifying major sources of energy consumption and building inefficiencies more challenging.

Referring to energy bills to calculate kilowatt hours of electricity consumed per square foot on a monthly basis allows the retailer to see the impact of seasonal variations in heating and cooling requirements while also comparing year over year performance.

With the information gleaned from their energy bills, retailers can consider which energy efficiency initiatives will yield the best return on their investment. “We always start by doing a cost-benefit analysis to explore our options,” says Lisa Tays of Canadian Tire. “From this, we can decide whether to retrofit the equipment or purchase a newer alternative. It helps us determine which is most beneficial to us.”

Businesses large or small can also bring in external consultants to conduct comprehensive audits of their facilities. These experts will be able to assess the potential for energy savings in a building through equipment replacement, changes in operational practices or upgrades of building systems. This information is then broken out in a thorough report that details the recommended actions, projected costs and the estimated return on investment.

“Using the report, you can tell the client that if they do all the measures, this is what their net overall savings will be,” explains Mark Pasini of Giant Tiger. “Or, you can tell them that

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52% of electricity used by food retailers is for refrigeration. High-efficiency refrigeration can dramatically reduce supermarket energy consumption.

if they just pick one of the measures – let’s say lighting – these are the individual savings. They can then prioritize which individual measures to invest in right away and which can be saved for the future.”

BRINGING ENERGY MANAGEMENT TO THE FOREFRONT

In today’s marketplace, energy management offers retailers a significant competitive advantage. Retailers are beginning to recognize that they waste millions of dollars every year through inefficient systems and are attempting to reverse this trend in their stores. By implementing an energy management strategy, retailers can reduce their operating costs and ensure they can compete on price while still maintaining – and in some cases even increasing – their profit margins.

For best results, companies should take a holistic approach to energy efficiency. However, often the technical aspects of energy efficiency are not well understood.

Retailers also may not consider what should be done with older equipment when it reaches the end of its useful life. Instead, this issue is put off until the equipment stops functioning, leading to hasty decisions.

Jennifer Grado, Commercial Sector Lead at Toronto Hydro, believes that educating and empowering business owners to make equipment purchasing decisions based on energy management is one way of overcoming the barrier that businesses face in attaining greater levels of energy efficiency.

“What we are trying to do at Toronto Hydro is encourage business owners to shift from wearing the firefighter hat to wearing the energy manager hat,” she says.

While the energy efficiency of a retail location is mainly determined by the type of equipment used and the efficiency of the building itself, the behaviour of owners and employees also plays a part. For many companies, the main barrier preventing them from moving toward more energy-efficient equipment and operations is simply not knowing where to begin.

Many successful businesses have both energy plans and in-house resources directed to managing energy use. The energy manager’s role is to help companies take control of their energy use by monitoring performance and identifying cost-effective options to save energy. The energy manager achieves these goals through inspections, surveys and analyses of energy use in a company’s facilities. An energy manager can also assist in creating a culture of conservation within an organization to promote energy efficiency at every level.

Companies can benefit substantially from an energy manager, with incentives available through local hydro companies.

NO-COST/LOW-COST STRATEGIES

By starting with no-cost or low-cost approaches to energy efficiency improvements, retailers can realize significant savings that they can put toward more extensive sustainability initiatives in the future. But where should they begin?

“A no-cost solution is to ensure that all equipment is turned off when it’s not required, and a simple low-cost solution would be to install occupancy sensors to reduce lighting electricity consumption. Sometimes you don’t have to take elaborate measures to see the results you want,” says Lisa Tays of Canadian Tire.

LED parking lot lighting can provide significant energy savings compared to traditional lights, in part because the lights are more precise in their direction, reducing light pollution and limiting glare.

We asked a large clothing retailer if their LED lighting retrofit had an impact on their sales. They didn’t have any data on sales numbers, but they told us there was a significant reduction in returns as customers were able to get the colour garments they wanted due to the natural colour of the LED lights.

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT ON SUSTAINABILITY

Good store design and attractive presentation of merchandise are increasingly considered essential for competitiveness. For retail stores, lighting represents a significant portion of energy usage and costs. For non-food retailers, lighting accounts for up to 40% of a store’s energy consumption. For grocery stores, that number is 20%.

Fortunately, today’s advanced lighting systems have created opportunities to reduce energy consumption while shortening the payback period for lighting upgrades. Retailers are seeing significant energy savings – as well as reducing their maintenance costs – when they upgrade their lighting systems.

“Lighting is a popular measure for retailers to start with because of the payback it offers,” explains Andrew Tyrrell of Nedap. “With a full lighting retrofit, you can expect payback in less than one and a half years. With modern LED fixtures, it’s even better than that.”

Not only can lighting system upgrades reduce energy costs, they can also lower costs associated with purchasing and installing replacement bulbs, since LED lighting typically lasts much longer. In addition, the light from LED bulbs is flexible and can show truer, more vibrant colours. For grocery stores, the quality of the light can actually reduce spoilage costs, since LED lighting doesn’t emit UV light, so fresh produce doesn’t age as quickly.

“Lighting has a key impact on merchandising,” says Ian Crookston, Manager of Energy Management at Sobeys. “Whether you are in the meat department, or the produce department, you want to optimize the appearance of your products. For us this means using a range of colour temperatures from 3000 to 4000K.”

For retailers, the truer colours that LED lights produce can also contribute to a reduction in clothing returns – mainly because clothing in the store looks the same as it does at home.

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LIGHTING SYSTEMS 101

Advanced lighting systems are available for every application in a retail setting, from overhead lights to exit signs to exterior lighting. Here are a few examples of how upgrades can make lighting systems more efficient:

• Building automation can reduce consumption by allowing retailers to program settings for open hours, maintenance hours and after hours, thus reducing the time lights need to be on.

• Installing motion sensors in storage areas, storage refrigeration systems and offices that turn off lighting when these areas are unoccupied cuts down on unnecessary energy consumption.

• Integrating dimmable LED lighting into a building automation system ensures the light produced matches the light required. Lights dim during the day and strengthen at night.

LIGHTING UPGRADES MAKE BUSINESS SENSE

• Upgrading T12 lighting to LED can reduce energy consumption by up to 90% and provide payback in less than two years.

• Upgrading halogen track lighting to LED can reduce energy consumption by more than 75%, last over 10 times longer and provide payback in less than two years.

• Upgrading T8 lighting to LED can reduce energy consumption by more than 35% and provide payback in five to six years.

Robert Edwards, IESO

“A great place to start is to just do a spot measurement or a count of the number of lighting fixtures,” suggests Mark Pasini of Giant Tiger. “You know their input power and hours of operation. You know exactly what your demand will be all day and what your energy consumption will be throughout the year, because with retail it’s a very predictable schedule. You don’t have to get into things like equipment sub-metering.”

Another positive development in retail lighting is the greater level of control that modern lighting solutions offer. “Everybody’s migrating to LED technology, and the beautiful thing about that is it’s a digital power supply, which means that we can now control power output from individual fixtures,” says Andrew Tyrrell of Nedap. “Most of the fixtures have got about 20% depreciation in light output over the course of their life. So if we know that there will be 20% depreciation 80,000 hours from now, and we’re putting them in based on 80,000 hours of use, why don’t we run them from day one at 80% power and then slowly dial them up as we need to increase it?”

Large retailers are also beginning to explore alternative lighting options, such as harnessing natural light sources. “Some companies are taking advantage of daylight control so that their load isn’t constant,” says Mark Pasini.

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90%

35%

75%

REFRIGERATION

Considering the growing demand for convenience and fresh products, the use of refrigerated areas in supermarkets is unlikely to decrease. But with refrigeration being a major cost for grocery stores – accounting for up to 52% of a store’s energy use – retailers are understandably looking for ways to reduce this cost.

“Refrigeration is on 24 hours a day 365 days per year,” explains Harri Makivirta of Virta Energy Consultants. “They have to cool day and night, and when the store’s very busy the refrigeration costs go up, because staff are restocking shelves and cooler doors are opened more often by customers”.

It’s not possible to turn refrigerators off at the end of the day or raise the temperature settings to Save on Energy costs. But with the right refrigeration upgrades, it is possible to reduce costs and the amount of energy consumed.

Another way for grocery stores to reduce energy consumption related to refrigeration is to upgrade equipment. Updating refrigeration systems can significantly reduce the amount retailers spend on electricity, as well as providing other benefits such as improvements in product quality. For example, a freezer that has less temperature fluctuation can eliminate the formation of crystals on ice cream.

Updating refrigerators and freezers with energy-efficient doors and strategically placed lighting can also provide notable non-financial benefits, such as allowing customers to see products more easily than they can with poorly lit open cases. Additionally, changing from bin-style refrigerators and freezers to upright models may make product access easier for customers by providing better product display and higher SKU density.

However, when it comes to refrigeration, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, as energy consumption varies widely from business to business. “Grocery stores typically represent the second highest amount of energy used per square foot, whereas convenience stores are the highest because they generally have a smaller footprint and are totally circled in refrigeration,” explains Harri Makivirta.

REFRIGERATION CHECKLIST

• Changing from open case to closed-door freezers can cut energy consumption by 75%.

• Changing lighting from T8 to LED uses less energy and reduces the load on refrigeration systems by producing less heat, reducing energy costs by up to 70%.

• Upgrading fan motors and evaporators on walk-in refrigerators and freezers can reduce energy consumption.

• Cleaning and maintenence of coils.

LED Lighting helps produce stay fresh longer because it does not emit UV light.

When it comes to purchasing new equipment versus retrofitting existing machinery, the general consensus is that the decision depends on the age of the equipment. If it’s over 15 years old, it should probably be replaced. However, if the equipment is less than five years old, then it’s better to invest in controls, suggests Harry. “By controlling those door heaters and evaporators, upgrading motors to EC motors and lighting to LED, and taking advantage of free cooling using outside air, your payback is basically around three years, with over 60% reduction in annual energy costs.”

GLASS DOORS ON REFRIGERATED DISPLAY CASES

Owners, operators and managers of retail establishments are discovering the many benefits of retrofitting glass display doors on existing open refrigerated display cases. For much less than the cost of replacing existing cases, retailers can install glass display doors that significantly reduce the interchange of cold refrigerated air from inside the case with the warmer air of the store environment.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Upgrading to display refrigerators and freezers with doors can cut energy consumption by about 75%, depending on the condition of the original unit.

Refrigerator doors can increase the dwell time of customers, which in turn can lead to higher sales.

Refrigerator case retrofits can reduce heat loads on the refrigeration system by as much as 50% to 80%, resulting in substantial electricity savings. Adding doors to open cases can also yield additional non-energy benefits for operators, including greater control over case temperatures, reduction in product spoilage and increased customer comfort.

“Walk-in coolers always have doors, as do freezers. But the big change over the last five years has been medium-temperature, multi-deck cases having doors,” Ian Crookston of Sobeys explains. “Nowadays, if we build a store or replace cases for dairy products, those cases will always have doors. And if we build a store, it’s cost neutral in the first place and you save $100 per linear foot per year.”

In fact, some retailers are even reporting an increase in customer dwell times, which can in turn result in higher sales. “Enclosing refrigeration provides a much more comfortable environment for our shoppers,” says Ian Crookston. “I’ve also read another study which noted a reduction in shoplifting rates and longer shelf life.

“Food retailers put doors on freezer cases and we seemed to survive,” Crookston adds. “And I think that if everyone does it, it’s not a problem. If one company does it, they might be a bit worried about it. So if you can just get one group to do it, then everyone else will follow, because the savings are absolutely phenomenal.”

What’s more, implementing refrigerator door heating controls can further reduce refrigeration electricity consumption, as Harri Makivirta explains. “They typically run 24/7, so if you’ve got a 10-door system, that’s 2,000 watts running 8,760 hours a year,” he says.

“It’s a tremendous amount of energy, and realistically, it doesn’t matter if there’s condensation on the refrigerator doors when the store is closed. So that’s one of the controls we have in the systems we design – we only turn on the door heaters when needed, and the conditions are right causing condensation, which is typically only 20% of the time saving 80% annually.”

“Temperature adjustments, controls and sensors are also all good ideas,” Andrew Tyrrell says. “As are evaporator fan motors, high-efficiency electricity commutated (EC) motors and compressor upgrades. If you make compressor upgrades and use variable flow compressors, payback can be in less than six months.”

There’s no doubt about it: refrigeration systems in retail outlets offer huge potential for energy savings. For those considering implementing energy efficiency measures, Ian Crookston of Sobeys has some guidance. “My advice would be that if you’re doing replacements, spend a little bit more to get a more energy-efficient offering,” he says. “From a large retail company’s perspective, it’s better to do big projects at fewer sites than little projects at many sites. This justifies the additional effort to maximize the incentives.”

HEATING, VENTILATION AND AIR CONDITIONING

When it comes to reducing energy use in stores, grocers and convenience stores tend to focus on refrigeration and lighting. However, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) to provide customers with a more comfortable shopping experience and help maintain food product quality account for around 20% of energy consumption. So how can HVAC energy consumption be reduced in a retail environment?

“It completely depends on how old the units on the roof are and what capital is potentially available,” says Ian Crookston. “If the unit is more than 15 years old, I would strongly consider scraping it and buying a new one.”

However, one problem commonly encountered by retailers when it’s time to replace aging HVAC equipment is that they don’t know what equipment they own.

“It is a challenge when you have a large number of sites to have complete and current documentation on what you own and its condition,” says Ian. “Before you can make improvements you need to know exactly what you have. We have recently completed this Herculean task and are now working on business cases for replacements of the weakest assets.”

Retailers with a good handle on their equipment inventory will know exactly what kind of units they own, and the model number, serial number and age of each unit. This information is invaluable because it allows retailers to make equipment-related decisions based on payback periods and life cycles.

“At Canadian Tire we have an HVAC plan to monitor maintenance records to determine which rooftop units are most at risk of failure,” says Lisa Tays. “Obviously, you want to fix or replace those ones first, and the ones that you don’t think are going to fail can be left for another time.”

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“To speak to that, if you’re doing it on demand, you’re at the mercy of what’s in stock at the distributor,” says Peter Rowles of ICF Canada, adding that retailers should avoid waiting until equipment breaks down and instead monitor the equipment’s age and performance and be aware of its life cycle. This way, retailers can establish a process through which equipment can be replaced on a controlled basis. “Not only is it cheaper, but you can also maximize the available incentives.”

DEMAND CONTROL VENTILATION

Over-ventilation is another of the main contributors when it comes to a retail store’s consumption of energy. The majority of Canadian retailers deliver fresh air to a building’s occupants at a fixed or constant volume, and this represents the core of the business case for demand control ventilation (DCV) as an energy efficiency measure.

“In many stores I’ve seen, the HVAC and ventilation systems are overdesigned,” says Peter Rowles. “In some cases, I’ve seen 20,000–25,000 square-foot stores where the ventilation is designed for 600 people, when you can go in there during the height of the Christmas rush and see no more than 100 or 125 people in the store.”

Ventilation can be reduced during those hours of operation when retail spaces are empty or at below peak occupancy.

When ventilation is reduced, retailers can save energy because it is no longer necessary to heat or cool as much air from outside. A DCV system allows for the automatic reduction of outdoor air intake, via the use of CO2 detectors, when the occupancy of a space is lower than what the system was designed to serve, and can lead to significant savings when implemented in a retail environment – in addition to improving customer comfort.

“The key is to control the ventilation. Provide fresh air when it’s needed, and don’t put fresh air in the building when it isn’t,” advises Rowles. “At the very least, turn off the fresh air at night when there are very few people in the building, or control it based on how many people are actually there. That way you’re maximizing your indoor air quality but minimizing energy waste.”

NEW CONSTRUCTION, NEW APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY

New construction offers a great opportunity to make retail outlets as efficient as possible, helping companies save money from the outset. New buildings can be models of sustainability and can inspire the whole retail sector by the example they provide.

(Source: Retail Council of Canada’s Energy Bright Report)

32% of electricity used by non-food retailers is for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Building recommissioning combined with demand control ventilation is a cost-effective way to save energy while maintaining customer comfort.

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A facility built with the latest techniques and meeting the requirements of the National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings 2011 consumes up to 25% less energy than its conventional counterpart. These significant savings are made even more attractive by the longer life cycle of the building, greater occupant comfort and substantial decreases in maintenance and operating costs.

CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES

Environmental initiatives, much like any other strategy in business, require management teams to balance the benefits and paybacks against the potential capital costs of projects. But creating and maintaining change within an organization

Here are three tips to help retailers optimize a new-build store’s energy efficiency:

1. Integrated design process An integrated design process streamlines building design by getting architects, engineers and other key players involved in sustainability measures from the outset. The result is a cohesive, innovative design plan that uses professional expertise to its best effect.

2. Commissioning Commissioning is a vital–yet often overlooked–process of quality assurance that begins at a building’s concept development and design stage and continues throughout the first four seasons of occupancy and beyond.

3. Best practices in energy management Once your new building has been finished, best practices will be central to your energy management plan. Investigate strategies to maximize energy savings once the building is occupied.

(Source: www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency)

is never easy. It demands the support of the entire company –senior leadership in particular – to ensure the internal resources required are available to those spearheading energy management initiatives. It is a lack of organizational support that creates the most common difficulty for project managers in creating a compelling business case for sustainability programs.

Projects, even simple ones like lighting upgrades, are often difficult to gain approval for, particularly in large organizations where multiple departments are involved in the decision-making process. Typically, anything that can impact sales goes through a whole different level of diligence.

FOSTERING A CULTURE OF CONSERVATION

Supporting education and raising awareness within an organization are essential to improving staff understanding of the benefits of energy efficiency programs. Integrating technological, behavioural and organizational changes as part of an energy management plan can lead to a cohesive, company-wide effort that helps when it comes to making business decisions about equipment. It also helps cultivate behaviours among staff members that will help save both energy and money.

While energy managers likely have some degree of control over the energy-related technological and organizational aspects of their company, they may not have the same degree of influence over the behaviour of a building’s occupants.

With this in mind, many organizations are creating initiatives – such as company-wide contests among retail stores – to see which outlet is able to conserve the most electricity.

“We were meeting with a home improvement retailer last fall, and they were running a friendly competition to see which

If one percent of sales is equal to approximately 30% of profitability. The argument shouldn’t be, ‘How am I going to reduce this expense?’ and should instead be, ‘How am I going to increase profitability?’ The fundamental difference with energy conservation is that it goes directly to your bottom line. From a risk-adjusted point of view, you save one dollar, and that’s a dollar you get to keep.

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Ian Crookston, Sobeys

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Maintain an asset inventory to replace equipment like rooftop units before they fail.

stores could be the most energy-efficient,” says Robert Edwards of IESO. They identified the top five and bottom five stores, and it gave them the opportunity to connect with one another and ask what they were doing to be so efficient. It was low-cost/no-cost and encouraged simple strategies – like turning equipment off when it wasn’t in use. Head office then provided a monetary reward to the winners that would be given to a charity of their choice. So there was recognition, helping the environment and a charity donation. It was a very neat program.”

Establishing a culture of conservation within an organization can also extend to a retailer’s customer base. In today’s more environmentally-aware world, sustainability can be a great marketing tool that can be easily leveraged.

Mark Pasini gives one example of how Giant Tiger is sharing its energy conservation initiatives with customers. “We have a program where when it exceeds a certain temperature outside, 30% of our lights shut off automatically,” he explains. “Just recently I was developing signage to put in our stores that explains to customers that if it’s a hot day and some of the lights are off, that’s the reason. You’re making them aware of the environmental initiatives you’re undertaking.”

Another discussion likely to motivate retailers to invest in energy management is the cost of ownership and the lifecycle costs of equipment. Often store managers who are not as energy-literate will invest in the equipment that comes with the lowest price tag. However, this strategy is not always the best option. “Buying the cheapest equipment could end up costing exponentially more money in the long term,” says Lisa Tays of Canadian Tire. “It can be expensive to be cheap.”

INCENTIVES TO GET THE BALL ROLLING

There are several reasons to focus on upgrading systems for energy efficiency, including reduced operating costs, increased sales, improved staff comfort and higher productivity. Thankfully, there are incentives and resources available to help businesses manage their energy costs while improving their competitiveness. In Ontario, funding is available through the Save on Energy program for:

ENERGY AUDITS AND ENGINEERING STUDIES

This is often a first step for businesses looking to improve efficiency. They are used to identify opportunities for improvements and provide business cases. They can:

• Classify energy savings by potential project.

• Identify potential non-energy related improvements including productivity, safety, yield, sales, etc.

• Identify the capital cost of the projects.

• Summarize the return on your investment for each project and prioritize the projects based on capital cost, lifecycle cost savings and non-energy related financial benefits. Use this to provide return on investment, savings to investment ratio, payback periods, etc.

55% of electricity used by no-food retailers is for lighting. LED lamps can replace incandescent or halogen lamps in many retail applicatiions.

Save on Energy can cover up to 50% of the cost of audits. Once opportunities are identified with an audit, more detailed engineering studies can define what exactly is required and provide more accuracy on the potential savings and costs. RETROFITS

Once a business is ready to upgrade to high-efficiency systems for lighting, HVAC systems, pumps, motors, fans and other plant equipment, funding is available through Save on Energy. Companies can receive up to 50% of their project costs through the program.

ENERGY MANAGERS

Incentives through Save on Energy are available to help bring an energy manager onto your team – apply at saveonenergy.ca.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT TRAINING

Multi-site applicants can receive an incentive for a Multi-site customer energy manager program. Businesses can receive a rebate worth up to half the cost of Certified Energy Manager, Commissioning Agent and Measurement & Verification training.

Find out more at saveonenergy.ca/business or request more information from your local hydro company to get your project started.

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For more information contact your local hydro company or visit saveonenergy.ca