Commercial buildings are among the largest consumers of energy. In an attempt to control and reduce operating expenses, building owners and organizations leasing commercial space are pursuing energy efficiency measures to generate a higher return on investment. In this study, an extensive literature review is used to identify and discuss energy efficiency considerations for medium-size building owners and how savings from these measures may benefit organizations through employee satisfaction and retention. For the purpose of this study, the specific topics related to commercial building energy efficiency that were investigated include (1) outcomes of building retrofits (2) corporate social responsibility and performance; (3) performance of energy efficient buildings; (4) employee commitment, satisfaction productivity and organizational profitability; (5) green companies and employee attraction; (6) the cost of turnover. There is little literature specifically focused on the impact that energy efficient buildings have on medium-sized building owners and no literature that quantifies the financial benefits through a reduction in employee turnover or attrition. Facility managers of all building sizes will benefit from gaining (1) a broad understanding of the impact of energy efficiency measures on employees (2) the ability to articulate the impact of the building’s role on employee productivity, turnover and other HR related issues (3) the insight needed to contribute to strategic discussions within their organization about how facilities can benefit organizational profitability. This research does not attempt to claim or determine a causal relationship between energy efficiency and employee turnover however it does discuss issues that that could affect employee attrition.. Further research to determine this causality would benefit the study of energy efficiency and its total impact on organizations.

As the third largest energy consumer, the residential sector in Canada is responsible for 17% of energy consumption and 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. With the increase in population, the number of new houses is expected to increase by 2.8 million from 2005 to 2020, and more energy is expected to be consumed despite the emergence of better insulated houses and more efficient heating methods. The primary objective of this study is to determine the prospects of reducing CO2 emissions from the residential sector in Waterloo Region by achieving a higher building standard, such as the Passivhaus (PH) and Net Zero Energy (NZE). The profile of the building envelope, including the initial CO2 emissions was compared against the requirements of the PH and NZE standards, using the Residential Energy Efficiency Project dataset (2007-2012). The second objective evaluates the barriers and drivers that influence the setting of higher building envelope standards. Ontario Building Codes (1975-2012) were analysed to determine the changes to insulation requirements over time, and Ontario Legislative Assembly debates (1970-2012) were reviewed to determine the barriers and drivers expressed in political debates. Content analysis was applied to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s documents to determine the frequency of nine word categories prior to each new building code. This study identified three main categories of drivers: awareness of environmental issues, resource limitation, and the implications of climate change; and three categories of barriers: financial, political and structural, and barriers related to information, promotion, and education. The findings of this study confirm that existing houses in Waterloo Region can achieve substantial reductions in CO2 emissions and energy usage by meeting higher building standards. Building code improvements have certainly played an important role in the evolution of Ontario houses, and the 2012 building code, achieves the R-2000 standard universally. More advanced standards show the potential for greater savings, but have only been adopted on a voluntary basis.

Peak electricity demand in South Africa will exceed the available operational generation capacity in 2007. The state utility Eskom is addressing this challenge, inter aha, with the implementation of the Demand-side Management (DSM) initiative. The aim of DSM is to defer the building of additional power stations by modifying the end-user pattern to reduce electrical load during the morning and evening peaks. At the end of 2005 the DSM programme has only achieved 30°/o of its target. Some of the biggest problems are the lack of knowledge on how to perform ESCO audits and availability of tools and procedures to enable Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to evaluate DSM potential. Studies in South Africa have shown that 20°/o of the total municipal energy is utilised in commercial buildings. Additional investigations have shown that in the commercial sector approximately 50% of energy is used for air conditioning. Energy savings of around 30% can be realised through improved management procedures and retrofit projects of HVAC systems of existing buildings. Telecommunication companies own and operate a large portfolio of diverse buildings. It was shown that these buildings are very inefficient in terms of energy usage. Performing ESCO analyses on these building portfolios present huge savings opportunities for the building owners as well as load reduction opportunities to help meet DSM targets. ESCOs however face major problems in evaluating DSM projects on telecommunication facilities. Some of these problems are: time to perform the ESCO audits on such a large portfolio of buildings; skill levels of available personnel; lack of experience and structured audit process; availability of information; data capturing of information; determining the impact of the retrofits and calculating the savings and financial benefits of retrofits. Obtaining approval for DSM projects is also a lengthy process. Smaller ESCOs cannot afford to commit resources to ESCO investigations only to recover their investment after project approval. Having an ESCO procedure that will speed up the audit process will help the ESCO to minimise resources that need to be committed to these investigations. Having a tested and reliable ESCO procedure will also help Eskom since they will receive more and better quality DSM proposals. A new ESCO procedure for telecommunications facilities was developed. The primary requirements for the new ESCO procedure are that it should be simple, stable, fast and accurate. This procedure is evaluated against the known energy management opportunities in telecommunication facilities. Some of the benefits of the new ESCO procedure are: time taken to perform ESCO analysis on all types of buildings is drastically reduced; lower qualified personnel can be used to perform the ESCO analysis; any type of HVAC system configuration can be accommodated; new data capturing procedures ensure that only essential data is captured; integrated simulation software is used that can easy and accurately simulate the building operations and retrofits on a building; retrofit options suitable for telecommunication facilities are identified; contribution to the DSM programme is evaluated; financial evaluation of the retrofits and feasibility for DSM funding and results are integrated into a standardised reporting format. The new ESCO procedure was implemented on several case studies within the telecommunication infrastructure. Five different types of buildings were selected to implement the ESCO procedure. Each step of the procedure was evaluated and tested against the requirements of the new ESCO procedure. It was proven through implementation that the new ESCO procedure is successful in solving the unique problems in performing ESCO analyses for telecommunications facilities. Valuable insight into the problems that can occur during the ESCO process was highlighted, and recommendation for future work was presented. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Peak electricity demand in South Africa will exceed the available operational generation capacity in 2007. The state utility Eskom is addressing this challenge, inter aha, with the implementation of the Demand-side Management (DSM) initiative. The aim of DSM is to defer the building of additional power stations by modifying the end-user pattern to reduce electrical load during the morning and evening peaks. At the end of 2005 the DSM programme has only achieved 30°/o of its target. Some of the biggest problems are the lack of knowledge on how to perform ESCO audits and availability of tools and procedures to enable Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to evaluate DSM potential. Studies in South Africa have shown that 20°/o of the total municipal energy is utilised in commercial buildings. Additional investigations have shown that in the commercial sector approximately 50% of energy is used for air conditioning. Energy savings of around 30% can be realised through improved management procedures and retrofit projects of HVAC systems of existing buildings. Telecommunication companies own and operate a large portfolio of diverse buildings. It was shown that these buildings are very inefficient in terms of energy usage. Performing ESCO analyses on these building portfolios present huge savings opportunities for the building owners as well as load reduction opportunities to help meet DSM targets. ESCOs however face major problems in evaluating DSM projects on telecommunication facilities. Some of these problems are: time to perform the ESCO audits on such a large portfolio of buildings; skill levels of available personnel; lack of experience and structured audit process; availability of information; data capturing of information; determining the impact of the retrofits and calculating the savings and financial benefits of retrofits. Obtaining approval for DSM projects is also a lengthy process. Smaller ESCOs cannot afford to commit resources to ESCO investigations only to recover their investment after project approval. Having an ESCO procedure that will speed up the audit process will help the ESCO to minimise resources that need to be committed to these investigations. Having a tested and reliable ESCO procedure will also help Eskom since they will receive more and better quality DSM proposals. A new ESCO procedure for telecommunications facilities was developed. The primary requirements for the new ESCO procedure are that it should be simple, stable, fast and accurate. This procedure is evaluated against the known energy management opportunities in telecommunication facilities. Some of the benefits of the new ESCO procedure are: time taken to perform ESCO analysis on all types of buildings is drastically reduced; lower qualified personnel can be used to perform the ESCO analysis; any type of HVAC system configuration can be accommodated; new data capturing procedures ensure that only essential data is captured; integrated simulation software is used that can easy and accurately simulate the building operations and retrofits on a building; retrofit options suitable for telecommunication facilities are identified; contribution to the DSM programme is evaluated; financial evaluation of the retrofits and feasibility for DSM funding and results are integrated into a standardised reporting format. The new ESCO procedure was implemented on several case studies within the telecommunication infrastructure. Five different types of buildings were selected to implement the ESCO procedure. Each step of the procedure was evaluated and tested against the requirements of the new ESCO procedure. It was proven through implementation that the new ESCO procedure is successful in solving the unique problems in performing ESCO analyses for telecommunications facilities. Valuable insight into the problems that can occur during the ESCO process was highlighted, and recommendation for future work was presented. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.