Engineers and Geoscientists BC has a Council-approved Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) which provides a framework for how it will better support its registrants in their professional practice and allow the regulatory body to respond to climate change issues proactively.
In support of actions in CCAP, and through funding support from BC Hydro, Engineers and Geoscientists BC is pleased to offer a series of Continuing Education Events (CE) relating to advanced demand-side energy management and GHG emissions reduction in existing Part 3 (large commercial and residential) buildings.
The seminar series will enable knowledge sharing between attendees and building sector professionals with first-hand experience in deep retrofits, with a goal of removing barriers and increasing the confidence and capacity of registrants to take on existing building energy and emissions retrofit projects. The first event in this series provided an introduction to deep retrofits, as explored through the project examples of subject matter experts.
Other events in this series include:
- The Business Case for Deep Retrofits; and
- Building Enclosure Technology Assessment in Deep Retrofits.
- Different types of heat pumps currently on the market (and emerging), and their applications (space heating, cooling, domestic hot water heating, ventilation) in deep retrofits;
- The role of heat pumps in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the movement toward building electrification;
- Design considerations, such as outdoor air temperature limits, minimum compressor runtime, defrost, supply water temperature limits, capacity versus temperature, and future climate and cooling needs;
- Current and future refrigerants, their global warming potential, embodied carbon, safety concerns, and implications of leakage;
- Differences between centralized versus decentralized heat pump systems in achieving deep energy and emissions reductions;
- Design parameters mechanical designers use to select heat pump systems.
- Electrical capacity challenges on existing buildings, and electric service upgrades; and
- Case studies of completed projects, barriers encountered, and lessons learned.
- Registrants working in the buildings sector looking to engage in deep retrofit work (e.g., design/consulting engineers, sales engineers);
- Organizations providing or procuring services in developing building retrofit strategies (e.g. building operators, portfolio managers, energy managers, corporate ESG managers, etc.); and
- Engineers and geoscientists working in the field of climate change or those wishing to learn more about deep retrofits as a potential opportunity for climate action.
Founding Principal, Impact Engineering
Ben sees his mechanical and energy engineering practice as a way of inspiring people to reach for a more sustainable future.
His objective is to push performance and ambition to achieve optimal occupant comfort through low energy, low carbon design. Ben has 20 years of diverse project experience both in scale and strategy; Institutional, Commercial, Multi-Unit Residential, Health Care. Ben has assisted clients to achieve substantial energy savings, including full building electrification.
Managing Principal, Integral Group
Since joining Integral Group in 2007, Andy has gained a mastery of the design, construction, and contractual challenges of complex projects working with institutional, commercial, residential, and industrial clients. In addition to involvement in some of the most notable green building developments in the greater Victoria area, Andy has been influential in expanding “deep green” engineering and consulting services on Vancouver Island, having worked directly with the City of Victoria and District of Saanich in industry consultations on the BC Energy Step Code, and municipal Climate Leadership Plans. He has shared expertise on High Performance Buildings, Large-Scale PassiveHouse Design, and Building Electrification at BUILDEX, PassiveHouse conferences, with engineering students at UVic, and to the local chapters of AIBC and RAIC. Andy brings sector-specific experience in large commercial and mixed-use development, combined with a passion for a big-picture approach to sustainable design.
Consultant
Innes is a professional engineer and resource management consultant with twenty-five years of experience in energy efficient low carbon buildings for new and retrofit projects. Innes is also an experienced facilitator with ongoing projects that combine technical and financial analysis balanced by values-based stakeholder input to support improved outcomes.
