Reflections on a Year as an Energy Management Coach

A year ago, Prism’s Juan Mani was about to start a new role. Juan has been a key member of our Energy Team, involved in all aspects of utility analysis and evaluations of energy savings, for nearly eight years. And last fall, Juan stepped up as an Energy Management Coach with the launch of BC Hydro’s Industrial Cohort Program.

Reviewing energy conservation measures at the Vancouver Dry Docks

In search of operational opportunities

The Industrial Cohort Program is designed for BC Hydro’s medium-sized industrial sector customers to support strategic energy management (SEM) practices at their sites. Through a combination of group workshops, coaching support, and activities like energy treasure hunts, participants focus on leveraging operational opportunities.

Juan is one of three members of Prism’s Energy Team that has taken on a coaching role with the program and has been working one-on-one with Energy Leads at various organizations. Ahead of starting year two of the Cohort Program, we asked Juan recently to reflect back on the past year and share some of his experiences working with this group of budding energy management experts.

What are some of your key takeaways from the first year of the program? Anything unexpected?

JM: Well it’s been really interesting to get a chance to be involved in the whole process of strategic energy management within these organizations. Often we consult on specifics parts of the process like conducting an energy audit or focusing on optimizing control systems, so I don’t often get to see the whole process play out. With the Cohort Program, I’m involved every step of the way and I’ve learned that in order to have success in energy management, it really requires making it a priority and always asking the question, “how does this decision I’m making affect us from an energy management perspective?”

What do you hope participants get out of the program?

JM: I hope they get results! It’s also been great to see participants share learnings and best practices with one another at the workshops. People start interacting with each other and asking questions and getting excited about sharing their knowledge. That’s been really rewarding for me to see and I think that’s been valuable for the participants as well.

What are you excited about for next year?

JM: I’m excited to see how we can measure savings and show results. Right now the participants are in the implementation phase – we’ve already gone through the process of finding opportunities and creating a plan, and by the end of this year, I hope we will be able to show the impact of the program in terms of energy savings.

Touring the Seaspan Dry Docks

Thanks to the folks at Seaspan!

Prism’s Robert Greenwald was honoured to share some of the latest trends in energy management at BOMA China’s Conference in Shanghai this September. The conference brought together over 2200 experts, scholars and business people representing over 700 companies in the commercial real estate industry.

Robert admitted he was a little nervous given it was the largest stage he had presented on, but that, “It was great to learn from others and share best practices from our work in Western Canada, and great to see a number of speakers discussing sustainability, energy management as well.”

Robert presenting on air tightness thermography

Learning about new sensor technology and LEED green building trends in China

Inspiration from green building design on a massive scale

Image: tangi bertin, CC BY 2.0

Update November 20, 2018

Watch a recap video of the BOMA China Conference