Our 20+ Years Partnership with Langara College

Building strong relationships with our customers is one of Prism’s core values. Our partnership with Langara College is no exception. As a forerunner of energy and emissions reduction in BC, Langara came to Prism in the late 1990’s looking for guidance for their voluntary reporting on carbon emissions to the Federal Government. Since then, our multi-disciplinary teams have been helping the college every step of the way in their energy and emissions reduction journey.

Our support has ranged from reporting GHG emissions to conducting energy audits and Low Carbon Electrification (LCE) projects, as well as creating a Strategic Energy, Management Plan (SEMP) and the implementation of deep carbon retrofit projects. Over 20+ years of our working relationship, not only are we proud to have actively participated in the evolution of their climate ambitions, but also in contributing to student academic success.

Most recently, Langara has taken another bold step towards creating a more sustainable campus with the implementation of a District Energy system that will significantly help to decarbonize their operations.

“Our success is really about their success. If they are able to meet the needs of students, staff, and the operations at Langara while reducing energy and carbon, then we’ve done a good job in helping them do that”, says Robert Greenwald, P. Eng., President of Prism Engineering.

Watch the video to discover how our strong working relationship with Langara College has helped them move towards their climate action goals:

Explore 20+ years of successful stories with Langara College: 

Case Study: Langara Energy Savings (PDF)
Building Deep Retrofit: Langara College
Congratulations to the first Prism Engineering Award Winner at Langara College

The work conducted by Prism Engineering to support organizations in achieving higher energy efficiency while implementing measures to accelerate the decarbonization of their operations has been recognized with six ASHRAE BC Technology Awards for the years 2021-2022 and 2019-2020.

The awards recognize innovative projects that have been implemented for more than one year and with substantial results in the areas of occupant comfort, indoor air quality and energy conservation.

“These projects are great examples of our core values,” says Robert Greenwald, P.Eng., President of Prism Engineering. “We want our work to have an impact, we want to nurture strong relationships with our clients, we want to deliver quality projects that perform,” he adds.

From left to right: Tim Aske, P.Eng., Energy Team; Iram Green, P. Eng., Energy Team Leader; Stephen Kooiman, P. Eng., M.A.Sc, Mechanical Team Leader; Hamid Samani, P. Eng., Principal and Senior Mechanical Engineer; and David Roberts, P. Eng., Mechanical Engineer.

The award-winning projects are:

2021-2022 

• BC Chapter Award for Hillcrest Community Centre Optimization and Second Place in Region XI in the Existing Commercial Building Category.
• First Place in Region XI and a BC Chapter Award for New Afton Mine Chiller Replacement in the Industrial Category.

2019-2020

• First Place Region XI, BC Chapter and Society Award for Kitsilano Community Centre Deep Carbon Retrofit. Existing Institutional Category.
• Second Place Region XI and BC Chapter Award for Surrey Taxation Data Center Boiler Replacement. Existing Commercial Building Category.
• Second Place Region XI and BC Chapter Award for Langara College Building A, AHU Upgrade. Existing Education Facilities Category.
• Second Place Region XI and BC Chapter Award for Richmond Hospital Cooling Upgrade. Existing Health Care Facilities Category.

Multi-step approach to achieve carbon reductions

There are some common traits among our award-winning projects. First, they all involved a multi-disciplinary team of Energy, Mechanical, and Electrical professionals from Prism. The large scale of the projects required a team approach with different areas of expertise to meet the objectives of each project.

Additionally, not only were the projects built upon a comprehensive study to assess best opportunities for energy savings, but most importantly to find new ways to advance decarbonization.

“This enabled us to present multiple options to the organizations, so that they could analyze each one of them carefully and make an informed decision”, explains Stephen Kooiman, P.Eng., M.A.Sc, Mechanical Team Leader. “They are all large projects with good energy savings and decarbonization opportunities. We achieved the biggest impact by focusing on where the most energy was being consumed,” Stephen says.

With the recommendations in hand at the end of the study phase, our team put in place an implementation plan that addressed both the client’s budget and an optimized pathway for energy and emission reductions.

“The retrofits go beyond energy savings to achieve significant carbon reductions using technologies that work”, explains Robert. “Our clients are making strides to meet their long-term carbon reduction targets and we are helping them on their journey. I am really proud of how our staff collaborate and challenge each other, on a continuous basis, to get the results and long-term performance demonstrated through these awards,” he adds.

Here is a brief overview of each award-winning project:

Hillcrest Community Centre

Project: System optimization, pool heating, and control system redesign.
Innovation: Redesign of pool heating, domestic hot water (DHW), and control systems to enable heat recovery in the facility.
Results: $92,000/year in energy cost savings and 700 tonnes of CO₂e/year in GHG reduction.

New Afton Mine

Sarah Anderson, P. Eng., at New Afton Mine, receives the ASHRAE Award from Robert Greenwald, P. Eng., President of Prism Engineering.

Project: Chiller replacement
Innovation: Installation of low-pressure centrifugal water-cooled chiller to integrate existing fresh water supply into chillers’ condenser loop.
Results: 1,160 MWh/year reduction in electricity consumption.
Learn more

Kitsilano Community Centre

Project: Heat recovery
Innovation: HVAC systems retrofit (rink and community centre facilities), with integrated ice plant recovery system connected to central heating plant of both buildings,
Results: $70,000/year in energy cost savings and 82% decrease in GHG emissions.
Learn more

Surrey Taxation Data Centre

Project: Boiler replacement
Innovation: Implementation of dual return condensing boilers, with cascading loads and demand feedback, to allow building to operate in condensing mode during heating season.
Results: $28,000/year in energy and maintenance cost savings; 65.5 tonnes of CO₂e/year in GHG reduction.
Learn more

Langara College (Building A)

Project: HVAC upgrade
Innovation: Use of fan array and reconfiguration of AHU; upgrade with minimum disruption to campus life.
Results: $70,000/year in energy cost savings and more balanced efficiency among college buildings.
Learn more

Richmond Hospital

Project: Cooling upgrades for medical imaging and kitchen/cafeteria.
Innovation: Kitchen/cafeteria were shutdown for only three days during upgrades; improvements in ducting air intakes; new rooftop makeup air unit; renewed heat pumps and advanced control strategies.
Results: $4,200/year in energy cost savings and 22 tonnes of CO₂e/year in GHG reduction.
Lean more

All images © Google Earth except New Afton Mine

For over 80 years, Bulkley Valley Credit Union (BVCU) has provided banking services for families and business owners across Northern BC. Its deeply rooted relationship with local communities dates to its foundation as a financial cooperative by a group of local farmers. Since then, the organization has grown in size and numbers, with facilities today serving 14,000 members from Burns Lake to the Hazeltons.

With growth came the need to address new challenges and responsibilities. So, when BVCU decided to explore the impact of its operations to safeguard healthy and sustainable communities, they approached Prism Engineering for support and guidance.

“Caring for healthy and sustainable communities has always been important for BVCU as it has and will continue to be the reason why we exist. As a member owned financial cooperative, we exist for the sole benefit of members and their communities,” explains Mohamed Ladak, Chief Operating Officer at BVCU.

“We chose Prism as a well-known leader in the energy management and sustainability consulting space in further helping us achieve our mission”, he adds.

With a diverse team of experts in areas such as sustainability, climate action and energy management, Prism created a holistic program to help BVCU assess its corporate operations and develop a strategy for reducing GHG emissions and improving sustainability performance.

“We helped BVCU understand aspects of their current environmental impact, while creating a strategy for making future improvements aligned with their mission as a credit union,” says Nicole Huard, Sustainability and Climate Action Specialist at Prism.

Up to 70% in GHG emissions reduction

The first step in our work with BVCU was to understand and monitor energy consumption patterns over time. By using PUMA Utility Monitoring Services, BVCU was able to analyze its utility bills and use the data to make more informed decisions to achieve energy and carbon management goals.

In addition, our Energy Team conducted energy audits to identify major areas of energy waste or inefficiency across all BVCU’s six locations in Northern BC. With buildings constructed between 1983 and 2007, and some renovations in between, this was a crucial phase of the project since some equipment was already at end of life and in need of an informed decision for replacement.

By using our 6-Step Approach to GHG Reduction, Prism was able to make recommendations for measures that could achieve a total of 70% GHG emission reduction across all sites, with the potential of saving 32% of annual utility costs in comparison to 2020 data.

Creating an ESG Strategy

The next phase of our work involved our Sustainability Team working side by side with BVCU’s senior leadership, staff, and members of the board to create an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy for the organization.

This work included stakeholder engagement surveys, webinars and workshops to understand which focus areas were most important for BVCU to act on, and then identified actions to support the organization in making the impact they envisioned in the ESG plan for their community.

“BVCU’s team brought a lot of passion for sustainability and ideas for improvement to the table, resulting in a long wish list of positive impacts they would like to make. With so many great ideas it was challenging to reduce the focus to just a few,” says Nicole.

The outcome of our work was a finalized ESG strategy for BVCU, including a plan for GHG reduction through our audits, summarized in the figure below:

Guide for future work

With the findings of the studies and an implementation plan for ESG in place, BVCU can now take action to achieve their goals and monitor progress along the way, reporting back to stakeholders on an annual basis.

“In partnership with Prism, we now have an ESG strategy in place with a clearly defined action plan/roadmap. With ESG Champions in each of our physical locations and the findings from the studies, we’re now able to identify what we need to prioritize with passion and commitment,” says Mohamed Ladak.

Related Projects

City of Vancouver – Kitsilano Community Centre Heat Recovery
School Districts large and small find value in PUMA
GHG Reduction Planning: City of Coquitlam
Energy Audit: Simon Fraser University

Photo: Bulkley Valley by Shawn, Flickr Creative Commons

The fast and unexpected switch to remote work was one of the many immediate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now that the dust has settled, Prism Engineering has adopted a hybrid work model, where employees make up their schedule of days working between home and at the office.

To adapt to this new reality, our company has created “hotel stations”, where employees are free to use certain desk spaces on a first come, first serve basis whenever in the office. But when we began the process of resizing our resources library to open space for new acoustic cells for individual meetings, a big question emerged:

What should be the fate of a huge volume of binders, books and project folders that would have to be removed to give room for the office redesign?

“Some were outdated, and others were duplicates, so there wasn’t much to do”, recalls Anusha Hooda, People, Culture and Operations Coordinator at Prism. “We then began discussing a proper way to discard them, especially the binders, which contained cardboard, plastic and metal parts”, she adds.

To find a solution, she got help from Taniell Hamilton, Sustainability and Engagement Specialist at Prism. Together, they put out a waste reduction plan that included the recycling and donation of the material, as well as the digitization of old documents.

To spread the word, they announced the initiative on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. A total of 350 binders were diverted for reusing, repurposing, or recycling. In addition, half a ton of paper was recycled. For example, some of the binders were donated to families with children, who were invited to come to the Burnaby office to pick up the material. Others were donated to Renfrew Elementary School, located nearby the office. Even the bookshelves found their way: they were given to employees to take home and reuse.

“I am really glad we chose the right way to dispose all those items, reducing our impact on the environment”, says Anusha. “It wasn’t easy, as some of the steps weren’t obvious from the outset, like having to separate the metal spines of books for recycling. But, in the end, it was also a great learning experience”, she adds.