As buildings age, their systems often fall out of tune—resulting in unnecessary energy consumption, increased maintenance costs, and diminished comfort. Building optimization through Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) helps building owners and operators make informed decisions to optimize their systems and improve performance across lighting, HVAC, and other energy-intensive equipment.
Sharing our expertise with NRCan
At Prism, we’ve spent over 35 years helping Canadian organizations identify and implement energy-saving opportunities through building optimization. We’re proud to bring this experience to our collaboration with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), contributing to a new set of educational factsheets designed to empower building professionals across the country.
“The factsheets will help raise awareness and education among building owners and operators when deciding to optimize existing building systems,” says Sam Thomas, Principal and Strategic Energy Management Team Leader at Prism.
Prism was selected by NRCan to develop five factsheets, each highlighting a key opportunity for improving the performance of existing buildings. These resources can be accessed through NRCan’s EBCx webpages, which feature a wide range of tools to support building optimization efforts across Canada.
They are also available here for direct download:
- Common Commissioning Measures in Existing Buildings (PDF)
- Cooling System Optimization (PDF)
- Engaging Building Operators in the EBCx Process (PDF)
- Heat Pump Technologies (PDF)
- Reducing Energy Waste with Heat Recovery (PDF)
These factsheets provide best practices and guidance for owners and operators navigating building performance improvements, whether they’re working independently or with consultants.
“If they are working with consultants, the factsheets can also offer them guidance on what needs to be done and things to look for in the reports,” Sam adds.
Prism engineers and technical specialists conducting various building and energy audits.
Experience in 1,000+ building audits
The content in these resources draws directly from the on-the-ground experience that Prism’s multidisciplinary team has built up over the years. Our engineers and technical specialists have worked on more than 1,000 building audits—totaling over 73 million square feet.
Prism is also one of the most active service providers in BC Hydro and FortisBC’s Continuous Optimization Program (C-Op). We’ve delivered more than 300 C-Op projects—representing approximately one-third of all C-Op projects approved by BC Hydro.
“The factsheets reflect our experience on what has and hasn’t worked in these projects, as well as trends we’ve seen in the industry and how they might help operators,” Sam explains.
New EBCx pre-screening tool
In addition to the factsheets, Prism has worked with NRCan to create an updated version of the EBCx pre-screening tool, which will be available soon through NRCan’s EBCx webpages. This new user-friendly tool will allow building owners and operators to enter information about a portfolio of buildings and quickly identify which ones are most suitable for existing building commissioning. It’s designed to streamline planning and help users prioritize where optimization efforts will have the greatest impact.
Moving from insight to action
Whether you manage a single building or an entire portfolio, tuning up your systems through existing building commissioning can uncover meaningful opportunities for energy and carbon savings. The new factsheets are designed to make that path clearer—providing trusted guidance to help you act with confidence.
Explore the EBCx factsheets or connect with our team to learn how you can get started.
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Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx)