New Energy Efficient Upgrades and Retrofits to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions at CAF Bases

June 15, 2021 – Defence Stories

With the recent award of energy efficiency contracts at CFB Borden and CFB Kingston, National Defence is making strides to green military infrastructure and ensure our personnel have sustainable and efficient facilities in which to work and train.

As one of Canada’s largest maintainers of equipment and infrastructure, including over 20,000 buildings, the Department of National Defence (DND) produces almost half of the Federal Government’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So how do we reduce our GHGs? By introducing energy performance contracts.

Energy performance contracts, or EPCs, are an effective and innovative way to reduce building emissions across our portfolio. What are they, you ask? Here’s the gist: National Defence signs a contract with an energy services company which finances, designs and installs energy-efficient facility retrofits and upgrades at a base or wing. Then, using the savings from our energy bills, we pay back the energy company over a five-to-15-year period, limiting the upfront costs for the government. These energy savings projects then decrease our heating and electricity usage, which reduces our GHG emissions. Not bad, right? Better yet, our facilities remain totally functional during the upgrades, meaning there are no impacts to military training and operations. So, to recap, EPCs help us reduce our emissions, provide economic opportunities for energy companies, maintain operational readiness, and upgrade our facilities.

In the words of Anita Vandenbeld, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, EPCs are “great opportunities to green our infrastructure while at the same time creating economic opportunities for surrounding communities and supporting green job creation. EPCs are a perfect example of how we can make our infrastructure work for us – creating long-term cost savings for the base, sustaining jobs, and helping us meet our climate objectives.”

Let me guess your next question: why not do this at every base across Canada? We’re working on it.

For example, we awarded a $10.8-million contract in June 2021 to Énergère Inc. for upgrades and energy retrofits at CFB Borden. This project will see a number of energy efficiency upgrades at over 100 facilities, reducing both GHG emissions and energy costs. Upgrades include installing energy-efficient lighting and heating systems, modernizing the central heating plant, and more. What’s more important is that these upgrades will reduce the base’s energy costs by over $450,000 annually and lower its GHG emissions by over 2,200 tonnes each year. That’s a savings of over 5% in the annual energy bill, and a 12% reduction in emissions. This will free up money we can re-allocate to other projects and help make us a leaner, less energy-dependent organization. During the construction phase, we expect this project will create over 40 jobs for the Kingston region.

Here’s another example. In September 2020, we awarded an $86.8-million contract to Johnson Controls Canada LP to upgrade and retrofit over 100 buildings at CFB Kingston. Upgrades will include replacing windows; installing solar panels, energy-efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures, and high-efficiency heating and cooling systems; improving the water distribution system, and more. And, as we’ve seen, it works! At CFB Kingston alone, these upgrades will reduce energy costs by about $5.6 million and GHG emissions by over 5,800 tonnes per year, all while creating over 200 jobs in the Kingston area. It’s a win, win.

We’re also developing similar contracts for bases in Alert, Comox, Trenton, Shilo, Halifax and Gagetown. EPC projects are already underway in Greenwood, Valcartier, Esquimalt, Bagotville and Petawawa.

Despite the impacts COVID-19 has had on industry across Canada, we’re working hard on these EPCs to stimulate local economies and upgrade our facilities at bases and wings across Canada. EPCs have proven to be an effective and innovative way to reduce our buildings’ energy use while, at the same time, meeting the government’s low-carbon targets, and we intend to continue doing both of these things. With the help of EPCs, we’re reducing our GHG emissions and are well on our way to meet our target of 40 percent reduction by 2025, which is five years ahead of schedule. We’re also helping create jobs in communities near our bases while we secure a greener future. And from our perspective, that’s a pretty good deal.