“Focusing on improving energy efficiency allows utility costs savings to make funds available for other areas of housing.”
– Ramzi Kawar, Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Government of Nova Scotia
Summary and background
Housing Nova Scotia (HNS) is a provincial housing agency that provides affordable housing to low- and middle-income residents. With more than 11,500 units managed by five housing authorities, the HNS housing portfolio includes a mix of single units, duplexes, fourplexes, row housing, and towers.
Over the past 15 years, Housing Nova Scotia has taken a concerted approach to improving energy efficiency while renewing and upgrading its aging building portfolio. The steps it has taken have had major benefits for operators and occupants alike. This brief case study examines the strategies HNS employed, results, lessons learned and some of the barriers HNS faced. Overall, it offers other affordable housing providers across Canada insights into measures they can take to improve energy efficiency in their buildings over the short, medium and long terms.
The challenge
Significant and expensive changes were required for a five-decade-old housing stock, with many buildings in Housing Nova Scotia’s stock reaching the end of their respective life cycles. The advanced age of HNS stock, coupled with the cold climate, resulted in high costs to keep buildings warm. Some 70 percent of HNS’s housing stock is inhabited by senior citizens who typically use more heat. Beyond this demographic, high costs made housing less affordable for low-income individuals and families. Utility and energy costs, historically, totalled between $20 and $30 million per year (about 15 percent of the annual budget), and were escalating.
Approach
HNS integrated energy efficiency into its aging buildings in three phases:
- From 2008 to 2014, Housing Nova Scotia’s Greening Strategy focused on overall building systems and performance improvements. Two priorities of this strategy were to initiate annual maintenance programs and increase the awareness of building occupants about energy conservation and its importance.
- Building on its Greening Strategy, HNS then embarked on an Energy Consumption Reduction Initiative from 2014 to 2019. As part of this initiative, HNS signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Efficiency Nova Scotia (ENS), which then assisted HNS in accessing valuable rebate programs to further reduce energy consumption and costs. The initiative also increased local capacity by adding an onsite energy manager to the team (employed by ENS but working for Housing Nova Scotia or seconded to a building site).
- Most recently, HNS embarked on its Energy Management Strategy. Between 2021 and 2026, its focus involves meeting forward-looking 2030 and 2050 national energy-reduction targets, additional energy builds and retrofits and using key performance indicators (KPIs) developed through previous measurement and reporting efforts.
Since 2008, when Housing Nova Scotia took concerted steps to incorporate and formalize energy-efficiency considerations into its operations, measurement and data collection have been vital. In the Greening Strategy phase, HNS began using property management software (YARDI) to report on energy consumption across Nova Scotia. Then, during its Energy Consumption Reduction Initiative phase, it developed an energy consumption baseline using ENERGY STAR®’s Portfolio Manager.
Overall, this measurement and data collection has provided HNS with important benchmarks for current and future projects.
Results
Through the various measures HNS taken to reduce energy consumption across its asset portfolio for its public housing program, Housing Nova Scotia has realized some notable results.
Highlights include:
- Consumption decreases:
- 29 percent decrease in oil consumption
- 7 percent decrease in propane consumption
- 10 percent decrease in overall Gigajoules (GJ) consumption
- 8 percent decrease in electricity consumption
- 8 percent overall decrease in energy consumption between the start of the 2008 Greening Strategy and the start of the Energy Consumption Reduction Initiative in 2014
- Utility cost decreases: From a peak of $24.2 million in 2014, these had decreased to $21.7 million in 2020—a savings of $2.5 million
- Savings realized through rebates facilitated through the MOU with Efficiency Nova Scotia: $137,547.
Beyond these results, Housing Nova Scotia has also realized energy and cost savings in constructing three new builds meeting rigorous Passive House standards—in Truro (2016), Amherst (2017) and Yarmouth (2017).
| Passive House Build | Energy savings | Annual cost savings over code | Annual GHG emission reductions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Truro (2016) |
39,441 kWh, 63 % |
$6,322 |
25 tCO2e |
|
Amherst (2017) |
12,952 kWh, 36 % |
$2,021 |
9 tCO2e |
|
Yarmouth (2017) |
41,377 kWh, 37 % |
$9,254 |
47 tCO2e |
Benefits and lessons learned
Additional successes have arisen from Housing Nova Scotia’s efforts. Applying an energy efficiency lens to aging HNS assets has fostered greater community engagement, as Housing Nova Scotia has involved students from Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) in planning and implementing various studies and projects. Students were provided with real-world experience and a first-hand perspective on energy modelling. HNS also has been able to engage communities outside Nova Scotia, sharing its experience in building and retrofitting buildings and results/lessons learned at events frequented by other housing providers—including a Canada’s Green Building Council conference. This engagement has increased the likelihood of replication outside of Nova Scotia.
Through the various greening phases, Housing Nova Scotia has learned some important lessons:
- The need for a team energy champion—It is important to have someone on the team who is passionate about championing energy-conservation measures and can lead them. Resistance, especially related to the costs associated with implementing energy-efficiency solutions, can be overcome by showing how and why energy-efficiency and cost-reduction efforts are interrelated.
- Leverage the power of pilot projects—As the team brainstorms ideas to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy use, pilot projects are invaluable in determining feasibility. Many organizations and programs provide dedicated funding for pilots and studies. Investigating those that may align with the specific objectives of a team, department or organization can be highly beneficial.
- Education and awareness—It helps to ensure everyone involved with the organization’s asset management strategy understands and ‘buys into’ the overall objective. Establish this objective early on and as a core pillar in engagement and outreach efforts. Throughout the process, hold numerous, regular meetings with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
Conclusion
Despite the initial costs, integrating energy efficiency into asset management—particularly with an aging housing stock—can realize significant benefits across the building portfolio, including decreasing overall energy costs and providing more comfortable accommodation for residents. As the Housing Nova Scotia experience has shown, a concerted effort bolstered by dedicated, coordinated initiatives and strategies can result in very real savings over the short, medium and long terms that benefit everyone.
Contact
Ramzi Kawar, MNSAA, MRAIC, LEED© AP, CNU, CMC
Director, Greening and Sustainable Business Practices
Government of Nova Scotia
Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Maritime Centre, 1505 Barrington Street
14th Floor, North
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3K5
Telephone: 902-717-4937