Vital Group of Companies Blog

What is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)? As the cold weather sets in, we tend to spend a vast majority of our time indoors. This has never been truer than right now as we shelter in place to protect ourselves and our families from the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that keeping our home environment and indoor air quality (IAQ) clean and comfortable is more important than ever. Indoor air quality refers to condition of the air within the buildings we work, live, and spend any time in, and it is known to greatly affect the health, comfort and well-being of its building occupants.

What is corporate sustainability? While a common goal of almost all organizations is profitability and growth, corporate sustainability recognizes that an organization should also have societal, environmental and community related goals. These form the three pillars of corporate sustainability and serve as the larger purpose for companies, employees and shareholders. Corporate sustainability incorporates business strategies to create and solidify long-term stakeholder value while focusing on aspects of people, planet, and profit.

As we navigate through the new world inside the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing businesses slowly re-opening and provinces releasing individualized action plans for said re-opening. These plans are aiming to make businesses safer for everyone and reduce the potential for spread of infectious diseases. Developing these plans is particularly challenging for medical clinics and dental offices where at-risk individuals are often present within close quarters – the normal precautionary measures are difficult to implement because of the direct contact often required.

2020 has presented many challenges as COVID-19 slowly crept into our lives. COVID-19 is a disease caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It began back in late 2019 as a disease that plagued mainland China and worked its way through travel and trade to North America. By March 2020 it had made its way to Canada. Mid-March Canada began shutting down the doors of its businesses. Fast forward to August and we see many of businesses are re-opening or planning to do so after a stretch of nearly 2 months. Vital Engineering wants to take the time to share information on an area that could get overlooked as these businesses proceed to re-open: Plumbing Systems.

With the COVID-19 pandemic on our hands, people are becoming increasingly concerned about aerosol transfer from the corridors and common areas to apartment suites in buildings. Residents can feel a lot of air coming into their apartments from the corridor and are curious to know if the aerosols can be transmitted to their apartments. With airborne pathogen dissemination, the concern people have is very legitimate.

The cost of continuing to operate non-LED lighting is NOW higher than cost of an LED retrofit! A full parkade LED lighting retrofit can yield a payback of less than one year while improving lighting quality and the safety of motorists One of the biggest users of electricity in any building is lighting. Parkades and parking garages use a significant amount of electricity for lighting since they are often lit 24/7. Under these circumstances, the cost of a full LED lighting retrofit is often cheaper than continuing to operate the current lighting for the next year! Here is where the savings come from:

The City of Edmonton’s energy efficiency incentive program is now live Commercial, residential, light industrial, and special purpose buildings are eligible Existing rebates for benchmarking and energy audits now serve as the first step to accessing this funding In early June, the City of Edmonton announced the addition of implementation funding to its catalogue of environmental programs aimed at making commercial and institutional buildings more energy efficient. The already existing Building Energy Benchmarking Program and the Energy Audit Rebate Program, which provide energy performance information about buildings, now serve as the first step on the way to a more efficient building.

The best way for communities to identify their sources of energy consumption and GHG emissions is through the completion of a Community Energy Plan (CEP).  This initiative provides a foundation for program, policy and investment decision-making for community leaders and organizations.

A few months ago, we looked at the economics of solar PV investments for businesses.  This overview specifically explored the concept of behind-the-meter electricity generation which is empowered by Alberta’s microgeneration regulation.  We have received a few questions about the regulation and thought we would provide an overview of the behind-the-meter/microgeneration concept on this week’s blog.

Improving your energy savings is the best way to invest in a building and enjoy an immediate and verifiable cash flow payback. Yes, there are other building upgrades you could explore that reap different benefits that all may be worth pursuing on their own merits.