Vital Group of Companies 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.

If you’re a business owner, among the many concerns you wrestle with day-to-day is, of course, your power bill. You pay for electricity consumed by everything from the lights and computers and electronics in your building to running industrial machinery. Electricity enables your business’s operation — but it doesn’t always come cheap.

Your HVAC system controls your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. For a property manager, ensuring that your HVAC system is properly maintained can be a source of considerable energy savings.

Commercial property owners looking at ways to reduce their energy spending might have stumbled upon the idea of co-generation as a potential solution. As electricity costs rise in Alberta, the prospect can seem tempting to anyone looking to get spending under control. So, what is cogeneration — and is it right for you?

The truth is, you don’t fully know how much your commercial building can save on energy unless you have an energy assessment. Get one, and you’ll understand exactly where your gaps are and be provided expert recommendations on how best to fill them.

The energy situation with your tenants is untenable, and there are various high-power systems working away unnecessarily If you read last week’s post on rising energy costs, you’re anticipating increased energy costs in your commercial buildings. You can solve these problems and bring down your energy cost per square foot — but you’ll need some strong data on your side

Heat and electricity in Alberta are about to get more expensive after several years of low energy costs. That’s bad news for commercial building operators, especially if you’re responsible for large buildings with intensive energy needs. Why did we have it so good for so long?

When sustainability is on the minds of property managers and builders, getting a green building certification is an important consideration. Getting certified is about getting recognized for effective energy-efficient and sustainable design. These certifications help guide you toward your goals and assure you that you’ve gotten things right.

Mandatory Energy Benchmarking would make building energy consumption public and give context to the energy consumption of buildings Buildings that perform well stand to gain — on top of their up-front energy savings There is growing interest across the globe to make mandatory energy benchmarking a reality. Smart building operators should take the opportunity to get ready now  Getting an energy audit is a smart move. It can help identify and develop opportunities to increase energy efficiency and lower energy costs — but though the benefits to pursuing green building certification are clear in reputational, sustainability, and financial terms, it is entirely voluntary.

It’s one thing to shake an 85-page engineer’s report at a board meeting and say, “this is what we need to do!” and have everyone nod in agreement.