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By Craig Leroux, Senior Communications Officer

A campus-wide energy audit announced last month is moving forward as engineering teams from Honeywell, Queen’s energy services partner, begin to tour and conduct assessments of campus buildings. The energy audit is the first phase of Queen’s energy conservation project, Energy Matters.

“Energy Matters is part of the university’s commitment to both environmental and financial sustainability,” says Donna Janiec, Acting Associate Vice-Principal (Facilities). “The building-by-building assessments will help identify potential improvements that could result in significant reductions in energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Beamish-Munro Hall

Honeywell was contracted to perform the energy audit after a thorough request for proposals process, and has already begun analyzing Queen’s energy usage data. The building-by-building assessment will begin on Feb. 24 and continue until March 20. Honeywell personnel will be on campus daily from 8 am to 7 pm and will wear identification badges. They will be accompanied by Queen’s staff most of the time.

Sustainability Manager Aaron Ball says that no interruptions to Queen’s day-to-day activities are expected.

“Honeywell staff will visit nearly every building on campus over the coming four weeks and inspect key systems such as mechanical equipment, lighting, building controls, plumbing fixtures and air distribution,” says Mr. Ball. “We do not anticipate any disruption to the daily academic and work activities happening on campus.”

Once the energy audit is complete, Honeywell will provide a report to the university outlining potential energy savings improvements. Queen’s will then have the option to proceed with the second phase of the project which would see it select the improvement projects that have the ³ÉÈË´óƬ net benefit and finance those projects through the annual energy savings they generate. Moving forward with the second stage will be subject to approval from the university’s Board of Trustees.

Anyone with questions about the energy audit or the Energy Matters project can contact Mr. Ball by email or at ext. 33379.