Nova Scotia , Canada is one of the North American transportation agencies on the state or province level that has taken a serious look at energy conservation practices on the facility level. The Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Public Works (NSTPW) reports in their practice guide that in 1996, electricity generation accounted for 40 percent of Nova Scotia's greenhouse gas emissions. [N] Nova Scotia is participating with the federal government and the other provinces and territories in developing the National Climate Change Strategy for Canada. Toward this effort and implementation of the agency's EMS , NSTPW is seeking to:

• Reduce activities which use electricity
• Improve efficiency both in the distribution of electricity and in the consumption of electricity by energy users
• Use less carbon-intensive forms of electricity generation.

Energy use at TPW locations can be broken into four categories: HVAC systems, lighting, water heating, and office equipment. Space and water heating alone was estimated to be responsible for up to 35 percent of energy use in office buildings. The New York City Transit Agency has been a national leader among transportation and other public agencies in the U.S. in Green Building design and operation, which includes design and operation for energy efficiency.

• Conduct an energy audit to determine how much energy is being consumed at your location; break down the results by category of energy use if possible (e.g., heating, cooling, pumps and fans, lighting, receptacle loads, etc.).
• Establish goals for the overall energy consumption of the building or renovated area. These goals should be broken down by category of energy use. Inform employees of these goals.
• Organize electrical services to permit sub-metering of energy use by category: cooling, pumping, fans and heating, plug loads, etc.
• Collect and analyze sub-metered energy data on a regular basis; compare results to goals for each category.
• Consider alternative heating sources such as ground-source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, solar or other renewable energy sources.
• Provide employees/occupants with information on how they use energy and what they can do to reduce their energy use.

• Address leaks and poor insulation in HVAC ductwork.
• Develop operating manuals for all equipment including design intent, set points, setback and setup schedules, on/off time schedules, special features and requirements, etc.
• Develop maintenance manuals for all HVAC equipment with schedules and frequency of service required.
• Ensure heating and cooling are on different schedules and that it is not possible to have the two operating coincidentally.
• As office schedules change, ensure time schedules for ventilation fans, purge cycles, heating and cooling are changed to match building occupancy.
• Provide preventative maintenance checks annually to ensure all HVAC systems are operating properly; make any necessary repairs.
• Carry out an annual calibration and check the function of all building automation systems to verify operation and performance.
• When demand controlled ventilation systems are used, carbon dioxide sensors must be calibrated annually to ensure proper function.
• Ensure service technicians provide detailed listings of all service performed and findings made. Ensure all changes to equipment are documented and all parties affected are informed.
• Records for inspections and repairs should contain:
  • Date of inspection and/or repair.
  • Inspection company and/or persons contact information.
  • Details of work completed, including costs.
  • Date for next inspection.
  • Any malfunctions of system found during inspection and/or repair.

Technologies developed during the past 10 years can help cut lighting costs 30 percent to 60 percent while enhancing lighting quality and reducing environmental impacts.

• Turn lights off when not needed and ensure that occupancy sensors have not been overridden.
• Have the cleaning and maintenance schedule overlap with regular hours to minimize energy use. After hours work should be done by area, using only necessary lights (task lighting).
• Introduce local task lights (e.g. desks lights), allowing a reduction in general overhead lighting.
• Keep light fixtures clean as dust greatly decreases the amount of light delivered.
• Specify single bulb and fluorescent, mercury-free fixtures to replace incandescent ones at the end of their useful life; use the most energy efficient lamps and ballasts available for replacements.
• Consider group relamping. Common lamps, especially incandescent and fluorescent lamps, lose 20 percent to 30 percent of their light output over their service life.
• Replace all the lamps in a lighting system at once. This will save labor, keep illumination high, and avoid stressing any ballasts with dying lamps. It is useful to keep a record of the type of bulbs used and when they are replaced. This allows for long-term monitoring of the efficiency and life span of different types of lighting in different areas.
• Ballasts - standard choke ballasts can be replaced by high frequency electronic ballasts. Electronic ballasts are highly recommended for use with low-voltage tungsten-halogen lamps, high-efficacy argon-krypton filled fluorescent tubes, metal-halide and high pressure sodium lamps. Electronic ballasts offer the following advantages:
  • 20 to 30% energy reduction compared with conventional ballast
  • 50% longer service life of lamps
  • Absence of flicker (ballast operates lamp at a frequency between 22 and 70 kHz)
  • Silent operation
  • Net power factor of 0.95 to 0.99
  • Low harmonic distortion
  • Overvoltage protection
  • Automatic switch-off of faulty or end-of-life lamps
  • Reduction in weight
  • Cool operation.
• Automatic control systems:
  • Timer circuits that switch lamps off during room vacancy times
  • Photoelectric sensors that sense the amount of daylight in the room and either switch lamps on or off or adjust the lamp brightness accordingly
  • Occupancy sensors that switch lamps off when work stations are unoccupied.

Computers, printers, photocopiers and fax machines are the greatest contributors to office paper waste and energy consumption.

• Enable energy saving options on computers, monitors, printers, photocopiers, etc.
• Turn all equipment off when not in use (both day and night); this will also increase equipment lifetime.
• Batch copy jobs rather than doing single copies.
• Buy printers and photocopiers that can do double sided printing or reduce page size to fit two pages on one side.
• Ensure that printer and toner cartridges can be returned and recycled by the manufacturers.
• Choose equipment based on its efficiency and operating costs over time; only buy office equipment that has the Energy Star or Environmental Choice, EcoLabel. Ensure that the Energy Star program is initiated when equipment is first installed.