OSEA JUNE 2023 NEWSLETTER
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Board Chair Report Since our last newsletter we had our Board of Directors on May 29th. The Board discussed a number of items including the renewed sponsorship by Enbridge Gas Distribution and the ways to grow our membership. We plan to relaunch the Green Energy Doors Open as a in person event in the fall and are working on several collaborators that would help us organize the event and make it province wide. We are following the new tax credit announcements from the recent budget and will share them when they are published. We are lowering our operating costs and looking for new revenue sources. Several contacts we made suggested an upgrade to our website that has not changed in many years except for the new LOGO. We are looking at alternatives to improving our website and our social media channels and have a potential student intern that has offered t help us in the website and social media channel improvements. As Board Chair I presented at the Toronto Sustainable Building & Decarbonization OSEA was a sponsor for this Green Building Initiative (GBI) on May 15th. The event brought new and existing members of the GBI and OSEA communities together to share innovative ideas and learn about new resources to collectively reduce climate impacts by improving the built environment. The agenda included a presentation by OSEA Board Chair on how Smart Buildings contribute to ESG reporting programs. The other sessions cover the many topics of energy and decarbonization in data centres, buildings, solar as a service, Bio-Regenerative Buildings Design and Ecosystem Services and the latest efforts by ASHRAE. As a sponsor I received all the presentation slides and can share them with OSEA members and new members that join by contacting me at david@ontario-sea.org. At the GBI event they announced that the GBI is developing a new set of Green Globe Programs for Net Zero Buildings. As your Board Chair I have been invited to participate in this development and bring our Canadian perspective so the programs will be accepted in both countries. When the DRAFTS of the programs are issued for public review and inputs I will share them with our OSEA members. Please join OSEA and be able to contribute. I also introduced the GBI Green Globe program efforts with OSEA to the new Building Decarbonization Alliance an initiative of the Transition Accelerator where OSEA is now also a partner. The formation and activities are being developed and there are many partners as it is free to join and then make your contribution to the alliance work programs. I also attended the EV and Charging Expo at the Enercare Centre on May 17th I met with experts, vendors and industry peers promoting OSEA and our inclusion of EV as a sustainable energy option. I attended the Retrofit Canada Conference in Montreal June 13-14 where several new contacts were made. The 2-day event covered many topics, and I now have the recordings and PDF files. As OSEA was a promoter of the event I can share the link to the presentations with OSEA members. Please join OSEA if you want to see the presentations. I also attended the public portion of the Smart Grid Innovation Network annual general meeting in Ottawa on June 15th and it included a tour of the NRC laboratories that are working on battery and energy storage innovations. We also visited the Centre for Housing research that has developed some new ways to lower the time and costs of assessing the energy systems in the buildings to facilitate the challenges of retrofitting the many homes and buildings to meet the 2050 NetZero goals. OSEA will contribute to the SGIN work projects and help them get the inputs from our Ontario members. I attended g the CanREA Summer Solstice on June 21st in Toronto and promotes OSEA to many in the industry. OSEA is looking for new opportunities to collaborate with CANREA and promote all sustainable energy options and meetings are being scheduled. OSEA Board members attended several other events to promote the association both in person and online where we promoted the association in the chat. These included attending the Centennial College Innovation Day. Centennial is an OSEA member who has offered to collaborate with us on the planning of the upcoming Green Energy Doors Open event in the fall. There were several online sessions including the IESO Stakeholders meeting, the PPG Financing retrofit and Net Zero financing and the SaveonEnergy updates that announced the new funding for custom retrofit solutions and higher incentives in certain areas. The OSEA application to the NRCan Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative program is under review and they advised that the awards would be announced in the summer months. If approved it would provide OSEA with 100% non repayable funding to do all the following: identify and/or aggregate deep retrofit projects; guide individual building owners in the process of developing and implementing specific retrofit projects; identify available funding and financing for specific deep retrofit projects; conduct capacity building activities, such as developing or implementing novel, standardized, or replicable approaches to deep retrofits. Should OSEA get approved, it will provide new source of revenue for OSEA and provide opportunities to all our members and sponsors that provide deep retrofit solutions to gain new business. Ontario’s sustainable energy community is large, but we need far more like-minded individuals, companies, and organizations to affiliate with us for our voice to be effectively heard, and our sustainable energy sector to prosper. Please view our current activities and make sure to read the important information below about how you can stay connected with and support OSEA as we move forward. Recordings of Past Online Events One of the benefits of the COVID lockdown was that we were able to record all our online events. Visit the OSEA YouTube Channel to view many of our recordings. Board of Directors OSEA’s new Board has been accepted. We thank all previous Board members for their many contributions. The following are the new OSEA Board members. View Bios. David Katz, MBA, Chair – Sustainable Resources Management Leon Wasser, MBA, P.Eng., Vice-Chair – Wasser Resources Gino Di Rezze - Groundheat Robert Hollands - Robert Hollands Consulting, Sales and Marketing Philip Ju, Ph.D., P.Eng. Sustainable Energy and Building Solutions Consulting Engineers Sangshin Jung - Public Relations and Government Affairs Consultant. Alex MacDonald – Experienced Writer and Energy Efficiency Advocate Nani Pradeepan –New Dawn Energy Solutions Owner, Experienced Electrical Engineer Jiri Skopek - Districts 2030 Network, Vice-Chair & Sustainable Buildings Canada, Board of Governors & Past Chair Sudhir Tiwari – 129 Energy, President, Energy Industry Expert John Van Egmond - Senior environmental, hydrogeological, hydrological, and geotechnical executive engineer Robert Stasko - Executive Director of the Hydrogen Business Council (HBC) Partnerships In addition to our growing ranks of members of all sizes, OSEA has for many years been supported by many sponsors and partners including:
Recently we reached out to many other energy related organizations that have a sustainable energy focus. We have had positive feedback for more collaboration from Partners in Project Green, Women in HVAC, Earth Day, Thermal Insulation Association of Canada, CANREA, Quest, HRAI, ASHRAE, CABA and see many more that we can collaborate with and offer joint membership events and benefits. We continue to seek both more corporate sponsors and organizational partners. If you have partnership ideas, please contact me to discuss how we can work together to achieve our shared goals. Membership If you are not already a member, please consider joining OSEA to support our work in representing Ontario’s sustainable energy community. The membership fees for small businesses with under 10 employees is just $100. Membership for larger companies is $1,000. You can find full information about membership and join OSEA on our updated membership page. The following are just some of the new benefits of OSEA memberships: Leadership Opportunities in Ontario’s dynamic Sustainable Energy Sector Listing on OSEA Member Directory 10% Discount on Select Resilient World Institute Courses Free Attendance at future OSEA Events Database Update – please update your contact information We are updating our database and ask that you log into your Contact profile to update your contact information and indicate you want to continue receiving our newsletter. It is very important for us to have you complete and current information to enable us to represent our sector and plan our activities. Advocacy OSEA is one of the select organizations that holds official standing at the Ontario Energy Board which advises the Ontario government of key energy policies. Our Power Advisory team have worked on improving the many applications for funding by the utilities to reflect the interests that support the OSEA objectives to make regulations that support sustainable energy options including energy efficiency. In addition, OSEA is following up on the emerging Clean Energy Credit offered now for Ontario businesses and the new federal tax credit for businesses that invest in clean energy projects. I Want to Hear from You! For more information about any of the above, or to discuss how you can contribute to OSEA please contact me by email or by phone at 416-493-9232. David Katz, MBA, Chair, Ontario Sustainable Energy Association |