The University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC) in Canada advances sustainability and targets carbon neutrality by 2050. A recent project in Environmental Science and Chemistry Building shows how simple efficiency upgrades can drive major decarbonization and create savings on campus operations.
The LEED Gold-certified Environmental Science and Chemistry Building (ESCB) at UTSC houses the Department of Physical and Environmental Science and serves over 1,100 undergraduates and 150 graduate students. Inefficiencies in the heat recovery chiller of its geo-exchange system led to unexpectedly high natural gas consumption during colder months, challenging UTSC’s decarbonization goals.
As a result of fuel switching, a significant decrease of 33% in natural gas consumption was observed.
Through the systematic recommissioning process and the utilization of advanced control strategies, a reduction of 4% in electricity consumption was achieved.
Making existing equipment operate as efficiently as possible is the ideal starting point for a decarbonization journey. Optimizing existing infrastructure alone has yielded a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 1,094 t CO2e.
Performance improvments without disrupting daily operations
The ESCB was designed for energy efficiency and equipped with a geo-exchange system. However, the heat recovery chiller wasn’t working as intended, which had a cascading effect on the entire system’s performance. The University of Toronto Scarborough Campus also faced the challenge of recommissioning the building while it remained in use. Through Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx), UTSC identified and resolved inefficiencies, improving the performance of legacy systems and infrastructure without disrupting comfort and daily operations for students, faculty, and staff.
The Siemens team wasn't just interested in fixing things – they wanted to help us build something sustainable for the long term.
UTSC partnered with Siemens to optimize the ESCB with support from the IESO SaveOnEnergy program and Enbridge Gas. This collaborative approach to Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) leveraged data‑driven problem‑solving and provincial resources and incentives to reduce energy consumption.
The optimization process began with a comprehensive system review. Siemens experts analyzed system data and collaborated with the UTSC team to assess the building’s energy loads and their integration with the existing geo-exchange system. The heating and cooling loops were carefully evaluated, and the original design specifications were revisited to identify deviations from the original design and inefficiencies.
In the next phase, functional tests were carried out to ensure all systems were operating as intended. This included verifying the responsiveness of the control systems and fine-tuning the PID loops to achieve more accurate and stable control of heating and cooling functions.
A BTU meter, a device tailored for accurately measuring thermal energy exchange in heating and cooling systems, was installed to monitor the heat produced by the heat recovery process. This allowed for accurate measurement of supply and return line flow rates and temperatures, providing valuable insights into how effectively energy was being captured and reused within the system.
Finally, the geo-exchange system was fine-tuned according to recommendations from the commissioning study to enhance overall efficiency and performance. Additional improvements were implemented across the building’s HVAC systems, including HVAC scheduling, chilled water optimization, hot water loop tuning, air-handling unit setpoint adjustments, and earth tube optimization.
Optimizing the way the building runs is a key thing we can do with great payback.
Improving the efficiency of existing building infrastructure plays a key role in sustainable decarbonization. By using digital solutions for monitoring, analysis, and performance optimization along with effective maintenance, significant gains can be achieved quickly and cost‑effectively.
The successful EBCx project at UTSC demonstrates how targeted, cost-efficient measures can significantly improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of a university building in a short time. Are you also looking to make your existing buildings more sustainable? Get in touch with us! Together, we’ll identify the right approaches and develop an effective strategy.
