Spotlight on: Making the Case for Decarbonization Projects

CIET introduces a new course that provide participants with hands-on experience analyzing decarbonization projects.

—

Decarbonization and climate change mitigation activities are picking up steam throughout organizations—both public and private—in Canada for a variety of reasons. These reasons include meeting their own strategic objectives, meeting regulatory requirements, and keeping up with sectoral trends from competitors in the same industry.

CIET is responding by working on the creation of 6 new courses in the area of decarbonization, which help participants better understand and acquire new skills in areas such as project selection, quantification, net-zero and electrification strategies, planning and evaluation, and mitigation.

The first of these new courses is a one-day program called Making the Case for Decarbonization Projects, and the next public course is coming up on October 27, 2022. It helps participants understand and work through three key questions:

• How do you know which projects to invest in?
• How can you balance capital planning, financial, and decarbonization objectives?
• Can decarbonization also achieve non-energy benefits, and how do you deal with uncertainties like rising carbon taxes?

The process of reducing and working toward eliminating CO2 emissions from a building's energy sources seems straightforward enough, as do some of the more common strategies, which include, in no particular order: electrification, renewable energy, energy efficiency, building scheduling, and managed electricity loads. However, not all strategies are equal or produce the same results, and neither are the projects that can be created based on these strategies.

Far from being a one-sided lecture, the Making the Case for Decarbonization Projects course will address topics such as the basics of incremental cost, pricing carbon, net present value, the total cost of building ownership, and how to determine what needs to be included in a decision matrix by having participants work through the steps of creating a business case for a decarbonization project.

This course will help any participant who wants to gain knowledge on how to compare and better select the decarbonization project that will ultimately help achieve its organization’s carbon reduction targets.