Project Address

82 Buttonwood Avenue, Toronto, ON

Key Contacts

Building Manager: Michael Bonnah, Director Operations and Logistics, West Park Healthcare Centre

Project Background

Toronto’s West Park Healthcare Centre began its journey to improve energy efficiency on the 27-acre campus of its rehabilitation, complex continuing care and long-term care facility in 1986. The hospital provides 487 beds to patients who are overcoming health barriers, to help them live the fullest lives possible. West Park employs 920 healthcare staff, and operates 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

With its ongoing commitment to energy conservation, West Park was interested in additional ways to reduce its electrical demand and environmental footprint through energy-efficiency retrofits. Following an engineering review in 2008 conducted by HH Angus and Associates, an opportunity to improve the cooling system was presented that would garner significant savings.

The engineering study revealed the need to replace an outdated, 30-year-old chiller that would annually reduce West Park’s environmental footprint by 127 tonnes of CO₂ and air-conditioning use by an estimated 37 per cent.

Desired Outcomes

Over the years, West Park has incrementally reduced its electrical demand and carbon footprint to be a leader in energy conservation. Both staff and patients share in the hospital’s advocacy for environmental stewardship and West Park has received several awards to recognize their long-term commitment to conserving energy.

As a respected healthcare facility within the community, West Park must continue to manage its resources carefully to ensure that the hospital maximizes its efficiency.

Solution and Results

For its most recent retrofit project, West Park teamed up with the City of Toronto’s Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) to upgrade the cooling system. The BBP facilitated the replacement of West Park’s outdated, 30-year-old chiller with two smaller, energy-efficient units that better matched the building’s needs and allowed the hospital to cut their air conditioning energy use by 37 per cent. With the overall project costing more than $1 million, the BBP helped to offset the expense by providing an incentive of $47,480.00 based on demand savings of 118.7 kW.

West Park has been serving the communities of Toronto and Ontario for over 100 years. During that time, the hospital has greatly reduced its impact on the environment by consistently implementing solutions to improve its energy management. In continuing their commitment to energy conservation, Michael Bonnah was appointed as the Chief Energy Conservation Officer in May 2009 to oversee West Park’s ongoing journey to improve energy efficiency.

Project Snapshot

• Project cost: $1,419,342.00
• Annual electricity savings: 118.7 kW
• Annual cost savings: 37% of electrical energy use related to cooling
• Annual CO2 savings: 127 tonnes of CO₂
• Incentives received: BBP ($47,480.00)
• Payback period: over ten years

About Better Buildings Partnership

The Better Buildings Partnership is an innovative partnership program that provides resources including financial assistance, to help energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in building renewal and construction in multifamily buildings, industrial, commercial, and institutional buildings. The BBP’s primary goal is to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions which come from the energy used to heat, light, cool and operate buildings.

For more information please contact:

Better Buildings Partnership
Tel: 416-392-1500
bbp@toronto.ca

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