Great. Thanks, Rob.
Just to set the context, I'm the director of corporate sustainability within the ministry of government that looks after core government buildings, ministry buildings. We also have clients from the broader public sector, and we consider them voluntary customers. They could access our services, but are not mandated to do so. We have about 15% or so of the square footage of the broader public sector, so the policies that Rob was referring to apply to the broader public sector. Our portfolio is about 15% of that. Because core government has a relatively high profile within the initiatives that are done—house-in-order type activities—we tend to apply a lot of the leading-edge policy and programs to trial them for both the broader public sector and the private sector. So our portfolio is across the province.
My technology is failing me here, so I'm going to be looking at my BlackBerry for my speaking notes.
We have a mature energy management program that was established about 30 years ago, recognizing that energy efficiency was an important part of government building operations. During the time the energy management program has been in place, we've improved the energy efficiency of our building portfolio by more than 50%. We measure performance by our building energy performance index, which is a normalized index that provides an account of energy consumption by square metre. Around 1980 our BEPI, our building energy performance index, was about 2,400. It currently is under 1,200. Just in the last five or so years, we've been successful in reducing our consumption by over 4%.
So our work continues. We look at energy management not as an event; it's ongoing. It's something that we can't let lapse. What we found in the nineties, from an operational perspective, was that when we started to refocus our efforts on general building operations and didn't maintain a focused view of energy performance, our energy performance slipped, resulting over the decade in approximately $2 million in extra energy utility costs. It reminded us that we need to maintain an ongoing focus for energy performance, and that it's not an event that should happen when a project is delivered.
Rob mentioned policy. Policy drives our initiative, and we have policy within government operations that includes an environmental stewardship policy. Within that policy, we have an ISO 14001 registered portfolio. Within that environmental management system, which is ISO 14001 registered, energy is considered a significant aspect. Within that cycle of management, the “plan, do, check, act” cycle, we set objectives and targets and we establish programs that will achieve the objectives and targets. This probably won't be new to you folks who are experienced in the realm of management, but it's a very simple concept that has caused some very successful results for us.
We also have in place technical standards. So above and beyond the building code, which applies to all new development, we have technical standards. They are not prescriptive but outline the performance level of the building components as they're replaced in existing buildings or as they're specified in new construction. Those technical standards help provide guidance to all new development and major upgrades to our facilities.
One of the lenses used to maintain those technical standards is energy performance. As buildings are continually maintained, they are continually improved by the energy performance resulting from the technical standards.
Two years ago we launched something called the Leading Workplace strategy, and I understand PWGSC has a similar initiative, where the way the space is used is revisited. Rather than looking at work as being the space we work in, we look at work as work, and no matter where we are, we need to be outfitted to do our work.
The Leading Workplace strategy supports flexibility and mobility for all government workers. As a result of rolling out the Leading Workplace strategy in the Victoria capital region, as an example, we have reduced the portfolio footprint by over 3,800 square metres. When we shed space, we also shed the associated energy costs and conditioning costs that are required to maintain that space.
Over the next few years, we anticipate that Leading Workplace strategy will be a significant contributor to our energy efficiency interests.
We have an outsource service provider, as does PWGSC, and within that outsource service provision, energy performance is a mandated management and operational service delivery.
We have an energy management conservation strategy that we developed jointly with our outsource service provider, which provides focus to the efforts the outsource service provider does around the building operations in order to support energy efficiency. Areas of work that the outsource service provider contributes include things like operational best practices.
In the industry there is a big push right now to recognize the operational efficiency of our buildings rather than just focusing on high-efficient building infrastructure. We can have a very efficient design of the building, but we also need a very efficient operation of the well-designed building, and that's where we're putting a lot of our effort.
We have designed an HVAC best practices guideline and a self-assessment tool. As part of that contract we have with our outsource service provider, one of the requirements is that they conduct a self-assessment for every facility management zone and identify areas of continual improvement, so they can improve their ongoing ability to operate the buildings in their small portfolio more effectively. It's part of the framework of the environmental management system. Continual improvement is a required attribute of that system, so it complements that very well.
In terms of other efforts, we probably spend about $1.5 million specifically in energy efficiency projects. Those are recognized through routine capital programming, where the building systems are reviewed and opportunities for improvement are identified. We've converted most of our T12s to T8 lamps, and we have replaced a substantial number of the incandescent lamps with LED lamps within our portfolio.
The last thing I will say is that partnerships are very important for us, and one of our most significant partnerships is with the utilities in our province. Approximately 30% of our capital costs for projects are incented through our local utilities. BC Hydro is an example. It provided almost $1 million over the last two years in energy efficiency incentives, as well as human resources to help support the work we do.
That's a glimpse of some of the things we do around supporting energy efficiency in the province.
If you have any questions on the operational side, I'd be happy to answer them, and I'm sure Rob and I can provide some additional input on the policy side as well.