Good morning. My name is Dean Karakasis. I'm the executive director of the Building Owners and Managers Association for Ottawa and the national capital region, proudly at the service of the highest concentration of government buildings in all of Canada. Recently your committee showed a lot of respect for our organization by asking our national offices to address this committee and they told you that nationally our association represents about two billion square feet. To put that in context for you, for what I do, we represent about 100 million square feet in the city of Ottawa and the national capital region alone.
Our mandate is to be the voice of the industry, not the voice of our members, but the voice of the industry. In that regard we develop different programs to educate and document industry standards, but possibly most importantly to provide forums for the sharing of best practices and experiences from everything from building management to energy savings, as we're talking about today.
One such BOMA program that combines both standards and sharing is the BOMA building environmental standards or BOMA BESt program. It's a Canadian designed, Canadian operated, and Canadian maintained program. It's designed to address the impact of commercial office space on the environment by recognizing that you can't change what you don't measure. My national colleagues let you know that BOMA BESt assesses six key areas of environmental performance and management. Just as a reminder, let me tell you that the areas are energy, water, waste reduction, emissions in effluents, indoor environment, and environmental management systems.
Over 150 buildings currently hold one of our four levels of BOMA BESt designation in the BOMA Ottawa area. Many other buildings have run the program simply to assess where they stand and what they need to do to improve and reach one of our four levels. We at BOMA Ottawa are proud to say that since 2008 we have worked with Public Works and Government Services Canada as well as SNC Lavalin, who manage many of the government facilities, to put large segments of their building inventory through our program.
Our four level program helps property managers to understand where they stand in absolute numbers and where they stand against comparable metrics allowing them to consider initiatives that may reduce their buildings' impact on the environment.
A BOMA BESt level two certified building performs 6% better than the national average. Level three buildings perform 18% better and a level four building, our highest standard, perform 46% better than the national average. We are partners with government to ensure that the Public Works portfolio goes through BOMA BESt assessment. In March alone we with independent auditors reviewed 49 buildings, buildings that house government employees, a new record.
The reality is that many of the options available to larger, well-managed buildings are already being implemented. But there are three areas that we can address if our collective goal is to reduce the environmental impact of commercial office space in both government and the private sector, in particular in energy usage.
First is the need to invest in professional property managers and facility managers who manage the government portfolio or who interface with their alternate delivery providers. They need access to continuing education to allow them to learn about and implement best practices as they continue to evolve. It will make them contributors to the overall discussion. It will make them better managers and more valuable assets as federal employees.
Often I find myself managing a BOMA BESt file where the data is collected and entered into the system by a project officer or an environmental specialist while the property managers or the building operators are left to answer questions and conduct on-site verification tours unique to our program. These property managers or building operators are the front line for ideas for progress and for maintenance and they need to be participants in the measurement initiatives.
Second is the expansion of the federal mandate to those buildings that are not part of the Public Works and Government Services portfolio. I don't want to suggest that this isn't happening. There are many enlightened property management groups in Transport, DND, and other government departments that have sought us out and because of the affordability of our program are able to access it and implement it and receive the value of the evaluation. The ability to further realize savings by further reaching into building inventories is clear. You simply can't reduce what you don't measure.
Finally, let me suggest something that I'm not sure has been considered a lot. It might seem strange coming from someone who is supposed to represent buildings and building owners, but too often we concentrate on the building envelope and equipment that keeps the building running because it's easy and it's within our sphere of influence to change a system, to change a light bulb, to change a window. The fact is in today's world the replacement of windows or HVAC systems will always trend towards environmentally friendly options that are available in our industry.
A very well-respected property manager with a very large portfolio in this city said to me that you would have to try hard not to build a retrofitted building that is more harmful to the environment than what is currently being used.
In fact, the investments some of our industry are making in being environmentally responsible are not usually reflected in a positive way on the balance sheet, but environmental responsibility in the operation of the building is part of our culture now, and we're not going back.
What we struggle with is the constant evolution and improvement of those that reside in our buildings, our tenants. We place signs directing behaviour: glass here, plastics here, organics there. We put in place an infrastructure for them to participate in paper recycling, computer recycling, and battery recycling. These are all things we do constantly. But we don't have an obvious means of education, or recognition, or the capture of the input from the tenants in things that will make them a bigger part of the process. I don't mean suggestion boxes, whether they be virtual or real, but rather the idea that tenants can provide meaningful approaches to the problems.
The best sealed window in the world is of no use if it's left open all day. The most energy-efficient piece of equipment in an office is ineffective if it's left on when it's not needed. Users of office space are more environmentally conscious in their homes than they are in their office space, and the reason is simple: it's not their space. That culture is something we all need to work on in order to get tenants to understand.
We need to get them to feel they are a partner in this and we require more than just a memo for tenant contact. It means using traditional media, social media, and more to get the message out, and maybe branding the culture of environmental education, something all of us can do, both government and private sector, to all of our tenants.
Sometimes we feel we're trying to make buildings efficient in spite of our tenants. It's time to design programs to make them efficient with our tenants. Tenant engagement is the next horizon to energy and waste reduction.
I want to thank the committee for inviting me here today and listening to my message. As an industry we stand ready to partner in the development of even more innovative approaches to our collective future.