The Audit++ Program, which was rolled out across the 42 sites from May 2008 to February 2009, combined a number of valuable services for each participating facility, including:

• Pre-audit communications and information collection with local staff 
• Historical energy use analysis including creation of a load profile
• An introductory meeting with local stakeholders to provide overview of energy issues
• A full day assessment of facility and equipment focusing on energy impacts
• Interaction with facilities personnel to understand local operating and management practices
• Metering and load profiling of key equipment
• Development of a RETScreen profile and related assessment of current performance and opportunities for energy efficiency retrofits, as well as recommendations to improve operating practices
• Development of an Audit Report that functions as a blend between a detailed audit and basic re-commissioning report
• Evaluation of retrofit projects for federal, provincial and utility funding
• Development of an Implementation Report that details the operational and technological improvement opportunities discovered during the shared audit, as well with an explanation of how to realize these opportunities and financial analysis details that may be used to seek and justify necessary capital support
• A full day post audit classroom session on energy management and review of improvement plans
• An update of reports to include feedback from classroom sessions

The purpose of the Audit++ was to help meet the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets set for the municipal sector in the Province’s Go Green Action Plan on Climate Change by building local energy management capacity, positioning recipient municipalities to apply for the retrofit support under the MECF and other incentive programs, and adding to the best practice literature being developed by LAS for dissemination across the province. LAS maintains that the cost-effectiveness of reducing GHGs through energy efficiency projects is unsurpassed while the operating savings and job creation in local municipalities are welcome spin-offs. 

The 42 facilities in the Audit++ Program covered a wide spectrum in terms of size, function, consumption, and equipment use. Considerable opportunities were identified in each of the 42 facilities and ranged from routine maintenance procedures to dramatic alterations of building operating systems that often included renewable energy systems. In total, the 42 facilities consumed over 100,410,000 ekWh per year (55,966,000 of electricity and 44,444,000 of fuel) during 2007, which resulted in 20,335 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. To sequester this amount of carbon we would have to plant approximately 33,000 acres of forest (US EPA figures).  The average operating cost savings per site was $26,980.95 on a total investment of $6,478,600 for all 42 sites, which amounts to an approximate simple payback of 5.72 years. Fortunately, the Audit++ team identified considerable savings potential.

Every municipality in Ontario was mailed a box containing 3 binders of Audit++ Program case studies in April 2009. 

Click on the Audit++ Binder link on the left-hand side of this page to download individual case studies.