Congratulations to Kara Bourque who was the recipient of the 2023-24 scholarship!
Congratulations Vahid!
Congratulations to Vahid Zamani who was the recipient of this years scholarship!
How to Begin Your Career as a Successful Ecopreneur
In today's business environment, most large-cap companies now publish annual corporate social responsibility reports, indicating that sustainability in business is no longer optional. Entrepreneurs developing can no longer focus on long-term growth without addressing how their plans impact the environment.
Establishing a sustainable business model that attracts investors and customers involves various phases.
What makes a business green?
Green businesses do not negatively impact the environment, economy or community. Instead, they pursue the Environmental Protection Agency's goals of creating and maintaining conditions under which humans and nature can exist productively and harmoniously to benefit present and future generations.
What are the pitfalls of starting a green business?
Choose a green business idea that addresses a specific need and has long-term growth potential before adjusting your career trajectory or leaving a comfortable job that supports you financially.
Although you can research large-scale opportunities within broad energy, transportation or technology industries, you can also find inspiration by examining your daily rituals. For example, consider starting a bicycle rental company to reduce automobile and gasoline usage. Alternatively, if you love to sew, develop a line of accessories made from recyclable materials.
You can also learn from others' successes. For example, you can model your business after Patagonia, whose founder, Yvon Chouinard, promotes sustainable practice throughout every level of his company and donates 1% of all sales to environmental causes.
If you are an animal lover, draw inspiration from West Paw, which includes four-legged family members in its fight to save the planet. The company constructs toys and accessories from recyclable, non-toxic materials and asks customers to help achieve its plant-friendly goals by returning well-loved toys to its recycling center, where they obtain new life.
Ultimately, it is helpful to view any idea through a green lens before moving forward.
What are the funding options for green startups?
Green or not, every business startup requires an infusion of cash; however, choosing to be green comes with additional costs, including supplies and space. Fortunately, various funding sources can help.
For example, the government offers numerous grant programs that help launch sustainable businesses, though it can take some serious effort to get funding. You can also present your idea to private venture capitalists or angel investors who may offer funding and mentoring in exchange for equity.
Finally, when your business category does not qualify for support from the government or other organizations, crowdfunding can help you obtain donations from like-minded individuals who like your business model.
What does a green business plan include?
Your business plan must address a triple bottom line, addressing people, profits and the planet, showing potential investors how each aspect of your business will incorporate sustainable practices. It must include:
A mission statement and goals
An executive structure
Products, services and target audience
Operating and marketing plans
Financial projections
What is green marketing?
Your green company's success depends upon attracting an environmentally conscious audience. Therefore, your marketing strategy must involve every aspect of your operations. For example, you can avoid traditional snail mail marketing campaigns that waste paper with digital content marketing services.
If you’re unsure about where to begin, online marketing consultants can provide guidance to help you effectively market your brand.
Depending on your business category, you can also obtain certifications from organizations that allow you to display their logos on your materials to convey the standards you uphold.
Are you ready to start a business that sustains your future and the planet? If you’ve got an idea that has growth potential, this could be the perfect opportunity to realize your dreams of entrepreneurship. Carefully assess the pitfalls that come with startups, and get a clear understanding of where to get your capital. Create a stellar business plan, and connect with marketing pros to develop a sustainable marketing campaign. Before too long, your green venture will be up and running!
The ASHRAE NAC Board thanks Tina Martin for writing this wonderful article for us as a guest author.
"Day on the Hill"
To all ASHRAE members,
Our friends at HRAI have scheduled a (virtual) “Day on the Hill” for May 4th, 2021. HRAI is setting up meetings with MPs across the nation, as well as Ministers, Parliamentary Assistants, Committee Chairs and senior bureaucrats. HRAI will also be preparing some key messaging on behalf of the industry and will do a preparatory message briefing in advance of the actual day of meetings.
ASHRAE has been invited to participate in this process so we’re reaching out to identify members who might be interested in participating on our behalf.
Doing this virtually has some disadvantages, but the major upside of this format is that it will allow us collectively to involve many more of our members -- from the comfort of their own homes and offices. HRAI will try to match up constituents with their local MPs wherever possible. Please note that, depending on the meetings we get, we may not need every member who volunteers, but we want to be prepared!
Please indicate your willingness by filling in this FORM: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQPsJJMypZsz1xY28RC-T46UtFrk797MgSASWLsG-v-XNcXQ/viewform
ASHRAE NAC Scholarship
If you would like any more information, please reach out to Chad or any of the other board members.
2021 ASHRAE Winter Conference
The 2021 ASHRAE Virtual Winter Conference will take place in a convenient, online format February 9-11. Attendees can join live discussions with top experts, learn the latest updates relating to COVID-19, and have access to 90+ technical sessions for 18 months. Group rates are available, and members register for just $249 (USD).
The 2021 AHR Expo originally scheduled to be held January 25-27, 2021 at McCormick Place in Chicago has been cancelled.
2019-2020 Chapter Event Summary
September Lunch Meeting
The first meeting of the 2019-2020 season took place on Wednesday, September 18. The lunch meeting was held at the Matrix Hotel with guest speaker Steven Sookdeo from Footprint. Steven presented on the impacts to building design of the upcoming enforcement of the National Energy Code for Buildings (NECB) 2017.
Diversity in ASHRAE – Paint Night
The diversity in ASHRAE NAC chair hosted a Paint Night on Tuesday, October 15 at Fionn MacCool’s. Many a masterpiece were painted by the members and guests who joined.
Past Presidents Night
October’s dinner meeting, held on Wednesday, October 30, at the University of Alberta Faculty Club, was Past Presidents Night. Special guest Darryl Boyce, ASHRAE Society President, was in attendance and spoke on the topic of Building for People and Performance Achieving Operational Excellence – his theme as president for the year. Jason Smith from Intellihot also presented on the topic of tankless water heater design. In all, 16 past presidents of the ASHRAE NAC chapter attended the event.
November Lunch Meeting
November’s chapter event was a lunch meeting held at the Common on Wednesday, November 20. Chris Dziedzic from Price Industries was the featured speaker presenting on acoustical considerations for buildings.
Christmas Lunch Meeting
December’s meeting was the annual Christmas Luncheon held on Friday, December 20 at the Delta Hotel South. The event was well attended and included a prize draw in support of the Edmonton Christmas Bureau. Thanks to the generosity of members who donated the prizes at all those in attendance who bought tickets, the chapter was able to donate $6670 To the Edmonton Christmas Bureau.
Diversity in ASHRAE – Professional Development
The diversity in ASHRAE NAC chair hosted a professional development session on Thursday, January 9, 2020 at the Matrix Hotel. The guest speaker was Brittany Mendiuk from the Technical Services Branch at Alberta Infrastructure whom spoke on the topic of innovative ways to utilize BIM models and the digital files that are delivered to Alberta Infrastructure following the handover of a project.
Student Night
The first meeting of 2020 was Student Night held at MKT on Wednesday, January 22. The guest speaker for the evening was Brian Kammers from Desert Aire who presented on natatorium design and best practices.
February Lunch Meeting
February’s chapter event was a lunch meeting held at the Louisiana Purchase on Wednesday, February 19. Martin Gravel with Camfil Canada presented on Air and Gas phase filtration guidelines for the cannabis industry-from, clean room and ISO space selections, MERV rating recommendations, general commercial efficiency options and air change recommendations for design. Unfortunately this would be the last in person event of the season.
COVID-19 Pandemic
On March 5 the first presumptive case of COVID-19 was reported in Alberta. This would lead to massive changes to society over the next few months and beyond. As a result of the spread of COVID -19 through the province and the issuance of health orders, all non-essential businesses were closed and large gatherings were prohibited. This resulted in the offices of companies in our industry being closed with people having to work remotely from home. In person meetings were replaced with video conferences; construction activities were still allowed to continue but with additional health and safety measures in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of chapter events were forced to be cancelled, including the March dinner meeting, the annual John Ross curling bonspiel, the April dinner meeting, and the annual golf tournament. Our chapter was also to host the Chapters Regional Conference at the end of April into early May – this event also had to be cancelled.
From a chapter operational standpoint, chapter board meetings were required to be conducted via videoconference instead of in person.
Spring Update
With everyone adjusting to the “new normal” brought on by the COVID pandemic, the chapter board decided to host an online video conference to provide an update on the chapter to its membership. The video meeting was held on Monday, May 21 and was well attended by chapter members.
June Meeting
The final event of the 2019-2020 season was held on Wednesday, June 17. The event was held via video conference and included Robert Peters with Rinnai Canada. Rob presented on common venting design for multi-family projects for domestic hot water systems.
Chapters Regional Conference 2020
POSTPONED
Every year, one chapter in ASHRAE Regional XI hosts the Chapters Regional Conference. The CRC is a four day long event comprising of Caucus meetings, Business Sessions, Board of Governors Chair position training, and much, much more!
From April 30 to May 2, 2020, Edmonton will be host to Delegates, Alternates, board trainees, and special guests from eleven chapters in Region XI.
Kent Signorini is the CRC 2020 Committee General Chair and Tom Jacknisky is the CRC 2020 Co-chair. As we near the date for CRC 2020, Kent, Tom, and the CRC Committee will be looking for volunteers to help with planning and execution of the CRC weekend.
Helping organize and run a CRC is a great way to begin your involvement with ASHRAE. You will learn about the inner workings of the Chapter and Region, and be doing a great service for the attendees.
If you are interested in volunteering to help with CRC 2020, please contact Kent or Tom by using the Contact Us form.
You can learn more about ASHRAE CRCs by visiting:
https://www.ashrae.org/conferences/chapters-regional-conferences-crcs
Thank you!
Handbooks needed!
ASHRAE handbooks are still in hot demand amongst the students at the university.
A fresh batch of recent editions was contributed thanks to the engineers at Stantec, but these are not expected to last for long. A reminder to all the members that their old editions could be welcome in the hands of the students training to be part of our industry.
You don’t need to donate a whole box; even individual books count!
Please let Robert Prybysh at Arrow Engineering know if you have any books that you can donate. (Or use the Contact Us form to reach the Board of Governors and someone will get back to you.)
Thank you!
Win an Alaskan Cruise!
Our friends at the Regina Chapter are holding a draw for two tickets on the CRC 2019 Alaskan Cruise! This is open to all ASHRAE Region XI members.