Paul Silverthorne, President, Dimax Building Performance

There is a growing understanding that mankind must make change to protect our endangered environment. High on the list of environmental detractors is the impact of energy consumed by buildings. Matt Ransford in an article in Popular Science in March, 2008 stated that "Inefficient buildings and homes account for a third of North America's greenhouse gas emissions." Andrew Winston (author, Green to Gold) sourced material from Architecture 2030 which showed that of the three major carbon producers in the US, buildings lead at 38%, followed by industry at 35% and transportation at 27% (see figure 1 below). Clearly, there is a pressing need to reduce the carbon (energy) impact of buildings.

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Paul Silverthorne, President, Dimax Building Performance

In August, 2007, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in Canada issued its final rules for its new DR3 Demand Response Program. The program is aimed at creating an availability of some 1,500 MW of power through the curtailment of demand by subscribers during contracted windows of availability. The key objective is to trim the peak demand in Ontario, which as been as high as 27,005 MW in August, 2006.

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