Blog Contributor: Noah Nickel

Recently I had an interview with Ryan Stewart, the Energy Manager at Brock University. This summer Ryan led a group in creating Brock’s Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan (ECDM) and so I asked him about him and his role, and the ECDM and what it means to the Brock community.

Q1. Do you mind just giving a quick background about yourself?

My name is Ryan Stewart, I’m a former Brock graduate, and a mechanical engineer with 15 years of consulting experience, specifically in the thermal energy and power generation fields. I’ve been working at Brock for the last three years as a temporary Technical Services manager and now as the Energy manager. My current role here is to spearhead energy conservation projects, apply for and obtain energy rebates, monitor and forecast utilities consumptions and costs, as well as all of our regulatory reporting requirements.

Q2. If you could distill the ECDM into a single sentence what would you say? To describe it to people that have never heard of it before.

The ECDM is a history of what the University has accomplished in terms of conservation in the last 5 years as well as a roadmap of where the University is going to focus its efforts for GHG and energy reductions during the next 5 years.

Q3. What single project or measure in the ECDM are you most proud of?

I would have to say some the measures that I am most proud of are the two projects that we undertook in Decew Residence as well as in Plaza. Both projects resulted in fairly significant reductions in energy consumptions in both buildings without the expenditure of large amounts of capital in order for them to happen. These projects both utilized existing controls and infrastructure and with some investigation and minor alterations to valving allowed for a much more efficient building operation.

Q4. How can we as members of the Brock community contribute to Brock’s Energy Conservation efforts?

There are a multitude of ways individuals can contribute to our energy conservation efforts, simply being mindful of your electrical usage is a big one. Don’t leave lights on or the TV on in your dorm room when you are gone, not having additional plug loads like fans and space heaters running at all times, not leaving windows and doors open when the heat or ac is running is another big one. These may not seem like much in terms of energy conservation, but if everyone gets in the habit of being mindful of their energy use, we could see a huge change.

 You can check out the ECDM for yourself by clicking here.