Energy Manager of the Year Awards
Every year, Save on Energy celebrates Ontario’s most creative and forward-thinking energy managers and their work to champion energy efficiency at their organizations. Save on Energy has held these industry-leading awards since 2017 to recognize the skill and dedication of these individuals and their organizations' commitment to energy-efficiency best practices.
Meet the 2022 winners
Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
At the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, energy manager Edward Cai has built a strong energy conservation team of 40 people who are able to deliver significant savings through their work in operations, maintenance, conservation awareness and employee engagement. Between 2018 and 2022, the team’s efforts to implement energy-efficiency and conservation projects led to $2.5 million in savings each year. These projects are key to the school board’s sustainability and energy-reduction goals and are making a real difference across the entire board. “This position gave us the vision and the ability to act,” says Edward.
Dream Unlimited
Sumit Khatri and Tugrul Kodaz of Dream Unlimited are constantly on the lookout for energy-efficiency projects that provide energy-reduction benefits and improve tenant comfort in the buildings owned by Dream. As senior energy managers in the real estate industry, they provide in-house expertise on energy-saving opportunities across Dream’s portfolio. By understanding how their building systems use energy, they can find ways to make improvements to help the bottom line. For Sumit and Tugrul, working closely with building managers, property managers and building operators is key to find energy-saving opportunities. Together, they are supporting Dream’s goal of becoming net-zero by 2035.
Magna Modatek Systems
Alex Von Knobloch, Magna Modatek Systems’ operational excellence and sustainability leader, works hard to identify and implement energy-efficiency projects to meet the auto manufacturer’s sustainability goals. Alex and his team are focused on making Modatek a pioneer in sustainable auto manufacturing and a trendsetter in the industry. Their energy-efficiency projects are helping to make the company more efficient, as well as more competitive for the future market in electric vehicles. They are also making a difference in the community as they work toward their sustainability goals.
St Marys Cement
At St Marys Cement, energy analyst Allison Merz is focused on identifying energy-efficiency projects that result in energy savings, increase plant productivity and improve equipment reliability. Allison works with teams at St Marys’ two plants to help drive energy management projects forward. In 2022, Allison and her teams, supported by Save on Energy, helped the company achieve 4,500 MW of energy savings. And through their employee campaign initiative, they’re engaging employees across the organization in energy management to achieve even greater success.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada
Alan Sutton, energy manager at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, leads energy-efficiency programs that have resulted in over one million dollars in annual energy savings over the past five years, as well as in increased profitability and a reduced carbon footprint. Supported by Save on Energy, Alan and his colleagues are developing a path toward strategic energy management at the auto manufacturer. A key area of their focus is to make energy efficiency a team effort by increasing employee awareness and engagement to identify solutions for reducing energy use.
CityHousing Hamilton
At CityHousing Hamilton, Chris Shilton, is focused on identifying energy efficiency and conservation projects, which are key to the city’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower operating costs. Chris actively leverages funding opportunities to revitalize the city’s housing stock – and his efforts have saved CityHousing Hamilton $1.5 million a year in operational costs.
City of Mississauga
Daniela Paraschiv is the first energy manager in Ontario to win the Energy Manager of the Year award twice. Daniela and the City of Mississauga’s energy management team are committed to finding innovative solutions to conserve energy use in city buildings. Their efforts, supported by Save on Energy programs, have helped the city to achieve more than 12,447 MWh of energy savings.
General Dynamics Land Systems
At General Dynamics Land Systems, Paul Mellecke is part of a cross-functional energy management group that includes individuals from production, maintenance, facilities, quality, communications and supply chain management. The team is focused on helping the company reduce its carbon footprint by 40 percent by 2034. In 2021, General Dynamics saved $160,000 by managing its energy use.
Magna Polycon
At Magna Polycon, Ehson Ameer leads the strategic energy management program where he actively manages energy audits, creates strategies to save energy, and develops business cases for capital expenditures – and most importantly, drives organizational change. Ehson’s work reflects his continuous improvement mindset and contributes to Magna International’s goals of becoming carbon neutral across all its plants by 2030.
Maple Leaf Foods
At Maple Leaf Foods, Behzad Hosseinpour works to identify high-priority energy-saving projects at its Hannon plan to meet the company’s corporate sustainability goals. Behzad is focused on helping Maple Leaf be the most sustainable protein company on earth. “That is the guiding star for me and for all of us here,” Behzad says.
Unity Health
At Unity Health, Shailesh Abhang and Emily Huang are constantly on the lookout for ways to conserve and reduce energy consumption. While they are not frontline healthcare workers, they play an important role that directly influences patients well being. “This is a role that comes with a lot of responsibility,” says Shailesh. “It is rewarding work that has such a big impact on the lives of the patients,” says Emily.
Jerome James
Jerome is recognized for his efforts integrating energy efficiency into industrial projects such as central compressed air systems and their controllers. He was able to monitor progress toward energy reduction goals by using historical energy consumption data. He has also initiated and implemented cross-departmental dialogue and information sharing about sustainable energy practices, which has resulted in greater organizational collaboration and lasting improvements in energy behaviours.
City of Guelph
At the City of Guelph, Graham Aikenhead and the city’s broader Energy and Climate Change team have identified and implemented several energy-savings measures for the city that have resulted in $1.7 million in annual cost savings. Graham’s work is part of the “Guelph Future Ready - Sustaining Our Future” Strategic Plan, which includes certifying Guelph to the ISO 50001 Energy Management System Standard to sustainably secure and continuously improve energy management for the city’s future.
Fanshawe College
By working collaboratively across the entire organization at Fanshawe College, and with the support of a wide-reaching energy management team, Nathan Gerber has implemented a number of successful initiatives. These include an energy management information system that helped the college reduce its energy costs and achieve 4,700 MWh in annual electricity savings.
Washington Mills
Emerson Brown has been a leading force in introducing several organization-wide strategies at Washington Mills designed to create greater employee awareness of energy management practices. Emerson’s efforts have resulted in $350,000 in annual electricity cost savings, enabling the organization to stay competitive in the industrial sector and to become more energy efficient in the long term. Learn more
Minto Group
At Minto Group, Adeyemi Adewunmi has been instrumental in standardizing how energy management practices are considered, implemented and verified, while continuously monitoring energy consumption to ensure buildings are operating optimally. Adeyemi’s efforts have resulted in 4,090 MWh in electricity savings and $500,000 in cost savings over two years.
Sick Kids
Allan Dai and Elisabeth Perlikowski are members of SickKids’ dedicated energy sustainability team, working with all levels of the organization to implement energy management programs, innovative projects and initiatives. These include using modern, smart building technology to help building operations managers pave the way for smarter energy use. Allan and Elisabeth’s efforts have achieved a nine-percent reduction in energy intensity and $500,000 in annual utility cost savings.
Cameco
Jana Jamnicky, The IESO – CIPEC Industrial Energy Manager of the Year has saved over $250,000 a year in electricity costs and has been a driving force in making conservation a point of pride for all employees at Cameco.
Peel District School Board
Benjamin Ratcliffe, IESO Institutional Sector Energy Manager of the Year, invited the students of Peel District School Board to become mini-energy managers, sharing with them their school energy data to see how they impact energy use and how they can make a difference.
Canadian Tire
Olga Horolskaya, Commercial Sector Energy Manager of the Year, was instrumental in implementing over 300 energy projects that contribute over $1,000,000 to Canadian Tire’s bottom line.
Dunn Paper
Rod Michalko, Manufacturing Energy Manager of the Year, saved approximately $1.5 million dollars in operating costs for Dunn Paper by implementing projects such as optimizing pumping and air compressor systems and introducing a facility-wide energy management information system.
Town of Caledon
Cristina Guido, Non-funded Energy Manager of the Year, was recognized for leading the Town’s corporate energy program in 2019, including her work with the Town’s Corporate Energy Team on energy savings projects, maintaining building benchmarking and introducing energy performance reports through the RETScreen Expert software, which contributed to the Corporate Energy Team’s achievement of over 12 percent savings across the Town’s building portfolio.
Roseburg MDF
Youcef Ziani’s experience in strategic energy management was put to good use at Roseburg MDF, leading to strategy sessions with executives which helped Youcef win buy-in for his energy plans. The Energy Manager of the Year – LDC was awarded to Youcef for driving change at Roseburg MDF, helping to save 3,200 MWh.
Tahoe Canada
Energy Manager Award winner for the IAP-CIPEC Energy Manager of the Year and Most Non-Incented Savings, Bruce Armitage and his team have implemented an educational campaign to raise awareness of the impact operating procedures have on energy consumption. This, combined with upgrades throughout the mine, has resulted in $11 million in savings.
FirstService Residential
Suneel Gupta, winner of the Multi-site Customer Energy Manager Program, has worked with FirstService Residential’s portfolio of buildings to address affordability and reliability through energy-efficiency. Through upgrades to lighting, HVAC equipment and training property managers, Suneel has helped save $5 million for FirstService Residential buildings.
City of Mississauga
Winner of the Energy Manager of the Year – Non-Funded Award, Daniela Paraschiv led a Race to Reduce style competition between 19 of the city's buildings. This helped uncover no-cost and low-cost opportunities, resulting in $343,000 in annual energy savings.
City of Markham
Amanda Martin and her team used an innovative approach to energy management, turning a simple energy audit into better data management and a more informed workforce for the City of Markham. The Most Innovative Project award was given to her for these upgrades, which is helping save the city $1.7 million annually.
3M Canada
Winner of Best Energy Savings Campaign, Prasath Vinayagamoorthy focused on employee engagement and outreach, developing an online employee suggestion system that rewards employees for unique energy-efficiency ideas. This has helped the Ontario facilities lead 3M globally in energy-efficiency.
CFB Trenton
Honourable mentions go to the energy management team at CFB Trenton. Jeff Lamar and Peter Irwin have helped foster a culture of energy-efficiency at CFB Trenton, which has resulted in the Canadian Armed Forces expanding energy management practices to all of their bases across Canada.
Goldcorp - Red Lakes Gold Mine
Elissa Williamson and her team implemented energy saving initiatives in compressed air leak management, underground ventilation, and LED lighting at the Goldcorp Red Lake Gold Mines. The IAP-CIPEC Energy Manager Leadership Award was granted to Elissa and Goldcorp for implementing these measures and establishing an energy conservation culture amongst employees, which saved the mines $10.1 Million.
FCA - Windsor Assembly Plant
Embedded Energy Manager, Harpreet Dhillon implemented a system where compressed air supply can be controlled and analyzed at certain times of the day, from many different departments within the FCA Windsor Assembly Plant. Along with efficient boiler and chiller initiatives, the conservation measures taken have resulted in a daily monetary savings in the six figures and the Most Innovative Energy Savings Project award.,
Owens Corning Canada
Hiren Patel saved Owens Corning Canada tens of thousands of MWh by implementing compressed air and other utility optimization projects - a cost savings equal to selling insulation for 3,000 homes. He’s not only created more opportunities to save, he has improved product quality and employee engagement. Because of this, Hiren and the plant were awarded with the Provincial Energy Manager of the Year award.
The Home Depot Canada
The Home Depot earned their IESO Energy Manager of the Year award by creating comprehensive energy programs amongst their retail stores. With stores across Ontario voluntarily creating energy conservation teams, energy scorecards to measure building performance, and efficient rooftop HVAC unit installations, The Home Depot saved enough energy to power 13 stores in a year.
Molson Coors - Toronto Brewery
Energy Manager Award winner for Most Energy Savings, Johnathan Barrington and Molson Coors invested in prediction software to analyze the weather forecast, which reduced demand during peaks and saved the Toronto brewery 1,944 MWh annually – a cost savings equivalent of producing 55,000 cases of beer.
General Motors - Oshawa Assembly Plant
Compressed air is the most expensive utility at the General Motors Oshawa Assembly Plant. To combat leaks, Energy Engineer, Kevin Wagner created an innovative demonstration tool to simulate the noise of a compressed air leak – bringing energy awareness to assembly line workers and awarding Kevin and the company the Best Energy Savings Campaign accolade.