August 29, 2020 – Natural Resources Canada’s ISO 50001 financial assistance program is now accepting project proposals for commercial and institutional building owners and operators wishing to implement ISO 50001 to improve their energy efficiency.

As a reminder, ISO 50001 “Energy management systems” is an internationally recognized voluntary standard that gives organizations a structured framework to manage energy.

“For example, Canadian industrial companies that have implemented ISO 50001 have achieved an average cumulative energy performance improvement of nearly 10% within the first two years,” says NRCan. “This has resulted in up to $2 million in annual energy cost savings for large Canadian companies.”

There are two types of eligible recipients

1. Direct recipients. Commercial and institutional buildings owners and operators, including Indigenous organizations, who wish to implement ISO 50001 in their buildings.

2. Initial recipients. Municipal/provincial/territorial governments and agencies, utilities, industry associations and registered non-profit organizations that implement programs that redistribute the funds to direct/ultimate recipients to undertake eligible project activities.

The funding will be used to reimburse eligible project costs as follows:

• Eligible for-profit organizations may receive up to 60% of eligible costs.

• Eligible not-for-profit organizations may receive up to 75% of eligible costs.

• Maximum of $40,000 per facility.

• The maximum contribution to an organization or group of affiliates is $200,000 per fiscal year (April 1 to March 31).

Eligible project expenditures include salaries and benefits, professional, scientific and technical fees specific to the energy management system, fees for data collection, benchmarking and analysis services, metering equipment, as well as other expenditures directly related to the project.

The deadline to apply is October 7, 2020 (23:59 EDT) for projects to be completed by March 31, 2023. To request the application package, email:

RFPbuildings-ddpbatiments@canada.ca

For more information, refer to financial assistance for commercial and institutional buildings.

3M Canada Company, Alectra Inc., Broan-Nutone Canada Inc. and Schneider Electric Canada Inc. are among the ISO 50001-certified organizations in Canada.