The e3 Hub shares with a large number of organizations a concern for the efficient and effective consumption of energy. The e3 Hub is a member of the EDDEC Institute (Environment, Sustainable Development and Circular Economy), comprising HEC Montréal, Polytechnique of Montreal and the University of Montreal. One of the Institute’s objectives is to unite the skills pool of the University of Montreal campus and use this knowledge to promote sustainable development. The e3 Hub participated, in partnership with the EDDEC Institute, in the Metals and Circular Economy Project in Quebec of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MERN), a project that ended in 2018. More specifically, the e3’s role in this project was to carry out techno-economic analysis of different circularity strategies for three metals (copper, iron and lithium) defined by the MERN as strategic for Quebec. Olivier Bahn, co-director of the e3 Hub, has been a member of the Management Committee of the EDDEC Institute since 2017.
Another important scientific collaboration for the e3 Hub is with the International Reference Center for the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services (CIRAIG) of Polytechnique Montréal. The e3 Hub participated with CIRAIG in NSERC’s BioFuelNet project. The role of the e3 Hub within this project has been to conduct techno-economic analyzes of the potential for producing biofuels in Canada from forest biomass. Similarly, the e3 Hub participated with CIRAIG in a research mandate entrusted by the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and the fight against climate change (MDDELCC). The role of the e3 Hub was to model and analyze energy scenarios for Quebec.
One of our important learnings is the challenge of implementing energy efficiency (EE) initiatives. More specifically, we came to understand how the different priorities and ways of thinking of engineers and scientists on the one hand (who have technical and / or scientific knowledge) and managers on the other hand (who possess strategic and organizational barriers) can be barriers to effective energy management. Both groups are however needed to obtain results in EE. With that in mind, we have begun to focus our efforts on breaking down barriers in EE, in part by developing relationships with organizations that share our goals and have complementary knowledge and networks.