Industry leverages Building Lasting Change as a platform for low-carbon transformation
News announcements demonstrate momentum from CAGBC, government and real estate sector
CAGBC Staff on June 10, 2024
- Theme
- Membership
June 10, 2024 – Toronto, ON – The Building Lasting Change (BLC) conference rallied Canada’s green building leaders, demonstrating momentum and commitment for low-carbon and resilient green buildings. Held over June 5 and 6 in Toronto, the conference is hosted by the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) to help the real estate sector unlock the value of green building for reduce climate risk, improve resilience, lower ownership costs and deliver long-term value.
“Building Lasting Change is where the green building sector comes together once a year to advance sustainability actions,” said CAGBC President and CEO Thomas Mueller. “This year, the conference offered a platform to announce the innovative solutions, new projects, and commitments of our partners and collaborators that we need to make Canada’s decarbonization goals a reality. I am appreciative of the business leaders who stepped forward with their contributions and ideas. I would also like to thank the Honourable Minister Anita Anand and Julie Dabrusin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources for sharing the federal government’s leadership in advancing climate action, and all speakers and sponsors for making this year’s Building Lasting Change a resounding success.”
The Role of CAGBC
The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) works with industry to advance low-carbon, resilient and green buildings. Through the Building Lasting Change conference, CAGBC offers the business insights and technical knowledge needed to help Canada’s building sector push sustainability commitments further, faster.
CAGBC advances green building through its research, by offering leading certification programs that verify sustainability actions, by advocating for the policies and programs needed to decarbonize Canada’s large buildings at scale, and by providing learning opportunities designed to meet the challenges of a low-carbon future.
Several important announcements were made during the conference, from CAGBC, members, partners and government bodies. Here’s a brief recap of all the news.
Minister Anand shares details of the federal government’s greening strategy
The Honourable Anita Anand, President of the Treasury Board of Canada participated in the BLC opening keynote, announcing updates to the federal government’s work to green its operations. The updates she shared including requiring Crown corporations to align their operations with the Greening Government Strategy, strengthening commitments to decarbonize real property, fleet and procurement, and accelerating climate resilience commitments to address the increasing impacts of climate change on critical federal assets, operations and activities by 2035.
Launch of Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard™ v4
The Canada Green Building Council® (CAGBC) introduced the latest version of its Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard™ (ZCB-Design). The updated version takes advantage of new technologies and processes to accelerate carbon emissions reductions, focusing on embodied carbon, resiliency, good grid citizenship, refrigerants, and Zero Carbon transition plans.
2024 CAGBC Awards recognize Canadian green building leaders and projects
Winners of the 2024 CAGBC Awards™ were unveiled during the conference’s closing gala. The annual awards celebrate the innovative projects, teams, and individuals that are making positive contributions to Canada’s green building sector. In addition to the CAGBC Awards, CAGBC also presented its annual Lifetime Achievement honour to 2024 recipient, Josée Lupien, President and Founder of Vertima.
Efficiency Capital secures $50 million investment from Canada Infrastructure Bank
Efficiency Capital, one of Canada’s first Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) companies, secured $50M investment from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB). The financing partnership will help support small and medium-sized businesses across Canada decarbonize their buildings. Three projects are already underway, with retrofits designed to increase efficiency and lower carbon emissions.
REALPAC releases the 2024 Sustainability Report
Michael Brooks, CEO of the Real Property Association of Canada (REALPAC) shared a new report at BLC. The Sustainability Industry Report captures the state of the commercial real estate market is rising to the challenge presented by changes brought on by climate, government and regulatory changes. This is REALPAC’s second report of the Canadian Commercial Real Estate industry’s sustainability performance. It recognizes progress, provides useful benchmarks, and identifies opportunities and challenges for the industry.
Industry Commitments
Launch of Responsible Buildings Pact
The Climate Smart Buildings Alliance (CSBA), a joint project between EllisDon, RBC, and Mattamy Homes formally announced the Responsible Buildings Pact, a new cross-industry agreement aimed at increasing the use of low-carbon materials in the built environment. The announcement marked the first 21 signatories committing to support the first year of the collective industry effort.
R-LABS convene real estate leaders to double down on innovation and transformation
The Industry Innovation + Transformation Council (I+T Council), convened by R-LABS, announced a continued expansion of pledges to drive innovation and transformation. Building on the recently unveiled 2024 Industry Innovation Agenda (IIA), Canadian real estate leaders and entrepreneurs are strengthening their commitment to tackle pressing challenges in the sector.
Upcoming Projects
Transition Planning: A Tool for Accelerating High Performance Building Codes project
CAGBC announced its upcoming project ‘Transition Planning: A Tool for Accelerating High Performance Building Codes’. This project will help facilitate the transition to net-zero emissions for new and existing buildings by supporting building owners across Canada in developing customized transition plans. Supported by REALPAC, the project will include development of a Transition Plan Guide, a Transition Plan Playbook and workshops to help owners use the guidance and playbook developed through their project.
The Purpose Accelerator: Canada’s Private Sector Retrofit Accelerator
Purpose Building Inc., with support from CAGBC announced the development of ‘The Purpose Accelerator: Canada’s Private Sector Retrofit Accelerator’, a new initiative to advance net-zero emissions goals. The project will guide building owners and managers through their deep retrofit journey, providing crucial services and support for pre-development, development, and implementation of decarbonization project phases. Targeted buildings include commercial (eg: office, warehouse/distribution, retail), and mid- or high-rise multi-unit residential buildings, and support for low-income and Indigenous communities.
Upcoming Research
Embodied Carbon White paper
CAGBC announced a forthcoming white paper, planned for release in early fall, which starts the conversation on a national vision of reducing embodied carbon in the built environment. This white paper will be a summarization of the ideas shared at the National Embodied Carbon Summit. The summit had cross-industry representation, taking embodied carbon conversations national with the goal of developing a common vision for 2030, establish the next steps needed to get there, and outline how together we can align and enable this conversation to continue and expand.
Two Million Sustainable Homes: Ensuring Canada’s Needed New Housing is Green
CAGBC announced a forthcoming white paper focused how the building industry might leverage emerging and established green building technologies, practices, and policies to help ensure that the two million new homes announced in Canada’s Housing Plan will be affordable and sustainable. The focus will be on three levers to advance sustainable and affordable housing at scale: policy, technology, and business practice. – The paper will consider how regulation can support change, as well as how industry can leverage its own capacity to scale housing.
For more information contact CAGBC’s communications team.