Reduce. Electrify. Adapt.

September 9 to 13 is World Green Building Week (WGBW). Led by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), the week unites over 75 Green Building Councils globally and demonstrates how global and local solutions can help us transition to more sustainable built environments.

For 2024, WorldGBC returns to the Building the Transition theme, focusing on three broad ways the building and real estate sectors must adapt to accelerate green, resilient, and zero-carbon buildings: Reduce, Electrify, Adapt.

Reduce.

CAGBC has been focused on carbon emissions reduction since the launch of the Zero Carbon Building Standards (ZCB Standards) in 2017. With increased momentum and hundreds of ZCB-Design and ZCB-Performance projects certified or in progress, CAGBC is ramping up its zero-carbon training. In addition to refreshed and new introductory courses available through CAGBC’s Learning Hub, we will also launch a Zero Carbon Building Micro-credential program this fall.

The whole building sector must champion zero-carbon buildings, ensuring all new construction targets zero, and all existing buildings adopt Transition Plans to help decarbonize buildings and whole portfolios by 2050. CAGBC is supporting the market with Accelerating to Zero programming and two projects designed facilitate and accelerate Transition Planning: the development of a Transition Plan Guide and Playbook with workshops to help owners use these tools, and The Purpose Accelerator, a new initiative with Purpose Building to guide building owners and managers through their deep retrofit journey. CAGBC will also be releasing a white paper following the National Summit on Embodied Carbon which coincided with the Building Lasting Change conference.

Learn more about transition plans for existing assets and how to get started with our Requirements of Zero Carbon Transition Plans on-demand course.  

Electrify.

Buildings are a pivotal part of Canada’s move toward clean energy. Building heating and cooling is a significant contributor to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Approaches to new construction and building retrofits must consider energy consumption and the impact on the grid. Focusing on building envelope and energy efficiency can help address peak demand, while decarbonizing the energy sector. Efficiency and increased access to cheap and clean energy will lower operational costs and deliver healthier living environments. Investing in energy-efficiency now will also ensure long-term sustainability and resilience against climate change.

Understand the role of energy efficiency in building design and management with a curated bundle of CAGBC on-demand courses. 

Adapt.

Recent floods in Toronto and Montréal. Fires in Jasper, Alberta. The impacts of climate change and extreme weather are undeniable, and affect Canadians at the building, community, and city scale. Minimizing damage and risks to our communities requires a change in how we design and manage buildings and infrastructure. In the new Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard v4, and in LEED v5 BD&C, project teams are being asked to consider future weather in their building designs. By thinking ahead, we can ensure we build resilient buildings that are better able to adapt to hotter summers and colder winters, withstand floods and minimize risks related to climate change.

Understand the connections between decarbonization and climate resilience with “Factoring Resilience and Climate Risk into Decarbonization Strategies,” a past BLC panel featuring experts from Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Introba and Grosvenor.

Get involved in World Green Building Week

World Green Building Week is led by a network of over 75 national Green Building Councils (GBCs) and their 46,000 members. It is the largest campaign in the world to accelerate sustainable built environments.

CAGBC members! Participate in World Green Building Week by sharing what #BuildingTheTransition means to you – film a video, write a blog, or share a project you are proud of. You can download localized WGBW social media assets here and use them to become part of the global #BuildingTheTransition conversation.

Don’t forget to tag CAGBC on X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram!