Takeaways from the Canada Green Buildings Strategy

Unveiled by Johnathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and after two years of industry input, the Canada Green Buildings Strategy (CGBS) aptly describes the opportunities green building represents for Canadians, the economy and climate as well as the challenges the building sector faces.

The CGBS clearly demonstrates that the federal government “gets it,” validating CAGBC’s mission and efforts over the last 20 years. Nonetheless, the strategy falls short of a comprehensive, forward-looking roadmap to decarbonize Canada’s buildings by 2050 in alignment with the 2030 Emission Reduction Plan. While it misses the mark when it comes to mandating actions and setting milestones, it does leave the door open for industry, provinces, and municipalities to help plot the course toward a fully decarbonized built environment.

What we liked

A significant part of the CGBS was dedicated to resharing the federal government’s previously announced investments, including the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program, and the Canada Greener Homes Grant program (you can read about our take on these initiatives on our analysis of Budget 2024 here), and policies such as the Greening Government Strategy. CAGBC strongly supports federal leadership in decarbonizing its 34,000 buildings, which is critical to derisking technologies and green building practices while promoting new zero-carbon buildings and deep retrofits.

There are some new inclusions in the CGBS worth highlighting, including:

• Commitment to modernize the Energy Efficiency Act to reflect market realities and new products and services coming into the market, to accommodate energy efficiency or testing standards.
• Commitment to introduce a regulatory framework that will allow the phase-out of the installation of oil heating systems in new construction, starting in 2028.
• To prioritize the adoption of heat pumps for providing efficient cooling and heating, the government will follow the U.S. Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent proposal to sunset the ENERGY STAR specification for central air conditioners.
• Promote the use of low-carbon materials in public infrastructure assets through the implementation of Buy Clean measures to reduce embodied carbon in federal investments in public infrastructure assets.

What’s missing from the CGBS is also worth looking at, primarily:

• It doesn’t provide a roadmap of actions over the short or medium term to ensure milestones or objectives are defined and met contrary to the actions of trading partners such as the USA or the EU.
• It doesn’t address support for industry to scale up low-carbon materials, nor does it provide specific actions for large buildings, even though large buildings have the greatest carbon reductions potential.
• While it does address a need for benchmarking, disclosure and reporting, the CGBS doesn’t provide solutions for building owners to access building data or on transition planning, key requirements to crowd in private capital in the Canadian real estate sector.
• There is no mention of Canada’s international commitments that all new buildings should be near zero emissions by 2030. As a signatory to the Buildings Breakthrough and the Declaration de Chaillot, the CGBS misses some important actions as defined in these commitments made by the Government of Canada

What this means for CAGBC and our members

If anything, the CGBS validates CAGBC’s position and mission. It draws from our work and research and reflects many of the advocacy recommendations CAGBC has advanced on behalf of its members. These include using CAGBC’s definition of a green building, and key priorities around accelerating retrofits, building green and affordable from the start, our research on workforce development and training to support the future of the building sector. It was also good to see the CGBS prioritize both operational and embodied carbon, a critical recommendation from CAGBC’s submissions to Budget 2024 and the new Model Codes.

The Strategy also confirms the importance of certifications, supporting CAGBC’s efforts to aid the market in implementing green and zero-carbon buildings. Throughout the CGBS, highlighted example projects included buildings that have been certified under LEED, Investor Ready Energy Efficiency or Zero Carbon Building Standards.

CAGBC is committed to helping our members build the skills, knowledge and experience needed to deliver green, resilient and zero-carbon buildings. Through leading and trusted certification and related tools and implementation support , we’re helping Canada build better to meet the changing expectations of today’s real estate market. We’re also advancing training to build the future workforce, and supporting retrofits by through implementation of transition plans that help building owners transition existing assets to zero carbon buildings.

Working with our members, we’re helping industry take the necessary steps to advance on the CGBS, supporting its aims with the commitments, concrete actions, and innovations that will help us transform Canada’s buildings and unlock their potential.