Greening Canada’s Buildings

Author

Linda Douglas and Mike Layton

Organization

Environmental Defence

Published

2008

Summary

How is the government responding to the demand for greener buildings in Canada? Do the building codes, policies and incentives reflect the considerable advancements in green technology? The Greening Canada’s Buildings Report Card examines these questions and grades each of the governments – federal, provincial and territorial – to indicate how they are doing with respect to green buildings. After extensive research and consultation with a stakeholder group, a set of benchmarks was developed to assess the progress of the governments. These benchmarks were based on current evaluation systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Canada, LEED U.S., Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Built Green. The benchmarks were sent out to the jurisdictions in survey format, asking for information on building codes, policies and programs that meet the requirements of the benchmarks. Grades were assigned based on the results of this research.
Ten of 14 Canadian jurisdictions received a passing grade and none of the jurisdictions received higher than a C. While recent advances in energy efficiency efforts have improved the overall grades for the jurisdictions, most regions are still far behind, and none of them are achieving top marks in this category. This report sets a high bar for the provincial, territorial and federal governments. But it is a bar that can demonstrably be met, given the progress of other jurisdictions. More importantly, it is a bar that must be met. The government must take stronger action to advance green building practices through the building code as well as programs and incentives. The health of our environment, and ultimately all Canadians, depends on doing everything possible to advance these practices.

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OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database