The Canada Green Building…

The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) is a national organization supporting the building sector’s transition to green buildings. With over a thousand corporate members, we convene stakeholders to advance green building at the national, provincial, and local levels. We believe green building and development standards build resilient and healthy communities, create jobs, and will prepare Ontario to compete in a low-carbon economy.

Merging Ontario’s Provincial Policy Statement and the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe aims to streamline and harmonize policies related to housing and planning development. However, current sustainability efforts must be not only maintained but increased.

The building sector has changed, and Ontario must keep up. Businesses and owners now demand buildings that are energy efficient and with low carbon emissions. New Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets motivate investments in sustainability which help portfolio owners remain competitive against other regions.

Green building also makes good business sense. Sustainable building and development practices result in resilient buildings and communities able to adapt to climate change. These are critical considerations given Ontario will continue to see extreme weather events like the recent Ottawa derecho that caused $720 million in damage according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

2030 carbon reduction targets require provinces to adopt zero carbon buildings and retrofits at scale. Ontario stands to benefit, as CAGBC’s latest market impact report shows that green buildings could almost triple its green building sector to 626,080 direct jobs and contribute $60.8 billion to its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2030.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS:
To take advantage of the economic opportunity that green zero-carbon buildings represent, Ontario’s new policy should:
- Demand energy efficiency, and encourage and reward carbon emissions reductions
- Promote zero-carbon buildings and ensure they become the norm by 2030
- Invest in the protection and preservation of conservation areas to increase resilience against extreme weather events
- Support voluntary and green development standards and seek harmonization across the province

While zero-carbon buildings are Canada’s best and most cost-effective opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, they also ensure resilient, healthy workspaces and sorely needed affordable homes with lower maintenance and energy bills.

Ontario’s established building sector will support green development standards whether they are local or harmonized at the provincial level, and through established and rigorous voluntary standards such as LEED and the Zero Carbon Building standards. They recognize that while building more homes faster is a necessity, we must not do it at the expense of building better.