Mohawk College, Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation, Hamilton, Ontario. Image courtesy of CaGBC
The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has announced that 16 Canadian projects have been chosen to participate in a two-year pilot of CaGBC?s Zero Carbon Building Standard. The Standard, which assesses the carbon performance of commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings in Canada, was formally released on May 29 in Vancouver.
Spanning the length of the country from Dartmouth to Kelowna, the diversity of these 16 pilot projects demonstrates the broad applicability of the program with sizes ranging from 20,000 to 1.3 million sq.ft, representing both new and existing buildings. Project types include institutional buildings, offices, multi-unit residential and warehouses. This group of projects were chosen for their ambitious environmental leadership, and potential to aggressively raise the bar for carbon emissions reduction in Canada. The experience from these projects will help refine the Standard for full market deployment.  The Zero Carbon Building Standard is part of a larger CaGBC Zero Carbon Building Initiative that was created to champion the move to lower-carbon commercial, institutional and high-rise residential buildings in support of Canada?s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
It was developed by CaGBC and Integral Group, in extensive consultation with representatives from over 50 industry organizations, utilities...