Vancouver to create building energy benchmark system
February 9, 2016
By
CCE
Vancouver’s city council is creating a $1 million Building Energy Retrofit Fund to support energy efficiency upgrades for buildings. It expects to leverage $8 million in partner funding from the province, utilities and private investment.
One funded initiative will establish a system for comparing a building’s energy use to other buildings. The Building Energy Benchmarking and Reporting system will be a shared data management system.
Other initiatives build on some established programs. They include a program to assist owners and operators of apartment buildings and non-market housing.
The city is also conducting energy retrofits on dozens of its own largest facilities. As a result, even though the overall square footage of city facilities has grown 20%, the greenhouse gas emissions are 23% below 2007 levels.
Buildings produce 41% of Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that the initial program will result in a 3,000 tCO2e reduction annually.
Vancouver intends to become the Greenest City by 2020, meeting a 33% GHG reduction goal, and to make significant progress towards becoming a 100% Renewable City by 2050.
Canada recently agreed to ensure that global warming does not exceed 2 degrees C.
