Benchmark Study on Green Buildings - Royal Architectural Institute ...

7.2 Canada:
Upon the review of Canada’s major initiatives supporting the green building movement
and the development of green building technologies, it is clear that the Government of
Canada and other program providers understand that money is one of the biggest issues
and most effective incentives in increasing the use of green buildings. However, many of
these financial incentives and programs focus only on energy efficiency improvements
without considering various other aspects of green building, such as using locally-sourced
products, minimizing construction waste and degradation of the building’s immediate
surroundings, use of natural lighting, proximity to public transit, etc. Also, many of the
financial incentive programs for technological R&D do not focus specifically on green
building technologies, but on all technologies designed to reduce resource use, energy
consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, pollutants, or some combination of these things
in many other areas of society. There is no single program which specifically focuses on
R&D solely for the purposes of green building, which means the actual number of green
building projects supported by these R&D programs could be quite small, if there are any
at all. This being said, there are certainly many good initiatives encouraging
improvements in the energy efficiency of homes and appliances, as well as initiatives for
commercial and industrial corporations to green their existing buildings or simply build
green in the first place.
The New National Building Code is causing provinces and territories to update their
building codes to reflect these changes, and begin to incorporate more guidelines for
energy efficiency. The Canadian Government is undoubtedly doing its part to increase the
prevalence of green buildings in Canadian society, but there is definitely room for
improvement. A R&D incentive program specifically for green building technologies
would likely increase the amount of work being done in terms of the development of the
sustainable building industry and green technologies, and programs addressing green
building issues other than energy efficiency would also have an overall greening effect on
Canadian buildings. Another area Canada needs to begin addressing is the general
public’s lack of knowledge and awareness of green buildings. Not enough people are
aware of the amount of energy and resources consumed by buildings, the amount of
greenhouse gases they release, and the numerous simple methods and technologies
available in order to green buildings. If more people were informed, the concept would be
better promoted and more widely used.
Despite these issues, the Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) is doing a great job of
supporting the greening of buildings through its Commercial and Industrial Building
Incentive Programs (CBIP & IBIP, respectively). Additionally, the Federal Government
is becoming a national leader in green buildings through its Federal House in Order
(FHIO) initiative and the OEE’s Federal Buildings Initiative (FBI), which are resulting in
major renovations of existing governmental buildings and the commitment that all new
Federal Government facilities will be green. Numerous R&D support programs for
energy efficient, renewable energy, and other innovative technologies are also available
from the Federal Government. These Programs include the Program of Energy Research
and Development (PERD), the Technology and Innovation Research and Development
(T&I R&D) Initiative, the Renewable Energy Deployment Initiative (REDI), the
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