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

$1 billion in private and institutional sector investments, resulting in over $330 million in
annual energy cost savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions of 2.25 megatonnes.
Finally, the OEE has also created the Federal Buildings Initiative (FBI) to assist federal
departments and agencies in reducing the energy and water consumption of their facilities.
The FBI is a voluntary program aimed at addressing three common barriers to improving
the energy efficiency of buildings. They are: inadequate capital budgets for energy
efficiency projects; the need for reliable information on current energy technology and
practices; and the lack of required skills to manage retrofits. The FBI provides the
products and services its clients need to identify and exploit energy efficiency
opportunities. Under the FBI’s innovative saving financing arrangement, clients have the
option of overcoming tight capital budgets by transferring the up-front expense and risk
of projects to pre-qualified energy management firms. Following energy efficiency
retrofits, departments or agencies pay the lower bills that result to utility companies and
then pay their energy management firms the savings that result until project costs are
recovered. Future savings are retained by the client. Through the FBI, retrofits of 7500
federal buildings and other facilities have been initiated and registered, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions significantly and generating annual savings of $33 million. The
FBI is an excellent program to encourage the federal government to green their buildings,
and show that Canada is serious about the green buildings movement by leading by
example.
Federal House in Order (FHIO) initiative:
The Federal House in Order (FHIO) initiative is also part the Government of Canada’s
plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions within its own operations. A total federal
commitment of $500 million over 5 years was made to take action to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions from all sectors of the Canadian economy. Of this investment, $44.2
million has been allocated to federal operations, including $30 million for the purchase of
electricity from renewable resources and $1.2 million for on-site electricity generation
demonstration projects in federal buildings. Through the FHIO initiative, the eleven
departments and agencies which account for 95 percent of federal emissions have agreed
to collectively meet a target of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of their operations
by 31% from 1990 levels by 2010. These government organizations include Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada, Correctional Services Canada, Environment Canada, Fisheries
and Oceans Canada, the Department of National Defence, the National Research Council
of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Parks Canada, Public Works and Government
Services Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Transport Canada. From 1990
to March 2003, a total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 24% was achieved
within federal government operations through reductions in floor space and fleet size, a
switch to less carbon-intensive energy sources, improvements in energy efficiency and
fuel switching. Of the remaining 7%, approximately half of the target will be achieved
through central purchases of emerging renewable electricity and the other half will be met
through other measures such as energy efficiency and fuel switching in buildings and
fleets. To encourage further emissions reductions within federal government operations,
all departments, agencies and Crown corporations are challenged through the FHIO
Leadership Challenge to undertake a GHG reduction program of their own design and
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