Built Green Canada is challenging municipalities across the country to encourage green building — and highlight builders leading the way — with its sixth annual sustainable building challenge, to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable building practices.
“We want to put the spotlight on those builders who were the earliest adopters of sustainable building, ahead of regulation and market demand. They’ve chosen to contribute to climate mitigation, implementing advanced building technologies and verifying their work through our program, becoming better builders who are able to offer their customers the advantages that go with a third-party certified home,” said Jenifer Christenson, Built Green Canada chief executive officer.
The challenge is marked by a growing number of municipalities who have proclaimed June 5 as BUILT GREEN Day. The municipalities includes Beaumont, Burlington, Campbell River, Central Saanich, Chestermere, Edmonton, Estevan, Fort Saskatchewan, Greater Sudbury, Kelowna, Ladysmith, Langford, Markham, Nanaimo, Okotoks, Port Coquitlam, Prince Albert, Regina, Saanich, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Victoria, and Whistler.
Meanwhile Abbotsford, Brandon, Canmore, Courtenay, District of North Vancouver, Golden, Leduc, Moose Jaw, Ottawa and Lethbridge offer their support by lighting up City Hall with green LEDs.
According to Built Green Canada, all orders of government are developing climate mitigation strategies in response to meeting environmental targets. Increased energy performance and other regulations continue to change for those working in the residential building industry.
With the intersection of increased stringency codes driving costs up for the industry, and the unintended consequence of further deterioration of housing affordability, there is possibility for further collaborative actions between the government and industry. The collaborative actions have the potential to consider the environment, costs, and the pace of change.
Built Green Canada works with its builders to assist them in meeting compliance requirements. The organization states that its programs’ four levels of certification “offer industry a means to voluntarily stay ahead of code and incrementally improve in preparation to be net-zero energy ready for 2030 regulations.”
“This underscores one of our key advantages,” said Christenson. “We’re industry-driven, offering third-party certification programs for those interested in a holistic approach to sustainable building—and, we’re affordable. We want to see municipalities encourage programs that are economical: for the builder and for the homebuyer.”
