HALIFAX—Energy-efficient construction and retrofits to existing buildings could cut Canada’s carbon footprint in half, but experts say the Halifax industry and provincial government need more proof before they’ll get on board.

Council’s environment and sustainability standing committee heard two presentations on reducing carbon emissions in new and existing buildings on Thursday, and voted unanimously in favour of a motion to have city staff look at how Halifax can help.

The federal government set a goal last year to make all new buildings net zero ready—meaning they produce as much energy as they use—by 2030.

“We have a steep learning curve to get to net zero energy ready in our design community and in the building industry,” Lorrie Rand, co-owner of Halifax-based design firm Habit Studio, told the committee in her presentation.

“And we’re not going to get there without support and incentives, particularly in the building industry, because it’s fraught with risk and they’re very conservative about adopting changes.”

More than half of Nova Scotia’s carbon emissions come from burning fossil fuels to heat and cool buildings, Rand said, so no level of government will be able to make a meaningful impact unless they focus on making them more energy efficient.

Rand told the committee about her specialty, called passive house design, which produces structures that use 90 per cent less energy than conventional buildings. It doesn’t cost much more compared to conventional design, Rand said, especially considering the future energy savings.

It’s a trend that’s growing in other jurisdictions, but has yet to hit the shores of Nova Scotia.

“It’s definitely a wave and it’s coming, because it’s a no-brainer once you have an established building industry that’s able to deliver the product,” she said.

Lara Ryan, the regional director of Canada Green Building Council, told the committee that developers in Atlantic Canada haven’t seen enough examples of green construction to understand the financial benefits. Most green buildings in Atlantic Canada are institutional structures, built by governments and universities.

“We don’t have as many private developers, as a percentage of green builders, as most other jurisdictions in Canada have.”

The Canada Green Building Council oversees LEED certification – a rating system for efficient construction – and the newer Zero Carbon Building Standard, created in 2017.

The council also conducts research, and found in a 2017 study that retrofitting larger buildings over 25,000 square feet and residential buildings five storeys or taller could reduce Canada’s carbon emissions by 51 per cent by 2030. That would far exceed the federal government’s goal of a 30 per cent reduction by 2030.

“Buildings really are a solution to climate change,” Ryan said. “There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit in buildings.”

In Nova Scotia, building codes are a provincial responsibility, and the province has been hesitant to change them to require more efficiency, even though Rand has met with them about passive house design.

“My personal feeling about that is that there’s an extreme lack of interest in our current Liberal government about this possible way of attacking our carbon emissions,” Rand said.

“And not to be too negative about our provincial Liberals. I think that they’ll jump on board the bus once there are a few more precedents established.”

The municipality’s role, then, will be to encourage more green building in the absence of requirements.

“We have the technology,” said Ryan. “We know the business case is there. It’s changing attitudes. It’s changing the way that we’ve done things before.”

Asked by Councillor Shawn Cleary where the municipality should start, Ryan gave the example of expanding the Solar City program, which gives property owners the option to finance solar-energy retrofits through the municipality. She said other cities have allowed more density in exchange for efficiency or even provided monetary incentives.

“I think you have a lot more low-hanging fruit than you’re using, frankly.”

Ultimately, Ryan wants to see Halifax adopt a retrofit strategy to move toward that 51 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, and Rand wants to see policies within the municipal planning department aimed at educating builders about passive house design.

Councillor Richard Zurawski, who successfully led the charge to have council declare a climate emergency earlier this year, made a motion to have staff look at the municipality’s options.

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The committee voted to “request a staff report to determine opportunities to reduce carbon emissions in new and existing buildings – this is to include HRM corporate buildings as well as the built environment.”

Zurawski cited Environment Canada’s latest report on climate change, which said Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, in arguing that Halifax needs to act.

“Things are falling to municipalities to make those changes,” he said.

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