Natural Resources Canada / Heads Up: Building Energy Efficiency / 29 June 2017
In honour of Canada’s 150th birthday, Canadians from coast to coast to coast will celebrate our country’s history, not just on Parliament Hill, but in their own communities, at their local arenas and recreation centres. So what better year to make sure that those community gathering spots are as energy-efficient as they can be?
To mark the celebration, the Government of Canada’s Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program is investing $300 million to retrofit and improve existing community infrastructure assets and facilities, including projects that ensure a better future for Indigenous peoples and promote a clean growth economy, such as upgrades that reduce water and energy, or installing renewable energy systems.
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A study of Bentall Kennedy’s North American real estate portfolio of more than 300 buildings found that environmentally friendly office properties net 3.7 per cent higher rents. In their Canadian holdings, occupancy rates in environmentally certified buildings were 18.7 per cent higher than non-certified.
I must admit that our transition away from fossil fuels isn’t complete. Much of what we buy — including a great deal of our food and even the energy-saving equipment we’ve installed in our home — is produced and shipped using fossil fuel energy. We can and will take further steps to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, but life altogether independent of them may not be possible in our economy without full withdrawal from it and a return to the kind of lifestyle that existed before the Industrial Revolution. Lee and I are incredibly pleased, though, with what we’ve accomplished. Reducing our carbon footprint has been a major emotional boost for us. We value knowing that our home is powered by solar energy that we, ourselves, collect, and that the good Earth shares its heat in winter and accepts our heat in summer by way of our geothermal system. Many people in our community have visited our home to check out our systems and ask us questions as they get started taking steps to cut their own carbon footprints. It’s immensely gratifying to be that example for others.
