Buildings are the top greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters by sector, but also, they provide a greater opportunity for municipalities to reduce their emissions. Benchmarking allows for the identification of opportunities for change to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of municipal services. Read more
Check out great highlights from our expert Jani Loots, Senior Director, Sustainability and Technical Programs, BOMA Canada. She walked us through the BOMA Canada Circular Economy Guide. This guide is a first step in helping their member firms begin their journey towards adopting circular economic practices in their assets.
Windfall Ecology Centre and ClimateWise Business Network congratulate the winners of the 2022 York Region Sustainability Awards. On September 29, 2022, we gathered at the magnificent Aurora Armoury to celebrate outstanding climate action efforts in York Region. We are proud to unveil and celebrate our 2022 York Region Sustainability Awards Winners!
In our second year post-launch, the ClimateWise Building Challenge has doubled its municipal number of buildings to a total of 118. The additions include fire halls, libraries, administrative offices and recreation complexes. York Region municipalities are really taking significant leaps toward climate action. More
CAC Webinar: Municipal Building Benchmarking Opportunities
Sep 29, 2023 10:00 AM
Buildings are the top greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters by sector, but also, they provide a greater opportunity for municipalities to reduce their emissions. Benchmarking allows for the identification of opportunities for change to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of municipal services. Additionally, tracking the building's energy saves money.
Broader Public Sector (BPS) buildings in Ontario, which include municipally owned buildings, schools, hospitals and more, are required to report energy use and GHG emissions annually. In this webinar, Windfall centre's Director of Operations, Kyle Mennie will present their BPS Building Comparison Map and share more about the ClimateWise Building Challenge – Targeting to benchmark over 1300 commercial and institutional buildings in York and Durham over the next 3 years.
In our second year post-launch, the ClimateWise Building Challenge has doubled its municipal number of buildings to a total of 118. The additions include fire halls, libraries, administrative offices and recreation complexes. York Region municipalities are really taking significant leaps toward climate action.
On the commercial side, we have had a significant increase of buildings joining our Challenge. CIBC has entered 10 bank branches into the challenge through the Tenant Space Recognition Space pilot program.
We look forward to welcoming more commercial buildings across York Region.
The fourth in the webinar series 'Better Understand your Energy Consumption and What is Driving your Energy Use' presented why submetering tenant spaces is a priority for both tenants and landlords. View Webinar 4 PDF. Stay updated on upcoming webinars.
The third in the webinar series 'Green Leases: How to Achieve Cost Savings and Sustainability Goals' presented how innovative Green Leases can create win-win agreements for building owners and business tenants. View Webinar 3 PDF. Register for Upcoming Webinars.
When it comes to energy performance, building owners and tenants have similar building goals; both want to save money, be recognized for corporate responsibility efforts, engage stakeholders and have transparent access to energy consumption. Submetering provides a single solution for all of these needs. See Details of Webinar 4.
The second in the webinar series "Why Building Tenants Should be Thinking about Climate Risk" informs commercial building tenants (SMEs) on mitigating their cost and supply risks by being more climate knowledgeable. View Webinar 2 PDF. Register for upcoming webinars.
The first in the series "A Roadmap to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction- Benefits for Your Business" delved into the influences and trends impacting businesses. The speakers gave insights into how tenants can collaborate with landlords to achieve a low carbon workplace, modernize lease arrangements, and other important topics. PDF from the webinar. Upcoming Webinars
The free ClimateWise Building Challenge webinar series will provide your business with the tools and intelligence to take the needed action on climate change. The first in the series tagged; A Roadmap to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction - Benefits for Your Business
, will guide you in an understanding on the influences and trends that will impact your business operations.
Our second webinar informs commercial building tenants (SMEs) on mitigating their cost and supply risks by being more climate knowledgeable. In 2021 the City of Toronto advanced three big moves to decarbonize buildings in our City, including existing buildings, future construction, and the City's portfolio. More details.
The third webinar presents how innovative Green Leases can create win-win agreements for building owners and business tenants to benefit from environmentally friendly upgrades and behaviours. More Details
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua at Council meeting, announced Vaughan's award saying; I am pleased to announce the City of Vaughan has received the Mayor's Energy Challenge Advocate Award from the ClimateWise Business Network for our dedicated support of the Provincial Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking initiative.
More
The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) on Tuesday, February 9, 2022, announced that Canada ranked second globally on the annual list of Top 10 Countries and Regions for LEED in 2021. Canada certified 205 projects in 2021, representing more than 3.2 million gross square meters (GSM) of LEED space. LEED provides a framework for highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings
Catch all the fun and exciting moments from the unforgettable virtual ClimateWise 2021 Achievement Awards, held Thursday, December 9, 2021!
This year's achievement awards go beyond commemorating sustainability efforts by also celebrating the resilience of those that rose above the tides of the pandemic in the past year and prioritized climate action against all odds. Hence, the 2021 Award Event's Theme: A Celebration of Achievement in Challenging Times. Meet our winners.
The ClimateWise 2021 Achievement Awards event held Thursday, Dec. 9 was nothing short of remarkable moments recognizing the tremendous efforts of emerging leaders in sustainability and climate action within York Region.
When it comes to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, commercial buildings in York Region are underperforming their provincial counterparts, 2019 benchmarking data released in 2020 from the Ontario Ministry of Energy Northern Development and Mines has revealed. Read More.
Join us on Thursday, December 9, 2021, from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm as we toast to achievements in challenging times and recognize industry stakeholders for different milestones. Attendees at the event will be treated to entertaining performances by the lovely Donner Huber as Shania Twin, our co-host for the day.
York Region municipalities and businesses have heard the call to action to participate in the ClimateWise Challenge. We are excited to welcome 60 municipal buildings and 15 commercial buildings into the free, friendly award and recognition competition.
Many of Canada's financial institutions are taking action on climate change; one of them is the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), lending its voice to Canada's net-zero journey. In a research report tagged The $2 Trillion Transition: Canada's Road to Net-Zero RBC lays out six pathways while emphasizing the role buildings must play in reducing emissions.
CIET has announced a series of three free webinars happening this fall to help participants learn how to get the most out of the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software, a management tool designed to measure and assess the energy performance of commercial and institutional buildings.
Participants in the ClimateWise Building Challenge can now opt into BOMA Toronto's race2reduce building challenge with a single submission, allowing them to compete for recognition both regionally via the ClimateWise Challenge and provincially via the coveted race2reduce Commercial Real Estate Trailblazers (CREST) Awards.
Participants in the ClimateWise Building Challenge can now opt into BOMA Toronto's race2reduce building challenge with a single submission, allowing them to compete for recognition both regionally via the ClimateWise Challenge and provincially via the coveted race2reduce Commercial Real Estate Trailblazers (CREST) Awards.
Registration for the 2021 ClimateWise Challenge is now open! If you are a building owner, manager, or tenant, you can take part in this exciting opportunity to take action on climate change while reducing costs and increasing asset value. Register one or more of your buildings today.
The Commercial Real Estate Sustainability Trailblazer's (CREST) Award, organized by BOMA Toronto, a leading Commercial Real Estate Industry Association, will be held on September 16th, 2021.This year, BOMA Toronto partnered with Windfall Centre's ClimateWise Building Challenge to expand its reach to participants in the York Region.
The Commercial Real Estate Sustainability Trailblazer's (CREST) Award, organized by BOMA Toronto, a leading Commercial Real Estate Industry Association, will be held on September 16th, 2021.This year, BOMA Toronto partnered with Windfall Centre's ClimateWise Building Challenge to expand its reach to participants in the York Region.
With more than 20 years leading environmental sustainability programs and supporting communities within York Region, Windfall Ecology Centre is creating pathways to build back better through the launch of the ClimateWise Building Challenge.
Registration for the ClimateWise Challenge is just around the corner. Don't miss out on important updates, stories, and resources on how you can participate in York Region's energy efficiency challenge to take action on climate change.
Registration for the ClimateWise Challenge is just around the corner. Don't miss out on important updates, stories, and resources on how you can participate in York Region's energy efficiency challenge to take action on climate change.
Thank you to all of the industry and municipal leaders for taking the time to participate in the virtual preview for the ClimateWise Challenge. Your support on this initiative is greatly appreciated and amplifies the message for York Region building owners, mangers, and tenants to take action on climate change by participating in the ClimateWise Challenge.
A new greenhouse gas intensity metric will be rolled out to Canadian users of the Energy Star Portfolio Manager benchmarking tool. The new metric will provide an ability to compare your building’s total GHG intensity against a similar regional reference building. Natural Resources Canada is hosting a complimentary webinar to introduce the new metric and discuss what it means for your buildings.
Joining us today is Wayne Emmerson, Chairman and CEO for The Regional Municipality of York. Wayne announces his endorsement and support for the ClimateWise Challenge and speaks to the steps York Region has taken to tackle the climate crisis.
Joining us today is Steven Costa, the National Solutions Developer of Energy Storage and Distributed Energy at Ameresco, Inc. Steven will discuss understanding and improving your building's existing energy infrastructure and facility use profiles.
Joining us today is Graham Seaman, P.Eng., LEED AP, CEM, the Director of Sustainability and Asset Management for the City of Markham. Graham will discuss the municipal energy plan and long-term vision to reach net zero by 2050.
Watch the Graham Seaman interview now
View the City of Markham Municipal Energy Plan - Getting to Zero
Jeff Ranson, Regional Director for the Greater Toronto Area chapter of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), joins us today for day two of the ClimateWise Building Challenge virtual preview.
Kicking off our weeklong virtual preview and celebration of the ClimateWise Challenge is Mayor John Taylor from the Town of Newmarket, Ontario and Brent Kopperson, Founder and Executive Director of Windfall Ecology Centre. Mayor Taylor speaks on the importance that municipalities in York Region place on energy reduction practices invites all York Region Mayors and commercial business to participate in this initiative as we collaborate in the transition to a low carbon economy.
Join in on the fun! A virtual preview introducing the ClimateWise Building Challenge, hosted by ClimateWise Business Network, will begin on November 30. The weeklong preview will include presentations with messages from key industry and municipal figures in York Region.
We're thrilled to be working alongside BOMA Toronto to deliver the ClimateWise Building Challenge to achieve economic and environmental benefits.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #climatewisechallenge. Connect with ClimateWise Business Network on LinkedIn
On November 5, 2020 BOMA Toronto held their 2020 race2Reduce Commercial Real Estate Trailblazers (CREST) awards event virtually. The event was a big success that we were proud to be part of. During the awards, Brent Kopperson, the Founder and Executive Director of Windfall Centre was honoured to provide a congratulatory statement to the winners and participants of the race2race program. The success of the program paved the way to bring a building challenge to York Region under our ClimateWise Business Network program.
The Ontario Benchmarking Help Centre, a program of the ClimateWise Business Network, provides support for building owners to report and benchmark energy and water consumption under the Ontario Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) Initiative.
As a Regional Ally for BOMA Toronto and the race2Reduce program, we are here to support participants in their Portfolio Manager efforts.
ClimateWise Business Network, the Windfall Ecology Centre program hosting the ClimateWise Building Challenge, is a recognized Regional Partner of the BOMA Toronto race2reduce program.
As a Regional Ally, ClimateWise offers enhanced outreach and support to public and private sectors in York and surrounding regions and provides resources to help them move their organizations toward more sustainable and low carbon operations.
The collaboration between BOMA Toronto and ClimateWise brings synergy and economies of scale to the mutual efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emission from the buildings sector.
This webinar will present how innovative Green Leases can create win-win agreements for building owners and business tenants to benefit from environmentally friendly upgrades and behaviours. Green leases balance costs and benefits of investments in sustainability to ensure both parties get the savings back based on their investment while taking action on climate change.
Important topics that will be discussed include;
Speakers
Michael Brooks
Michael is the Chief Executive Officer of REALPAC, the senior Canadian trade association for large public, private and institutional investment real estate companies. He has represented the Canadian Real Estate industry in all major policy initiatives with governments at all three levels, including property tax reform, securities legislation, income tax issues, sustainability and ESG, land use planning and regulation, and many other issues since 1997. Michael is also the Author and Editor of the Canadian textbook "Canadian Commercial Real Estate: Theory, Practice, Strategy."
Emily Nield
Emily Nield is an integral member of the Sustainability Department at Epic Investment Services, where she works as the manager of ESG & Sustainability. Emily started her career as a planetary geologist, where she studied the surface of planets and moons in our solar system. During her tenure with NASA, she could no longer ignore the problems on Earth and decided to switch careers and focus on sustainability. Emily achieved her MBA from the Schulich School of Business, where she specialized in sustainability and has been with Epic since 2019.
York Region Commercial Buildings Need to Bridge Energy Performance Gap
When it comes to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, commercial buildings in York Region are underperforming their provincial counterparts, 2019 benchmarking data released in 2020 from the Ontario Ministry of Energy Northern Development and Mines has revealed. Businesses in commercial buildings have a role to play in overturning this lacklustre performance by taking action on climate change, and in turn, they can save money.
In 2018, the Ontario government launched the first mandatory commercial building energy benchmarking program in Canada. Tagged 'Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking" (EWRB), the program requires commercial buildings over 50,000 sqft to report their energy and water consumption annually. The program is a realization of the adage, "you can't manage what you don't measure." By measuring energy consumption and benchmarking with comparable buildings, commercial building owners and their tenants can evaluate their building space energy performance.
There are many benefits to energy benchmarking; top amongst these are saving operational costs by emulating best-in-class buildings and taking action on climate change from the resulting GHG reductions. Research by the US Environmental Protection Agency on energy benchmarking programs proves that up to a 2 – 7% savings in operational costs can be achieved just by measuring your energy performance.
According to The Atmospheric Fund, buildings account for 43% of York Region's GHG emissions. Early EWRB results suggest that York Region commercial buildings are not performing well when benchmarked against provincial energy performance data. Reducing GHG emissions in buildings is significant in reaching Canada's net-zero by 2050 commitment.
The interactive dashboard provides an overview of how York Region commercial buildings benchmarked for a selected group of building types. York Region buildings underperformed by an average of 15% (all types) and as high as 65% for the office building type. The sample is small for York Region, 77 buildings as compared to 805 provincially. Nonetheless, the indicators are not encouraging – we need to do better. A national comparison is also provided in the dashboard.
The 54,000 businesses in York Region are predominantly located in leased premises. They are business tenants in commercial buildings. While many commercial real estate firms have tenant engagement programs, a large percentage do not. And what does exist is often constrained by lease arrangements. In gross or triple net leases, the allocation of the benefits and the costs of energy reductions act as a disincentive to action in that capital cost incurred are mis- aligned to how the operational savings are allocated.
What is the solution? Since business owner activities in these buildings account for up to 80% of energy use, it is business owners in the building who need to take action. After all, customer-facing and B2B businesses have the most to gain in telling their customers, suppliers, and employees about their commitment to going green and taking action on climate change.
Business owners need to understand how their space contributes to GHG emissions. They need to inform themselves about their options for green leases
. With a green lease, those who incur the capital costs also receive the benefits in operational savings.
As part of its mandate to help businesses and commercial building owners champion climate action by achieving net-zero emissions in their buildings, York Region’s, ClimateWise Business Network, launched a friendly competition, the ClimateWise Building Challenge.
York Region building owners and tenants can join the ClimateWise Building Challenge to take advantage of the free York Region-wide competition and services. Through the challenge, business owners can take advantage of the many resources provided by the energy efficiency experts at Windfall Ecology Centre to help measure your current GHG emissions and form a plan to reduce your emissions in collaboration with your building owner and business neighbours.
To learn more about the value of energy benchmarking to achieve energy efficiency, check out this resource on the website, Successes in Sustainability: Landlords and Tenants Team Up to Improve Energy Efficiency
.
Canadian Financial Institutions Take Action on Climate Change
Many of Canada's financial institutions are taking action on climate change; one of them is the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), lending its voice to Canada's net-zero journey. In a research report tagged The $2 Trillion Transition: Canada's Road to Net-Zero
, RBC lays out six pathways while emphasizing the role buildings must play in reducing emissions. RBC is thinking big and acting locally towards fostering the nation's net-zero emissions ambition.
Forty-two locations of the bank in York Region are in negotiation to join the ClimateWise Building Challenge. An initiative of the ClimateWise Business Network, ClimateWise Building Challenge, supports local businesses to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their operations through a friendly building competition. Learn more about the challenge.
