Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024
2024 saw the impacts of war, weather-related disasters, interest rate cuts, and the threatening impacts of the United States’ elections. During the year, Canadians focused on the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia, as well as in Israel and Gaza; destructive wildfires including the devastating wildfire in Jasper, and severe flooding in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec; four Bank of Canada interest rate cuts; and Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods.
Meanwhile, industry faced building code changes; the ever-present problematic inflation; sustained supply chain issues; and our safety, between the outcomes of climate disasters, as well as the ongoing influenza. The collision of these challenges, alongside increased material prices, labour shortages, and an ongoing affordability crisis, meant we all faced another year of economic uncertainty. As well, some areas of the country were heavier hit with surprising growth, due to a resurgent energy sector and population growth.
We continue to be reminded of the tenuous juxtaposition of fragility and resilience of the human condition; issues like COVID and weather disasters have also shone a light on another health emergency—climate change and its impact on our health, safety, and well-being. Many of 2024’s challenges were inextricably linked with climate change, sharing our need for improved health and enacting sustainability into our daily lives.
In parallel, Energy Step Code requirements increased, and National Energy Tier Code’s adoption occurred for most jurisdictions across the country through 2024, with some yet to come—builders need to be ready. Compliance is achieved through a performance or a prescriptive route, but minimum energy efficiency is required: a base level that all builders must achieve.
With standardized energy performance, the differentiator for builders that was originally associated with energy alone is gone (beyond cases of exceptionally high performance). Our third-party certification programs take a holistic approach, with eight pillars of sustainability: Energy & Envelope (including greenhouse gas and carbon reporting), Materials & Methods (including resiliency and disaster preparedness), Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation, Waste Management, Water Conservation, Occupant Wellness (including accessibility, universal design and adaptability), and Business Practices.
Building code fits into just one of these sections, and it refers to the minimum requirement that everyone must achieve. We can help industry reach those requirements and address sustainability beyond energy—beyond status quo. It is here that builders find their competitive advantage.
The path forward will see increased attention on sustainable living—economical, societal, and ecological factors will all be considered to a greater extent because these can impact our welfare, security, and health. This offers the residential building sector an important opportunity: to build on its sustainably efforts—to take another step forward in building better. This means consideration beyond energy performance to other critical areas of sustainability.
Activity Overview
Built Green continued its focus on program delivery and training, while investing in program development, as the organization diversifies its product offerings, evolving alongside the types of housing stock in demand and code requirements. New programs offer additional ways for industry to remain competitive, addressing growing demand for additional housing types and homebuyers’ interests.
Key highlights include the following:
- The launch of Built Green’s “Future Proof Your Home: Ahead of the Sustainability Curve” campaign to address the BC Energy Step Code for flight one in the spring earning 807,588 impressions, and then for flight two in response to natural disasters, seeing 791,338 impressions from Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
- Completion of the first BUILT GREEN® Maverick Awards’ cycle, which earned submissions from British Columbia through to Ontario.
- Built Green third-party certified Spring Creek Mountain Village’s Community certification at Platinum—the third community certification during the pilot phase.
- At the request of industry, program development continued on a Schools and Medium Commercial program for pilot.
- The transition of BUILT GREEN® Program Fundamentals’ hosting from an external platform provider to internally hosting to increase reporting and ensure speedier response times.
- Ongoing work with key industry stakeholders, Built Green’s Technical Standards Committee and Board continues to ensure alignment and program relevance. A shout out to all the contributing architects, associations, energy advisors, engineers, financial institutions, all orders of government, manufacturers, mortgage providers, suppliers, sustainability consultants, trades, training delivery companies, utilities and more. And to our builders, developers, renovators and restorers, thank you all for contributing to the progression of sustainable development!
- The continued delivery of our training courses—BUILT GREEN® Program Fundamentals, Construction Technology for Built Green, Built Green Net Zero Energy for New Construction, and Built Green Whole-House Energy Retrofit—the latter three in partnership with Blue House Energy. 30 per cent discounts are offered to Built Green members, while all our training courses are acknowledged with Continuing Professional Development credits from BC Housing and Master Building training credits through the Professional Home Builders Institute. Built Green hosted its first BUILT GREEN® Product Catalogue Talks webinar, which saw over 100 RSVPs received, with representation from British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.
- Ongoing onsite verifications for Single Family and High Density projects, alongside audits—key components of our third-party certification’s quality assurance. At year-end, Built Green received more verifications than requested, which we believe reflects an increased understanding of the value of our quality assurance processes.
- Built Green also enacted an increased number of deeper dive verifications and onsite visits to encourage further engagement with members—to provide support and gain essential on-the-ground input, as well to increase the scope of project audits.
- Built Green offered financial support (through program participation) to communities impacted by natural disasters (including Ontario flooding and Jasper area fire rebuild efforts).
- The declaration of Green Building Day on June 5, in parallel to National Environment Week, focused on raising awareness and encouraging support for sustainable builders amongst municipalities.
- Increased earned media coverage throughout the year. See newsletters for detailed listings of media outlets.
- Timing change in the release of Built Green’s program checklists to the fall to better align with the builders’ business cycles.
- Attendance and sponsorship at various industry conferences and events, as well as presentations to builders, developers and government.
- Finally, Built Green remains interested in builders’ consideration of checklist items related to accessibility, universal design and adaptability; disaster preparedness and home modifications for aging in place; greenhouse gases and carbon reporting; innovation; as well as the Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS) certification, which is an option for Water Conservation.
Success Indicators
As at December 31, we had a six per cent increase in new certified homes, including MURBs and renovations, while high density units were down considerably from 2023; however, high density projects are cyclical and as noted below, enrolments are up considerably. That means there are many more living spaces added to the country’s housing stock that are more energy efficient, sustainably built, as well as tested and verified through third-party certification!
There was also a 39 per cent increase in single family enrolments (including Single Family, MURBs, Net Zero Energy+ and Renovations) and a 37 per cent increase in high density units during 2024, reflecting certification intentions moving forward.
These numbers are a continued testament to builders’ ongoing leadership in progressing sustainable building practices and meeting the demand for high-performance homes, while faced with socioeconomic challenges and policy changes. Moreover, 2024’s numbers pushed our cumulative total to over 53,884 BUILT GREEN® certified single family, MURBs, renovations and high density projects, as well as three community certifications since our origins in 2003!