High Rise, Low Carbon: Canada’s $40 billion Net Zero building challenge

Codes for new construction must tighten quickly, and emissions permitted in existing structures should decline gradually according to a transparent but ambitious schedule. Sales of emissions-heavy technology and materials should be phased down according to that schedule.

A national open-access database showing the impact of various retrofits across all building types can help owners make capital plans to meet the aforementioned standards. Governments at all levels should help share the cost of the database.

Provinces can use electricity rates to encourage the installation of heat pumps in large buildings and conservation and demand shifting in small ones.

Ottawa should allow longer maximum amortization for insured green mortgages and fund larger direct subsidies for low-income heat pump buyers. Municipal governments should lower development charges and increase allowed density for green buildings. Banks should study how lending criteria can evolve to help homeowners afford more expensive green homes.

Designate areas, rather than specific sites, for low-carbon building types (e.g., mass timber, innovative concrete, prefabricated homes) to rapidly scale pilots.

Unions and employers can collaborate to train workers in labour-saving building methods. The federal government can better target immigration policy to attract newcomers with the right building skills.

Industry groups can target other cold countries to improve and lower the costs of cold-climate heat pumps. Governments can support trade missions and encourage domestic production of pumps and components, in part through synergies with other existing Canadian manufacturers and innovators (e.g., auto parts makers).