While new buildings that run exclusively on clean energy steal most of the headlines, the work that’s being done to make existing commercial buildings more energy-efficient may be even more important. That’s especially the case if Canada is to achieve its goal of becoming a net-zero economy by the year 2050.
Matt Golden, CEO of Recurve, one of the leading companies that are pushing to retrofit existing buildings in the US and Canada, recently addressed this issue. “Look around; everything’s mostly built already,” he mentioned in a recent interview. “While, of course, it’s vital to be addressing emissions in new construction, it’s equally important for us to understand how to retrofit our existing buildings for the highest possible efficiency and make that a standard practice.”
The data fully supports Golden’s statement. In the U.S., for example, 75% of all commercial buildings are more than 20 years old. According to another study, 38% of the energy that’s used in the United States goes directly to power commercial buildings. Many of the buildings that are currently standing aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Hence, the importance of retrofitting.
In Canada, the federal government has made multiple efforts to promote retrofitting as a way to achieve net zero by 2050. One of the first efforts came in 2020 when it was announced that $2 billion from the National Growth Plan would be allocated to this practice.
These funds were to be provided by the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The projects are being evaluated by a third party, the Investor Ready Energy Efficiency Project (IREE). This essentially gave birth to the Building Retrofits Initiative. The program aims to provide government funds to the private sector to complete retrofits that can make older commercial buildings more energy efficient. To be able to access funds from the federal government, retrofit projects need to be IREE certified.
Many US-based companies would like to see a similar model replicated south of the border. People in the industry have mentioned that the CIB model for allocating public funds to private projects is now the standard.
“IREE certification could be leveraged by organizations here in the U.S.” Golden said. “By paying attention to existing building efficiency, we can drastically reduce our emissions and keep our sights on a new energy future.”
By December 2023, the Buildings Retrofits Initiative in Canada had already allocated $1.2 billion to different projects across the country. At this moment, it’s still unclear if the program will continue to receive federal funds to promote retrofits. This model of providing public funds to help the private sector become more energy efficient has certainly been welcomed in the industry.
