On October 2, 2020, The National Trust for Canada, the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals (CAHP), and the Association for Preservation Technology International (APTi) applauded the announcement of $2.5 billion from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to stimulate large scale building retrofits to increase the energy efficiency of existing buildings.
The CIB initiative will finance the upfront capital costs of energy efficient building retrofits. Energy efficient buildings will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to Canada’s transition to a low carbon future. This announcement coincided with the launch of an international workshop on the Climate Crisis and Moving Toward Zero Net Carbon – part of an international heritage buildings conference being hosted online by the Trust, APT and CAHP, October 1-7.
In their Press Release, the Trust, CAHP and APTi highlight MTBA’s Mark Thompson Brandt, who opened the Conference Workshop with a strong message regarding the Climate Crisis and existing buildings: “Studies have shown that ‘the greenest building is the one that already exists’ because the ‘carbon payback’ for renovated buildings almost always beats replacement buildings. Building reuse itself is a form of climate action.
“Buildings and their operation account for about 40% of the global greenhouse gas emissions – and in large cities they account for up to two-thirds of those emissions. It makes sense then, to focus on these large emitters by rehabilitating them through large green rehab programs. And heritage buildings, as a component of existing buildings, can also be rehabilitated with sensitivity in order to decrease dicarbon emissions in the fight against climate change.”
MTBA has been at the forefront of the movement urging government and private sectors to invest in older and heritage buildings, and this announcement comes as a welcome investment, however there’s much more work to be done.
To learn more about Brandt’s workshop presentation, click HERE (add link to workshop blog post when it is live).
For more information on the Joint Conference, Hindsight 2020, please visit the conference website HERE.
See the full National Trust for Canada Press Release HERE.
