Greening Greater Toronto

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Commercial Building Energy Initiative

Improving the energy efficiency of our building stock presents a vast untapped potential to increase our bottom lines, better our workplaces and protect our environment. Commercial buildings account for one third of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the GTA, and consume 37% of the electricity and 17% of the natural gas. There is a well documented “efficiency gap” between the potential investments in cost-effective energy efficiency and the low levels of investment that are actually occurring. Barriers to broader adoption of commercial building energy efficiency include:

• The lack of a measurement standard for energy performance;
• Difficulty in acquiring data to build business cases;
• Ineffective communication between tenants and building owners;
• Lack of broader education about energy efficiency; and
• The need to engage organizational leaders.

Greening Greater Toronto has launched the Commercial Building Energy Initiative to address these barriers with the objective of improving the energy efficiency of the building stock in the GTA and province-wide.

Our initiative

Provide Champions: The Commercial Building Energy Leadership Council

• The Leadership Council will identify stakeholders, develop implementation plans and champion commitments to reduce their own organizations’ carbon footprints.

Eliminate Knowledge Gaps: Business Case and Toolkit.

• Bridge the knowledge gaps between stakeholders by developing the business case for energy efficiency, identifying tools to support decision-making and creating a first-time comprehensive toolkit for landlords and tenants.

Leverage Existing Resources and Programs: Coordination and Promotion.

• Coordinate with efforts underway by others such as the Ontario Power Authority, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Toronto, the Canada Green Building Council, REALpac, the City of Toronto’s Better Buildings Partnership and other municipal retrofitting programs.

Secure Commitments to Improved Energy Efficiency.

• Work closely with landlords and tenants to help them act upon their buildings’ efficiency potential, and ensure that they access the best technical and financial resources available to them.

Drive Energy Efficiency Ontario-wide: Identify and Support Urban Region Partners.

• Identify champions in other large urban areas and work with them to develop a strategy to expand the model to their cities.

Expected results

• Creation of up to 5,000 jobs in the energy efficiency industry across Ontario by 2019;
• Significant reductions in the energy consumption of the GTA building stock; and
• Ontario becoming a North American centre for energy efficiency with significant exports and a number of leading energy efficiency-related companies based here.

Progress to date

• Greening Greater Toronto has convened a Leadership Council of 48 senior executive members including representatives of:
  • Owners of over 40 percent of the GTA commercial office building stock;
  • Tenants occupying almost 40 million square feet of commercial space; and
  • Significant retail tenants and building owners.
• Commercial Building Retrofit Summit (September 29, 2009):
  • In partnership with BOMA Toronto, Greening Greater Toronto hosted the first Commercial Building Retrofit Leadership Council meeting and Summit. Members of the Leadership Council and other industry leaders participated in an open dialogue about solutions for increased energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in the city’s existing building stock.
  • Click here to view the Summit backgrounder.