Climate Change Information Portal
| Organization | Resource |
|---|---|
| ASHRAE BC | ASHRAE Building Sustainability & Resilience Guide This Guide was developed with the intent of providing readers with an overview of mitigation, adaptation, and resilience strategies for building mechanical systems. Applicable to both new and existing buildings. |
| BC Health Authorities Working Group | Climate Resilience Guidelines for BC Health Facility Planning & Design The purpose of the Climate Resilience Guidelines for Health Facility Planning and Design is to better enable the planning and design of new health facilities that are equipped to deal with the present and increasing challenges of climate change, including extreme heat and humidity, air quality impacts, flooding and extreme events. These guidelines are intended to provide a roadmap for the Health Authorities, project Design Teams and other health system stakeholders as they navigate this transition. |
| BC Housing | Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience Project Through facilitating and piloting sustainable and resilient design and renovation of buildings, the Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience (MBAR) Project aims to stabilize communities in a natural disaster. The link below contains useful design discussion primers for various issues to consider when planning and designing developments. Modelling the Future Climate in Passively Cooled Buildings This BC Housing Builder Insight bulletin provides an overview of how designers can improve building resilience by considering the risk of overheating as described by the BC Energy Step Code for applicable projects. |
| City of Boston | Zero Emissions Buildings Guidebook This guidebook is designed to be accessible to all parties involved in the planning, design, and construction of affordable housing in the City of Boston. It utilizes case studies as a reference for how real ZEB projects have achieved this standard at no net or minimal cost increase. |
| City of Toronto | Zero Emissions Buildings Framework The framework comprises a full set of targets for the five most common building archetypes that require increasing levels of performance over time. The framework also includes an updated set of Energy Modelling Guidelines to clarify key inputs and methods of calculating energy performance, help support applicants achieve compliance, and improve consistency between buildings. |
| City of Vancouver | Resilient Buildings Planning Worksheet This worksheet is required for new development projects in Vancouver subject to the Green Buildings Policy for Rezonings (amended May 17, 2022) requirement for Resilience Buildings Planning Worksheet. Adapted from the adapted from existing risk assessment methodologies and frameworks, most notably the PIEVC High-Level Screening Guide and the Climate Resilience Framework & Standards for Public Sector Buildings, the purpose of this worksheet is to provide a structured approach to examine and prioritize the climate and seismic risks so that project teams can make climate and risk informed decisions about the development. Primer: Resilient Buildings Planning Worksheet This primer provides a high-level overview of the Resilient Buildings Planning Worksheet |
| City of Vancouver | Energy Modelling Guidelines The City of Vancouver Energy Modelling Guidelines provide clarity on energy modelling inputs for the purposes of showing compliance with the Performance Limits, as established in the updated Green Buildings Policy for Rezonings, and Vancouver’s Building Bylaw. Energy Requirements, Forms, and Checklists As part of the City's Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, City of Vancouver requires all new larger buildings—specifically, buildings classified in the Vancouver Building Bylaw as Part 3 and Part 9 non-residential buildings—to be designed to strict energy standards. This resource provides the City’s energy requirements, forms, and checklists for large and retail/commercial buildings. Zero Emissions Building Plan This plan lays out four action strategies to require the majority of new buildings in Vancouver to have no operational greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and that all new buildings have no greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. |
| Canadian Architect Magazine | Embodied Carbon: The Blindspot of the Buildings Industry The term “embodied carbon” refers to the carbon footprint associated with building materials, from cradle to grave. Using the scientific method known as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), we can quantify the environmental impacts associated with all of the construction materials used over a building’s lifespan. This article published in Canadian Architect magazine highlights why embodied carbon matters, the certifications, regulations, and voluntary incentive systems that address embodied carbon and its role in reducing building sector related emissions. |
| Design Value Explorer | Design Value Explorer The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium’s (PCIC) Design Value Explorer enables users to access historical climatic design variables across Canada, in either map or table form, examine projected future change in design variables, and download maps and tables. Climatic design values are used to determine some elements of the environment that buildings and other infrastructure may be exposed to. This information was produced by PCIC, in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada and the National Research Council, to support updates to the National Building Code of Canada (2015, Table C-2) and the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC/ CSA S6 2014, Annex A3.1). Note that the information provided by DVE has not been fully reviewed and accepted for inclusion into updates to these codes, and thus should only be considered as advisory information. |
| Engineers and Geoscientists BC | Complex Mechanical Retrofit Environmental Scan Summary This report was commissioned by Engineers and Geoscientists BC with support from BC Hydro to summarize the current best practices, standards, and policies related to complex equipment (HVAC system) retrofits in existing Part 3 buildings. The report also lays out recommendations for documenting and achieving compliance with the CleanBC objective, which seeks to ensure that gas-electric hybrid systems meet the 100% minimum efficiency policy intent in practice. |
| Engineers and Geoscientists BC | Office Building Air-Tightness Test Report This report documents the results of the whole-building air-tightness testing conducted on the Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia office building, located at 4010 Regent St, Burnaby, BC. The report shows the results of the air-leakage test and indicates the level of effort and details around what an air tightness test involves. |
| Energy, Kresge, and Barr Foundations | Voluntary Resilience Standards: An Assessment of the Emerging Market for Resilience in the Built Environment The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the market for practitioners and property owners, suggest next steps to support market growth and development, and inform decision-making for funders and policy-makers. |
| IStructE | UK Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Guidance on How to Calculate Embodied Carbon This guidance will help inform structural engineers, and the professionals with whom they collaborate, about ways they can move towards net zero carbon design. Guide covers, life cycle stages and modules, terminology, minimum scope of calculation, carbon conversion factors, and environmental product declarations. This guide seeks to reduce sources of uncertainty and reduce climate impacts through widespread measurement and open reporting of calculations. |
| NRGH PIEVC Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment | A climate change vulnerability assessment was conducted for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH) using the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC) protocol. The assessment evaluated the risks from the new vulnerabilities caused by climate change, as projected from climate models out to the year 2050. By considering future projections of BC Building Code referenced climate parameters, this study applied interpreted climate model data to come up with identification of infrastructure most vulnerable to climate change and design recommendations for adaptation. |
| Open Green Building Society | Building Pathfinder leverages whole building energy modelling in an intuitive interface to educate designers, developers, planners, and others on the implications of building design on energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and other metrics. Building PathFinder currently includes the exploration of a multi-unit residential in Vancouver, BC, with a focus on metrics in relation to the City of Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Building Plan and the BC Energy Step Code. |
| Passive House Canada | Passive House Canada is a national non-profit professional association advocating for the Passive House high-performance building standard. Passive House is recognized internationally as the proven best way to build for comfort, affordability, and energy efficiency of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings, through all stages of design, construction, and livability. |
| Pembina Institute and The Atmospheric Fund | Energy Regulations for Existing Buildings: Discussion Paper The paper identifies key opportunities and challenges for the federal government to consider as it works with the provinces to create and implement a strategy for existing buildings. The paper points out that an ambitious and clear pathway set through building codes and regulations is essential for deep emissions reductions. |
| Perkins+Will | Thermally Broken Balconies: Alternative Strategies for Low Carbon Buildings This design guide developed with funding from BC Housing aims to distill the available information and overlay architectural guidance on balcony thermal bridging strategies with the goal of providing designers options for effective balcony design. This will ensure practitioners are in a position to design and construct buildings with lower operational carbon footprints and meet increasingly stringent energy performance targets while achieving their architectural and design intent. |
| Province of British Columbia | The BC Energy Step Code is a provincial standard enacted in April 2017 that provides a consistent approach to achieving more energy-efficient buildings that go beyond the requirements of the base BC Building Code. As of May 2023, the BC Building Code requires 20%-better energy efficiency for most new buildings in BC. A new Zero Carbon Step Code provides tools to local governments to incentivize or require cleaner new construction. This is a significant milestone in BC's transition towards energy efficient and zero carbon new buildings. Compliance Tools for Part 3 Buildings The Part 3 Energy and Zero Carbon Design Checklists (the Checklists) are a voluntary Excel-based checklist for energy modellers and design professionals to be submitted to local authorities to verify compliance with the BC Energy and Zero Carbon Step Codes. The tool gives industry and local authorities a consistent way to gather and review modelled performance characteristics of Part 3 Energy and Zero Carbon Step Code buildings at both the pre-construction and as-built stages. 2020 BC Best Practices Methodology For Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions This document sets out the current best practices for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from BC’s provincial public sector organizations, local governments, and communities. |
| University of British Columbia | UBC’s Designing Climate Resilient Multifamily Buildings Report The primary objective of this study is to assess the implications of increasing outdoor air temperatures due to climate change on the thermal comfort of multifamily residential buildings in the Lower Mainland, and to identify cost-effective design measures that will maintain thermal comfort under future climate conditions. In addition, future climate weather files for energy modeling of Part 3 buildings have been prepared by Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, which can be accessed below. Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium: Weather Files |
| University of Toronto | John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design: MURB Design Guide The MURB Design Guide has a number of resources, including MURBs and Resilience and Resilient Building Design. It also contains design strategies for adaptation and info on designing buildings as systems. |
| Vancouver Coastal Health | The Moving Towards Climate Resilient Health Facilities report by Lower Mainland Facilities Management (organization, providing services for Fraser Health, Providence Health Care, the Provincial Health Services Authority, and Vancouver Coastal Health) highlights key opportunities to reduce risks and increase resilience of health facilities. Technical appendix which provides future climate data relevant to development of design criteria for building systems. |
| Zero Emissions Building Exchange (ZEBx) | ZEBx Resources ZEBx is a non-profit organization created by the City of Vancouver to support the adoption of the City of Vancouver's Zero Emissions Building Plan. It also helps advance British Columbia's BC Energy Step Code. ZEBx is dedicated to supporting the industry through the transition to net-zero, acting as a catalyst that transforms the entire design and construction value chain towards cost-effective, attractive, zero emission buildings. |