In January 2023, The Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS) partnered with the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to support the publication of a Green Retrofit Economy study. The study aimed to discover how green retrofitting can be optimized to meet the Federal government’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Green retrofitting is refurbishing or upgrading an existing building to make it more environmentally friendly and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing an existing building’s greenhouse gas emission can be done in a variety of ways, here are just a few: replacing existing lighting with LED lights which are much more energy efficient and installing electrical heating systems to replace older fossil fuel-based systems.
The study goes through the demand for green retrofit projects by region and how the labour force and supply chains will need to adjust in order to meet these demands. It is no surprise to industry experts that the labour force will need to grow in the coming years if we are to meet the government’s goal of net-zero carbon emission by 2050.
There is plenty of opportunity for Canada’s green retrofit economy to realize significant growth between now and 2050. Such growth would lead to Canada’s built environment becoming more resilient to climate change and extreme weather, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and providing a great many of skilled jobs. For this growth to occur, research suggests that a more holistic and systematic approach is needed to optimize the green retrofitting process.
See the link for the full Green Retrofit Study Click Here.