CaGBC launches data Disclosure Challenge

OTTAWA—The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has launched the CaGBC Disclosure Challenge initiative in what is intended to be an effort to promote the importance of data transparency in the Canadian real estate market and encourage broader uptake of benchmarking programs across the country.

A recent statement noted that QuadReal Property Group, Triovest Realty Advisors Inc. and Concert Properties Ltd. have volunteered to participate in the challenge and have committed to disclosing energy, water and carbon data across their building portfolios.

Currently, Ontario is the only province that requires building energy data to be publicly reported, though many European and American states and cities have been requiring building energy disclosure and benchmarking for years.

With the Disclosure Challenge, the CaGBC aims to demonstrate the value of data transparency and remove barriers within the wider real estate community, which will enable more municipal and provincial jurisdictions to move forward with requirements for the public reporting of building performance data, the release indicated.

“When collected and shared, building performance data is a powerful tool propelling Canada’s retrofit economy. With the Disclosure Challenge, we hope to increase understanding of how buildings are performing and where they can be improved. This in turn will help governments identify the sectors and building types most in need of retrofit to achieve maximum emissions reductions,” said Thomas Mueller, president and CEO of the CaGBC, in the release.

“We know the real estate industry supports disclosure in terms of good business practice and smart decision making for investments, but also as part of their role in supporting the low-carbon economy.”

The CaGBC will post an interactive online mapping tool to enable the participants’ disclosed data to be available to designers, building operators and energy management professionals, municipalities, researchers and the public.

Participants will be required to disclose data from their buildings, both good and bad performers, to complete the challenge.

“We understand what buildings mean to people and what they contribute to local communities,” said Jamie Gray-Donald of QuadReal Property Group.

“At QuadReal, we believe disclosing information about energy, water and carbon usage benefits owners, managers and tenants, and enables better decision-making leading to greater energy efficiency. There is also growing demand from tenants for this type of disclosure and access to environmental information.

“We are excited to participate in this challenge and look forward to seeing more organizations take part in the future.”