We may not have much longer to wait for the 2020 National Building Code (NBC) amendments to be made public after a near two-year delay.
According to Natural Resources Canada, “Provinces and territories have been provided with advanced copies of the changes to the national model codes so that they may prepare for adoption and enforcement of new provisions, as applicable.”
Awareness of climate change has increased significantly since the last NBC seven years ago. It is accompanied by a continuous series of political photo-ops, public posturing and government promises to confront energy inefficiency and carbon emissions associated with residences and buildings.
Canada’s 2020 NBC has languished within various volunteer CCBFC committees for months, even years. In contrast, it’s interesting to observe actions taken by other countries which, like Canada, have made serious commitments to international climate initiatives.
Take the United Kingdom for example.
In mid-December, U.K. Housing Minister Eddie Hughes announced the updating of national building regulations beginning in June 2023. Residential buildings will be required to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent compared to current levels and non-residential buildings by 27 per cent.
These measures are only transitional. Beginning in 2025, new buildings must meet even tougher standards, and “must be capable of being net-zero in terms of operational carbon when the grid decarbonizes,” reports the U.K.-based Architects’ Journal.
Yet, many in the U.K. feel the new regulations still don’t go far enough given the enormity of the climate crisis.
Scottish Parliament MP Alex Rowley has proposed a bill to adopt Passive House as the country’s code standard. His initiative shows political determination, given the Scottish government had earlier rejected that same recommendation made earlier by Scotland’s Climate Assembly.
What architects and numerous experts in building science fear is that failing to regulate actual energy use through measurement, disclosure and performance data analysis will result in a performance gap between predictions and actual energy use.
That’s a complaint also heard from architects and energy-efficiency experts in Canada against the B.C. Step Code, the model upon which Canada’s 2020 NBC is said to be based. Canadian voices echo those in the U.K. calling for codes and regulations to measure and verify whole building energy performance and thereby expose the difference between “rosy energy model projections” and actual performance.
In fact, governments everywhere must do more in response to the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says Dutch firm Arcadis, a global design, engineering and management consulting company.
Nevertheless, the national UK government is demonstrating levels of leadership currently absent at the Canadian federal level.
For example, Michael Gove, the UK Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, recently rejected outright a 305m tower project in London. His decision was based not only on its intrusive design but also on the grounds that construction was “unsustainable” and would require “vast quantities of reinforced concrete” that were deemed unjustifiable.
Meanwhile, leading international construction firms are taking action ahead of any regulatory requirements while calling on others in the industry to do the same.
London-based construction firm Mace says it achieved net-zero in its operations in 2020 and will further cut its carbon emission by 50 per cent by 2026. CEO Mark Reynolds is actively arguing for the industry to embrace proactive change, noting, “the last year has demonstrated a shift in awareness and understanding that has led to greenwashing and empty promises being called out, and more substantial efforts being made.”
Others are following Mace’s example.
AECOM has committed itself to science-based targets.
“It is no longer enough for organizations to set ambitious net-zero carbon targets without a clear pathway for how to achieve them by 2030,” said AECOM’s ESG director Robert Spencer.
Canada’s regulatory gap has been exposed to its international partners and compares poorly to most. But as U.K. construction leaders are demonstrating, the absence of National Building Code leadership addressing measureable and verifiable carbon reduction doesn’t mean the industry has to wait for change.
John Bleasby is a Coldwater, Ont.-based freelance writer. Send comments and Climate and Construction column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.
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