Climate Emergency – Bylaw and Policy Updates Applicable to New Buildings

This report recommends changes to the Building By-law and the Green Buildings Policy for Rezonings that advance three Council priorities for new construction under the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) and the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy: Energy Use and Carbon Emissions (CEAP Big Move 4); Resilient Buildings; and, Embodied Carbon (CEAP Big Move 5). These changes also consolidate green building requirements in the by-law, reducing complexity and process for applicants and staff. By approving in principle the by-law changes for 2025 Council sends a clear signal to industry on what the future Building By-law will require, while allowing time for designers and suppliers to adapt, and for staff to make final adjustments if necessary.

These changes for new multifamily and commercial buildings:

• Achieve Council’s climate emergency goal of zero emissions heating and hot water in new buildings by 2025
• Require filtered outdoor air in new buildings beginning in 2023, helping to protect residents from the health impacts traffic- and wildfire-related air pollution
• Require cooling for new multifamily homes beginning in 2025, helping to protect residents from the health impacts of heat, air pollution, and noise
• Introduce the first whole-building embodied carbon building by-law requirements in North America to begin reducing carbon emissions from materials and construction by 2025, on the path to Council’s climate emergency goal of a 40% reduction by 2030
• Encourage sustainable, healthy, and ‘circular’ materials and construction
• Streamline green buildings policy and process for both applicants and staff.

A summary of the proposed changes can be found in the Strategic Analysis section of this report, and the full proposed changes are provided in Appendices A, B, C, D, and G (where Appendix D and G are redline versions).

• The recommended by-law updates will avoid operational carbon emissions from new buildings by an estimated 4,600 tonnesCO2e/yr by 2030, and embodied carbon emissions from new construction by an estimated 18,900 tonnesCO2e/yr by 2030. These measures, when combined, would be equivalent to removing 5,900 cars from the road.
• The chart below shows the estimated greenhouse gas emissions intensity of all new buildings over time. It reflects the requirements for zero emission heating and hot water from new single family and duplex homes that came into effect at the beginning of 2022 and the projected impact of the changes for multifamily and commercial recommended in this report.
• Average emissions from new buildings will be reduced by 90% from 2007 levels when these new regulations are enacted and take effect.