Author/Contributor: Natural Resources Canada
Alberta Context:
This resource hub, published by NRCan, provides valuable information on retrofits applicable across Canada. It’s designed to assist the Canadian building industry in planning, financing, and implementing retrofit projects more efficiently.
Summary:
NRCan’s retrofit hub features resources on retrofit projects for commercial real estate, institutional and public buildings, and multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs). Commercial and residential buildings significantly contribute to carbon emissions across Canada (accounting for 40 to 60 percent of emissions in Calgary and Edmonton alone).
Deep retrofits offer a comprehensive approach to upgrading a building’s systems and infrastructure to reduce emissions, energy consumption, and operating costs. This process holds the potential to significantly minimize the environmental impact of buildings and, in many cases, reduce their operational costs.
To address this, we created the Alberta Ecotrust Retrofit Accelerator program, which will officially launch in the fall of 2024. This program aims to reduce emissions from existing buildings in Alberta by providing free coaching services to building owners and managers, guiding them through the process of undertaking sustainable building upgrades, known as “deep retrofits.”
Learn more about:
Funding and Incentives
Funding and incentives are available to support many different types of retrofit projects. Check out the full list of opportunities for funding, financing, loans, rebates, tax incentives, and more here.
Alberta:
- Alberta Municipalities’ “Clean Energy Improvement Program” offers an affordable and different approach to traditional financing. Get access to low rates covering up to 100% of energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrade project costs and repay through property tax. The CEIP is available in these participating municipalities currently (July 2024):
- Residential owners of single-family homes, detached, semi-detached, and townhouse properties in – Athabasca, Banff, Calgary, Canmore, Cold Lake, Devon, Drayton Valley, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Leduc, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Pincher Creek, Okotoks, Rocky Mountain House, St. Albert, Stettler, Stirling, Sturgeon County, Strathcona County, Westlock
- Commercial owners of retail, office, warehouse, institutional, and other commercial properties in – City of Calgary, City of Edmonton, and Sturgeon County can finance up to 100% of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects
- Government of Alberta’s “Canada Community-Building Fund”
- Flexible funding for Canadian municipalities to retrofit and build public infrastructure
- Emissions Reduction Alberta
Canada:
- Canada Infrastructure Bank’s Public and Commercial Building Retrofits Initiative (BRI)
- Natural Resources Canada’s Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities Program
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Canada Greener Affordable Housing program
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Affordable Housing Fund
- Infrastructure Canada’s Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program
- Indigenous Services Canada’s First Nation Infrastructure Fund
- Indigenous Services Canada’s Capital Facilities and Maintenance Program
- Indigenous Clean Energy’s Project Accelerator
- Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund
- Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Municipal Asset Management Program
- Federal Tax Incentive – Capital Cost Allowance Classes 43.1 and 43.2
- Federal Tax Incentive – Capital Cost Allowance Classes 1, 3, and 6
- Business Development Bank of Canada’s Commercial Real Estate Loan
Tools
Tools on the topics of energy management, benchmarking, and modeling are available to help improve energy efficiency and reduce GHGs. Check them out here.
Data
Data sets providing information on energy use, efficiency, and GHG emissions are available, along with visualization tools for the real estate sector. Additionally, there are resources on climate data, energy economy, electricity modeling, and policy simulators here.
Case Studies
Real-life examples are included in reports that uncover the barriers and opportunities arising from building retrofit projects. Read them here.
Guides
Several guides are available to assist in understanding the building retrofit process. This page offers guidelines from the Government of Canada and resources from Sustainable Buildings Canada, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Climate-resilient Infrastructure, Pembina Institute, and CHMC. Check them out here.
Certifications and Standards
A list of certifications and standards for retrofits in commercial, institutional, and multi-unit residential buildings.
Training and Capacity Building
Specifically designed to build knowledge and skills – these training and capacity-building opportunities can help you decarbonize.
Visit NRCan’s retrofit hub page for the full list of resources and detailed information.
