by Rebecca Walker — August 17, 2009—Commercial buildings in Canada could begin receiving energy efficiency report cards as early as 2010.
ASHRAE’s Building Energy Labeling Implementation Committee presented its label prototype and the results of a pilot project at the association’s annual meeting in June. The Building Energy Quotient or Building EQ focuses exclusively on energy use.
Building EQ labels will provide numerical and qualitative scores on a broader spectrum of building types.Because it provides information on a vertical scale, with report card grades from F to A+, a Building EQ Label offers incentive for building owners to continuously improve their operations, said Dieter Bartel, commercial energy specialist for Manitoba Hydro and a member of ASHRAE’s Building Energy Labeling Implementation Committee.
He said Building EQ has potential in Canada, as the committee is now on the edge of discussions with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) about the development of a building rating.
Building EQ also has potential at the provincial level. One of the objectives of the B.C. government’s energy plan is to develop a commercial building labeling pilot.
The provincial government has undertaken the development of a framework and Building EQ may be one of many tools people can use to monitor energy efficiency in commercial buildings.
BC Hydro is working with municipalities to develop a system, where labeling a building for energy usage will be a policy requirement.
NRCan is also looking at changes to the National Building Code that will affect energy efficiency. For more information, see the NRCan Web site.
