Course Description

While deep energy retrofits are predominantly valued for their energy savings — which are important — our aging building stock represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drastically drive down carbon emissions, improve the health and safety of occupants, increase heating and cooling affordability, integrate the building with the grid, and adapt to and mitigate climate change. As Canada decarbonizes its building stock, the deep retrofit paradigm needs to shift beyond cost recovery through energy savings towards capturing the full value of non-energy benefits.

Key components of the proposed paradigm shift include:

• Retrofitting for low carbon: Implementing energy efficiency measures and fuel switching to reduce operational carbon, and selecting materials that have low embodied carbon.
• Retrofitting for climate resilience: Retrofitting to improve resilience in the face of climate-related risks and protect Canadians, especially vulnerable populations.
• Retrofitting for health: Investing in deep retrofits to mitigate climate-related health risks such as by improving indoor air quality and reducing exposure to extreme temperatures.
• Retrofitting for affordability: Equitable distribution of deep retrofit benefits to overcome the disproportionate impact of climate events and energy poverty on vulnerable communities.
• Retrofitting for smart grid integration: Implementing energy efficiency measures, onsite renewable energy generation, and smart controls to transform buildings into grid-integrated energy hubs