Canadian green council launches interactive green building toolkit
The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has launched an interactive toolkit to guide organizations and governments in implementing green building policies and programs.
“Many municipalities and organizations are interested in building more sustainably but need to build buy-in from other departments on the business benefits for pursuing green building certification,” Akua Schatz, the CaGBC’s director of advocacy and development, told Real Estate News Exchange.
“The toolkit has already been used in presentations to municipal staff to provoke discussion, answer questions and define the significant contributions and impact LEED buildings have had in Canada over the past 15 years.”
The toolkit is designed to provide a comprehensive update of the state of the industry and define the environmental, economic, health and business benefits of green buildings. Through it, individuals can learn more about the CaGBC’s role in representing and providing thought leadership on green buildings for industry and government.
It also provides an overview of the LEED program that demonstrates the rationale and success of third-party certification programs and how they help to move the market forward, raising the standards for performance ahead of building codes and guidelines.
Three sections of the toolkit are available to the public, while full access is restricted to CaGBC members.
The components of the toolkit cover:
- Environmental footprint of buildings;
- Current state and benefits of green buildings in Canada;
- More about LEED, training and education;
- Business case for green building and municipal cost benefits (members-only section);
- Sustainable growth management and community development (members-only section);
- How green buildings bolster economic growth and create jobs (members-only section);
- Policy opportunities for new and existing buildings (members-only section);
- Resources on QUEST’s community energy planning framework (members-only section);
- How to monitor and verify performance, including energy benchmarking (members-only section);
- Market impacts, trends and opportunities (members-only section).