As many of us shift from summer mode, ramping up for a busy fall season, let’s take a minute to look towards the future. Canada has come a long way in a relatively short time developing a vision of what buildings should be. While the concept of high performance buildings becoming the norm is only emerging in most circles, it is well defined in Build Smart: Canada’s Buildings Strategy.
And though the roll out of the strategy may seem frustratingly slow to those of us delivering high performance buildings today, the direction is clear. To advance Canada’s future vision of buildings, we have been working hard to partner with government bodies and industry leaders like you.
Before the release of Canada’s Buildings Strategy, we were deeply involved in the development of the UN Framework Guidelines for Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Currently those guidelines are emerging as a global reference that also aligns well with Build Smart. Our work continues as we work in conjunction with the Passive House Institute and other international agencies to implement the Framework Guidelines in regions across the globe.
Our goal is to develop a globally recognized level of performance that buildings should achieve to address climate change and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which also address issues such as affordability, quality of life, and building resiliency.
These goals are supported by buildings achieving the Passive House standard and the pursuit of this strategy creates the opportunity to chart a new path for Passive House performance levels, enabling those design and construction practices to become mainstream. In addition to directly benefiting from global knowledge and policy development, Canada has the true potential to be a global leader in the quest to deliver buildings that are better for people and the planet.
To reflect the work that the Canadian Passive House community, your community, has been doing, we decided to align our conference with the conferences of the national and global leaders with whom we have been Partnering for Transformation.
Attending our conference in November will give you an opportunity to connect with the global community of leading building scientists and policy makers addressing building performance and climate change. It is an exciting time to be working with industry and government partners developing the shared vision outlined in Build Smart, a process you can connect with, and benefit from, regardless of where you live.
We encourage you to register to take advantage of the opportunity to hear from, and meet, those responsible for accelerating market transformation in Canada and internationally, in addition to learning from some of the industry’s top design and construction professionals. We look forward to staying in touch over the next several weeks as we continue to prepare for our conference and AGM.
Thank you for being part of this incredible community, for supporting Passive House Canada, and for all that you do in your day-to-day work to advance the transformation of Canada’s built environment. Together we have accomplished so much, which we could not have done without you.
Sincerely,
Rob Bernhardt
CEO, Passive House Canada
