Day 1: September 22, 2021 – 10:00am – 6:30pm ET / 7:00am – 3:30 PT
Day 2: September 23, 2021 – 10:00am – 6:30pm ET / 7:00am – 3:30 PT
The program committee is developing an insightful and engaging program for you to enjoy! This VIRTUAL event will feature engaging sessions that span the spectrum of knowledge on deep energy retrofits and EnerPHit projects.
Below are some featured sessions we are excited to announce. Full event program coming soon!
Program sessions and times are subject to change.
The purpose of this session is to be table-setting, framing the context of retrofits today, and the remarkable strides already made across the country. During the post-war boom years, Canada built a significant volume of modern apartment towers in response to rapid urbanization.
Today, these buildings are the backbone of our affordable rental housing stock – with at least 750,000 Canadian households calling them home. More than half a century into their service life, the need to retrofit and revitalize aging housing has never been more critical.
This talk will explore the changing policy and financial landscape which is now enabling more transformation of existing housing than ever before; profile three exemplary tower renewal projects across Canada; and outline the challenges and opportunities that remain to tackling housing renewal at scale.
Buildings shape the lives, health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Unfortunately, many of the buildings across Canada often have a multitude of problems: from drafty building envelopes to mold and moisture problems and inefficient HVAC systems. The Passive House standard has evolved over the years and now includes powerful tools, guidelines and certification pathways which can assist design and construction professionals seeking to retrofit buildings to be more comfortable, healthier and use less energy. This 1 hour session will introduce participants to the Passive House retrofit ‘EnerPHit’ standards and highlight some examples of successful Passive House retrofits from around the world.
Learning Objectives:
In response to the climate and housing crises, Ottawa Community Housing and Natural Resources Canada have developed and piloted an approach to retrofit existing buildings with tenants in place. Called PEER or Prefabricated Exterior Energy Retrofit, the approach includes wrapping the whole building in a new, panelized enclosure. In 2021, Ottawa Community Housing completed Canada’s first Net-Zero panelized retrofit of a 4 unit block of townhomes as a demonstration of the PEER approach. This presentation will cover the building capture, design, hygrothermal considerations, life-cycle carbon impacts, panel fabrication, M&E upgrades, construction process and monitoring plan for the low-rise pilot. The discussion will focus on barriers and opportunities to scale-up an industrialized approach to retrofit additional low, mid and high rise buildings.
Learning Objectives
As the focus on building energy performance continues to grow in many jurisdictions across North America, the interest in the Passive House standard is growing as well. For the uninitiated, this standard can seem daunting, especially when it comes to incorporating manufactured components, such as windows. But window configuration and calculations in Passive House projects don’t have to be overwhelming.
This presentation explores the Passive House strategy for windows, providing a high-level overview of the building science behind the standard, how the standard is measured and validated in real-world projects, as well as the benefits of Passive House windows for occupants.
Through a review of window materials and configurations, this presentation outlines options for meeting the Passive House standard, as well as opportunities to cost-optimize high-performance fenestration.
Learning Objectives
City of Toronto has committed to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to net zero by 2050 or sooner. Homes and buildings are the largest source of GHG emissions in Toronto today, accounting for 55 percent of total emissions primarily from the use of natural gas fossil fuel to heat space and water. The Net Zero Existing Buildings Strategy recommends nine key policy actions for the City to implement to enable and accelerate the uptake of retrofits by building owners, while maximizing potential co-benefits and minimizing potential harms. The strategy mapped Toronto’s building stock on to prototypical facilities to define building-scale packages required for decarbonization.
This session will outline the strategy actions and explore the recommended pathways to net zero for high-rise buildings, including measures to reduce emissions, capital costs, energy savings by fuel and associated GHG, and life cycle cost implications.
Learning Objectives
Policy actions for the City to implement to enable and accelerate the uptake of retrofits by building owners. Recommended pathways to net zero for high-rise buildings:
Planning and communication are vital in the retrofit of large towers such as the Ken Soble Tower Passive House project. The innovative Passive House certification process challenges traditional construction planning and must be addressed early on. Projects must plan for time, scope, and budget fundamentals, as well as consider the need for enhanced measurement and quality verification, which necessitates increased collaboration between disciplines and experts. Our presentation will share the modifications we made to our planning and execution to address these challenges and mitigate the risks, facilitating the successful completion of this groundbreaking project.
Learning Objectives:
While much research focuses on the retrofitting of building stock from 1950s-1970’s in Toronto there is a need to address how the newer glass condo towers will be addressed to meet Canada’s climate targets. Many of these towers would remain unchanged in a ‘typical life’ scenario past 2050 with their specific construction style, window-wall, present unique challenges and opportunities. The presentation will focus on possible retrofit options available using as-built structural information and present façade technologies to build constructible and cost effective options for transforming this building stock to meet the 2050 targets.
Learning Objectives:
Since 1997, New City Contracting Ltd. has been responsible for a wide range of residential and commercial building envelope projects. We presently have the capacity to turn over more than $30 million-dollar projects per year, and we pride ourselves on being able to achieve our client’s objectives every time and on time. This can only be achieved with a company culture that has been developed and implemented by the direction of our senior management of our organization. New City Contracting is a “best in class” company and we are rightly proud of our achievements to date.
A 20 story, 300 unit, affordable housing tower, built-in 1974, was often uncomfortable in the winter and summer, while energy consumed half the operating budget. Fully occupied and In need of upgrades to all significant building components, the building owner, Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation, set out to do a step-by-step EnerPHit renovation, while leaving the tenants in place. The team has completed phase two of four planned phases. Find out the goals, the decisions, and the process of transforming this prototypical urban building.
Currently Calgary is experiencing both a lack of affordable housing and a surplus of vacant office space. Sierra Place is an office tower conversion project that will address both of these challenges simultaneously. HomeSpace and Inn from the Cold – two Calgary non-profits – have partnered to convert the 100,000 square foot building into affordable housing, shelter and programming space to support families experiencing homelessness. Project completion for Sierra Place is targeted for September 2022. This presentation will focus on the partnership development, as well as describe the lessons learned in design and upcoming construction process.
There are approximately 10,000 towers in Canada in need of retrofitting because of their age. Towers represent a significant contribution of our GHG emissions, and if we don’t focus on taking the right steps in undertaking tower deep energy retrofits towards building a retrofit economy, we will be locking in high carbon emissions for the next 50 years. A primary tool that is integral to achieving a retrofit economy is public funding. In discussion with The Atmospheric Fund, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, City of Toronto’s Taking Action on Tower Renewal Program and the international firm, Turner & Townsend, will shed light on how public funding is leveraged and stacked to undertake deep energy retrofits. We will see with each panelist’s perspective where public funding is being used and where more is needed to shift to a retrofit economy.
The private sector often faces challenges in performing deep energy retrofits. Hear varying perspectives from Green Reason (a sustainable consulting firm), Efficiency Capital, and Vancity Community Investment Bank on how innovative financing approaches and strategies can be used to advance these projects.
The panel will shed light on the current environment facing these projects, discuss risk mitigation strategies, and offer solutions for advancing projects. Mechanisms to enable holistic retrofits as well as ways to bundle and upscale retrofit projects to the neighborhood or building portfolio level, will also be discussed.
Deep retrofit of existing buildings will play a key role in meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction goals in North America and beyond. Building owners, managers, and investors realize the need for and opportunities resulting from building retrofits, but the challenges of implementing resident-in-place projects can be daunting. Establishing project goals, identifying the best time to implement the deep retrofit, developing a roadmap for the work, and committing to open communication are key tenets of achieving intended retrofit outcomes. This presentation brings together an owner, a consultant, and a construction manager to discuss viewpoints and experience managing – and overcoming – retrofit challenges.
Learning Objectives:
Passive House is primarily an energy standard, but sustainability is more than just energy. To build sustainably, we must understand the Total Cost of Ownership which includes maintenance and renewal, interest, utilities, insurance, property tax, etc. These costs can amount to eight to ten times the initial cost of construction.
Our case studies have shown that new high-performance passive buildings compared to code-built and deep retrofits of existing buildings have a 30 to 40% lower Total Cost of Building Ownership (TCBO) over a typical 60-year life cycle or before a major renewal or repurpose. A $1 million building will cost $8 to 10 million to own and operate, so saving 30% is $2.4 million. Building sustainably saves money.
The twin towers are two concrete, mixed used high-rise towers in British Columbia constructed in 1977. The residential and commercial spaces use nearly 14,000 GJ of natural gas each year. This presentation will outline the multiple steps and options that were reviewed to determine the best solution to retrofit aging and failed equipment and fully decarbonize all heating and domestic water usage, while creating a comfortable living situation for the existing occupants. Our team will outline the challenges and decisions that were made during the Schematic Design process.
The first questions received on retrofit projects usually are:” What is the ROI/Net Present Value?”. The Industry is still grappling to accurately quantify the full range of benefits associated with deep retrofits, to create an indisputable case: improved air quality, occupants’ health, resiliency to future climate, better tenant retention, easier electrification and prevented energy code obsolescence.
This issue is also present in the financial side, where increased leasing revenues, resale value and escalating carbon tax are rarely captured in the analysis, while the validity of current capital plans is not yet questioned against fast-evolving energy codes and anticipated climate adaption measures.
This session will bring to light all aspects to be considered when looking at delivering mass scale deep retrofits, to understand the entire landscape (benefits and foreseen risks) and make informed decisions when facing fast-changing existing building energy codes and the need for climate adaptation.
Steven Winter Associates (SWA) developed a Low Carbon Multifamily Retrofit “Playbook” for five typologies including a pre-war low-rise, a post-war low-rise, a post-war high-rise, a post-1980’s high-rise, and a garden style building. For each playbook SWA obtained utility data, HVAC information, and drawings. SWA developed a retrofit playbook for each typology and included recommendations for retrofitting: lighting, envelope, HVAC, and DHW. Playbook recommendations considered multiple technologies, sequencing, tenant disruption, electrification/decarbonization of fuel, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. This presentation will summarize findings, and direct attendees to future resources for retrofit planning. Playbooks are published here for reference.
Learning Objectives:
The SINFONIA project was initiated in 2014 to implement large-scale, integrated, and scalable energy solutions in mid-sized European cities over a six-year period. The heart of this initiative was the cooperation between two pioneering cities – Bolzano, Italy and Innsbruck, Austria – to achieve 40-50% primary energy savings and increase the share of renewables by 20%. To reach these ambitious energy savings goals an integrated set of steps was used: the retrofitting of more than 100,000 square meters of residential and school buildings, optimization of the electricity grid, and implementing sustainable solutions for district heating and cooling by increasing the share of renewable energy.
Total number of learning hours: please refer to the individual session details for eligible learning credits. Please note that core learning credits / CPD are based on live attendance.
We have confirmed CPD units from the following accrediting bodies:
We are also seeking CPD units from the following accredited bodies:
We will continue to update as more information becomes available.
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