CASE
STUDIES
Natural Resources Canada: Net Zero Energy Housing Communities
buildABILITY acted as the project manager and lead consultant for one of the federal government’s ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative (ecoEII) supported projects. Over $4 million in funding and in-kind contributions from ecoEII and the building industry supported the construction of at 26 net-zero homes in 4 provinces.
From building science training to regulatory updates and advocacy, buildABILITY is instrumental in providing builders the information and tools they need to provide well built homes to our customers. The ecoEII project is a great example of their ability to assemble the required information, employ their technical expertise to distill complex issues to terms builders can understand and use, then provide smooth facilitation of the project. buildABILITY helps drive innovation in the building industry by challenging builders to get involved in projects like ecoEII, then working with them to transform that innovation into practice.
Paul Smith | Vice President, Architecture, Mattamy Homes Corporation
Paving the Path for Net Zero in Canada
The project focused on affordability and market acceptability of Net Zero Energy (NZE) housing in a production housing context. NZE homes continued to be stuck in a demonstration stage without addressing the key challenges to mainstreaming. Our project’s focus on production builders recognized the unique challenges associated with mainstreaming NZE practices. The project recognized that individual production builders have limited capacity and available resources to assume the risk associated with a mainstreaming project of this type.
We designed and managed one of the federal government’s ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative (ecoEII) supported projects. The project was a collaboration between the federal government, Owens Corning Canada, five large production builders from four regions across Canada and their assigned consultants. Communities were built in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta each with at least five affordable NZE homes. This project doubled the number of net-zero energy homes built in Canada, homes that over a year generate all of the energy they consume.
26
net zero houses built
5
production builders and
communities engaged
300+
media stories
and events