IMPROVING THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS
Buildings contribute significantly Waterloo Region’s emissions. Aging building stock and rapid new development have serious implications on the way our community uses energy.
Changing climate, energy needs, and technologies all affect how we build, heat, cool, and maintain our buildings.
By improving the energy performance of buildings in our community we can reduce our impact on the climate, reduce long-term operational costs and attract new residents and businesses to Waterloo Region.
WR Community Energy focuses on:
We promote energy-first planning and provide strategic advice to ensure that all new developments have high energy performance as an investment in our future.
We understand that changing climates, energy needs, and technology affects how we build, heat, cool, and maintain our buildings. We promote deep energy retrofits and provide strategic advice on how to complete and finance these projects.
We promote on-site renewable energy generation for new and existing developments with local data into specific opportunities including ground-mount solar and open-loop geoexchange.
Building for a changing climate: The map above shows the climate zones used to determine minimum energy efficiency requirements in Canada’s National Building Code. If warming trends continue, Waterloo Region will drop to Climate Zone 5 by 2040. Climate zones impact the economics and technology viable to heat and cool buildings.
OUR bUILDING Projects
WR Community Energy supports municipalities, industry and communities to improve the energy performance of buildings by facilitating research, convening partners and providing strategic advice.
Waterloo Region Group Leading Effort to Require Greener Buildings
The WR Community Energy team spoke to the Waterloo Region Record about our work exploring Green Development Standards, a municipal tool for building better buildings in Waterloo Region.
Waterloo Region Green Development Standards Request for Proposals
As of June 3, 2022 WR Community Energy has closed our RFP seeking proposals from qualified and experienced consultants to lead the first phase of the design of Green Development Standards (GDS) for Waterloo Region. We expect to make a decision on the successful proponent by end of June 2022 and for a final report to be delivered in late fall 2022.
Energy Retrofits for Multi-Family Housing Master Class
On May 4 & 5, 2022, WR Community Energy partnered with Efficiency Capital and Durham Region on a two-part workshop series designed to prepare multi-family housing for energy efficiency retrofit projects. Watch recordings now.
Community Energy Considerations for Municipal Climate Change Policy Development on New Buildings
In 2021, WR Community Energy was invited to provide comments on the Region of Waterloo’s Policy Direction Paper on Climate Change as a part of their ROP review. This report provides a summary of the key themes that emerged from three years of community energy work in Waterloo Region and interviews with industry leaders.
Opportunities for Open Loop Geoexchange in Waterloo Region
Geothermal opportunities exist across Canada. Waterloo Region, however, is unique in its capacity for a more energy efficient and ecologically preferable type of geoexchange system called “Open Loop Geoexchange.”
Community Energy Efficiency Financing Program
In 2020, WR Community Energy partnered with local environmental charity, Reep Green Solutions, to support a preliminary study on community efficiency financing.
