A number of local building owners and organizations have joined the City of Burnaby in reporting building emissions and energy use to assist in improving energy management.
Building Benchmark BC released its second annual report on Tuesday (March 1), showing 1,163 buildings across the province have registered for its program. That's up 551 from the first year.
The program involves collecting and monitoring energy and greenhouse gas data from a large number of buildings over time, allowing owners, managers, occupants, and governments to compare the performance of similar properties.
"It helps governments and building owners direct resources into the best interventions, in the right buildings, to achieve the highest climate benefit," a city news release says.
"Benchmarking will enable City of Burnaby staff to better identify opportunities for improved energy management and consideration of greenhouse gas emissions as the City moves forward with plans to retrofit older buildings and construct new low-carbon facilities, such as the planned Burnaby Lake Aquatic and Arena Facility."
In Burnaby, 107 buildings are now contributing data, compared to 61 in the previous year.
The city says they have included data from 30 of its buildings in the project, including fire halls, libraries, community centres and smaller buildings.
“As one of the first municipalities to join Building Benchmark BC, it’s great to see our community embrace this great opportunity to deepen our understanding of building emissions in B.C.,” Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley added in the release.
“This project is intended to drive and accelerate emissions reductions, and I applaud all organizations and private building owners who have demonstrated leadership by participating."
The city says today, buildings account for 50% of all carbon emissions Burnaby-wide.
Later this year, the city plans to launch a building retrofit task force to bring together commercial and industrial property owners, government representatives, technical experts and local homeowners to develop quick starts and recommendations for the City of Burnaby's Zero-Emission Building Retrofit strategy.
