CALGARY, January 10, 2022

Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, a charity that leads urban climate change action through their Climate Innovation Fund, announced plans for a pilot project to provide Digital Home Energy Labels for homes in Calgary and Edmonton using Lightspark’s technology, with support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. 

A home energy label shows how much energy a home uses (energy and carbon) and how that compares to similar homes. This label is like an appliance label on your fridge or a nutrition label on food. It gives homeowners and buyers a deeper understanding of a home’s efficiency that can help inform the buying or selling process.

This pilot project aims to:

• Display Digital Home Energy Labels on an interactive map so homebuyers and REALTORS® can easily compare the energy performance of different homes, understand the potential upgrades, and feel confident in their home purchase. 

• Enable REALTORS® to educate homeowners on the energy efficiency of a home using the map. This will help REALTORS fully answer homebuyers questions about home efficiency so they can confidently send clients their dream listings.

• Make the map easy for homeowners to view and update labels with recent energy-efficient upgrades so they can feel proud of their label and feel assured it is accurate.

• Encourage homeowners to upgrade their homes so that they can improve their health and comfort while enabling jobs for local contractors such as windows, insulation, HVAC installers, and electricians.

Building on previous energy score programs, Alberta Ecotrust and Lightspark will be developing the first automatic, digital, home energy labelling program and are aiming to launch the Digital Home Energy Map publicly in Fall 2022.

“Alberta Ecotrust is excited to launch the first large-scale energy labelling initiative for homes in Canada. This pilot makes Alberta a leader in home energy labelling by moving away from individual homeowners manually having to acquire a home energy audit, to automatically generating universal labels for every home in Calgary and Edmonton.” – Mike Mellross, program director, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation

 “We are thrilled to have support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and Alberta Ecotrust Foundation to develop a home energy labelling program in Alberta. As an impact-driven software company, we aim to bring greater awareness to carbon reduction possibilities for homeowners in Calgary and Edmonton, while helping Albertans understand how they can improve their home comfort and reduce costs. This ground-breaking project will put Alberta at the forefront of home energy scoring, and we are excited to be a part of it.” – James Riley, chief executive officer, Lightspark Software Inc.

“We’ve heard from our stakeholders that learning about and leading on home energy efficiency is critical for real estate professionals and consumers as the effects of climate change are being felt more readily. This pilot drives the transformational and long-term change we were looking for through our one-time legacy grant program, especially with the power to scale to other municipalities. We are honoured to support REALTORS® and the larger real estate industry to lead the country in digital home energy labelling.” – Patti Morris, executive director, Alberta Real Estate Foundation

 “Local REALTORS® play an important role in educating their clients on the value of their home. This energy map will help them to understand and compare properties more thoroughly so that current and potential homeowners can make informed decisions when buying and selling.”- Alan Tennant, president and chief executive officer, Calgary Real Estate Board.

 “We are excited to support this innovative pilot project that will help uncover hidden value in Edmonton homes and improve understanding and awareness around energy efficiency ratings.” – Allan Font, interim president and chief executive officer, REALTORS® Association of Edmonton.

This project is not intended to serve as a replacement for getting an EnerGuide home energy audit. Homeowners are encouraged to check the eligibility requirements of funding programs for energy efficiency upgrades. 

Further, only real estate agents that are members of the Calgary Real Estate Board and REALTORS® Association of Edmonton will be eligible to participate in the engagement and training process. 

This project uses data made available from the City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton and complies with privacy regulations.

About the Climate Innovation Fund

Alberta Ecotrust Foundation is a founding member of the Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) network, implemented in partnership among seven local centres across Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Funded by the Government of Canada, LC3 is part of a national investment in municipal climate action to accelerate urban climate solutions and to help achieve Canada’s climate goal of net-zero by 2050. 

As an LC3 centre, Alberta Ecotrust received a $43.4 million endowment from the Government of Canada to create the Climate Innovation Fund. The Fund provides programming in Calgary and Edmonton, taking on a nimble, accelerator role, complementing and advancing the leadership work undertaken by the municipalities. For more information, visit albertaecotrust.com.

About Alberta Real Estate Foundation

Created through the Alberta Real Estate Act, the Alberta Real Estate Foundation is a nonprofit organization that makes purposeful impact-oriented grants and investments that make a difference to the real estate industry and for all Albertans. We contribute to thriving Alberta communities and a stronger economy through our grant programs, benefitting homeowners, landowners, tenants, and real estate industry professionals. We do this by funding real estate-related education initiatives, law reform, research, and industry and community innovation activities. We connect people and share knowledge in collaboration with the real estate industry and public stakeholders. Since 1991, the Foundation has invested $26.5 million in grants to over 665 initiatives across Alberta. For more information, visit www.aref.ab.ca. Follow @arefabca on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

For more information, please contact:

• Maureen Ezeodumegwu, Communications Manager, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, info@albertaecotrust.com

• James Riley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, james.riley@lightsparkinc.com

• Teigan Kopec, Alberta Real Estate Foundation, tkopec@aref.ab.ca