August 25, 2021 - In Calgary and Edmonton, the building stock accounts for 40 to 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve meaningful emissions reductions and address our current climate crisis, we need to reduce energy use in our building sector. 

Deep energy retrofits of our current building stock need to be done quickly and at scale. Traditional auditing processes can be time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult for building owners to retrofit their buildings.

To help identify energy efficiency improvements in commercial buildings faster, digitized approaches can be used to rapidly collect and present building information. 

That is why Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, with support from the RBC Foundation’s Tech for Nature, has partnered with software provider, Audette, to launch our Accelerating Retrofits in Commercial Buildings pilot project. This initiative provides building owners with a digital, simplified, low-carbon retrofit identification process. The large scale energy efficiency improvements identified will be aggregated to take advantage of alternative financing mechanisms, to catalyze investment. 

“This project provides an opportunity to identify potential retrofit projects that exist in Calgary’s and Edmonton’s commercial building stock and explore financing made possible by aggregating these projects,” says Mike Mellross, Program Director of the Alberta Ecotrust Climate Innovation Fund. “New financing sources and mechanisms are entering the Alberta market and this provides an opportunity to catalyze investment in the commercial building industry to advance low-carbon goals.”

 “We are very excited to work with Alberta building owners to provide a cost-effective and user-friendly process for low-carbon transition planning”, says Christopher Naismith, CEO of Audette. “We’ve seen first hand how digital access to information about a portfolio’s buildings, equipment, and energy consumption can unearth valuable opportunities to reduce cost, improve asset value, and attract progressive tenants.”

By participating in this pilot project, commercial building owners will be shown retrofit opportunities that will allow them to achieve emissions reductions, lower costs and improve building performance. As an early project participant, Osgoode Properties sees the benefit of this approach.

“Audette’s platform and Ecotrust’s climate leadership will drive actionable insights that will help meet Osgoode’s goals of reducing our carbon footprint in our residential properties,” says Geoff Carran, Senior Director of Investments with Osgoode Properties.

Commercial building owners in Calgary and Edmonton who want to pursue low-carbon and energy efficiency retrofits in the near term, but may not have the resources to prioritize retrofits, are invited to participate in the pilot. 

To participate in the pilot project, email our team at cif@albertaecotrust.com.