The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), and the Advanced Energy Centre at MaRS Discovery District (MaRS) are working together to bring the Investor Confidence (ICP) Project and its Investor Ready Energy Efficiency (IREE) certification to Canada.
In the Pan-Canadian Framework, the Canadian federal government recognized the role that retrofitting buildings will play in reaching Canada’s targeted emissions reductions. Additionally, CaGBC’s A Roadmap for Retrofits in Canada report found that exisiting buildings could potentially reduce overall emissions by up to 51 per cent by 2030. ICP will help facilitate the mass retrofits required to achieve these goals, while the IREE-certified projects will provide clarity on the long-term performance of energy efficiency technologies and help create greater access to competitive financing, which will be necessary to achieve retrofits on a large scale.
ICP is a global underwriting standard for developing and measuring energy efficiency retrofits and is administered by GBCI. Its IREE certification signals to investors that a project has adopted best practices that can help reduce transaction costs and increase savings. The protocols offer investors a consistent roadmap for assessing risk and expected outcomes from deep retrofits.
“The Advanced Energy Centre is pleased to play a role in introducing the Investor Confidence Project and supporting the IREE Certification’s launch in Canada,” says Shawn Peterson, senior associate of the Advanced Energy Centre at MaRS. “Our cities need innovative financing mechanisms for improving building performance at scale. Ontario’s large concentration of institutional real estate, financial capital and support to invest in low-carbon building solutions makes it an ideal market for investors.”
The IREE certification is currently being used by project owners, investors, engineers and insurance companies in North America and Europe.
“We believe that the ICP can play a critical role in the acceleration of Canada’s retrofit economy by instilling investor confidence in green retrofits and by providing a tested, ready-made tool that government and industry can leverage to accelerate uptake across the country,” adds CaGBC President and CEO Thomas Mueller.
