The City of Victoria and District of Saanich are partnering with the Building Owners and Managers Association of British Columbia (BOMA BC) to create the Greater Victoria 2030 Resiliency District.
The 2030 Resilient District will facilitate a partnership between municipalities and the commercial real estate industry to achieve aggressive energy and emissions reductions targets, while also enhancing the resilience of buildings. Participating building owners and managers will voluntarily commit to reduce their buildings’ energy use, water and emissions by 50 per cent by the year 2030 from 2007 baseline levels.
“This is an important opportunity for the city to partner with progressive building owners and managers, to help drive efficient, high-performance, and low-carbon improvements in our large building stock,” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. “Over 30 per cent of Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions come from large buildings, so we are very excited to partner with BOMA’s 2030 District program, which will bring local leaders together to collaborate and take action to eliminate building GHG’s and improve sustainability.”
2030 District initiatives are gaining momentum across North America. Greater Victoria will be only the second District in Canada, after Toronto but there are currently 21 established Districts across the U.S.
The Greater Victoria 2030 Resiliency District will be unique across North America by adding building seismic resiliency to its mandate.
“It is critical we continue to address long-term climate adaptation and seismic upgrading as components of a responsible environmental sustainability strategy for the commercial real estate industry. We are working with innovators in our industry to set an example on how the commercial real estate sector can work with partners to take steps to fight climate change,” said Damian Stathonikos, president of BOMA BC. “District 2030 brings these issues to the forefront.”
To achieve these targets, BOMA BC will provide support to members of the District including:
• Education and assistance on optimizing retrofits at the time of planned building renewals;
• Tracking, aggregating and reporting on building performance metrics;
• Securing group purchasing discounts for new and emerging building technologies and professional services; and,
• Advancing seismic safety upgrades and resilience to extreme weather events.
For more information on 2030 Districts visit: https://www.2030districts.org/districts
