Conceptually, the proposed rules establish air conditioning as a protected option that tenants cannot be prevented from obtaining rather than an essential that landlords would be compelled to supply.

The Ontario government has pledged $342 million in additional energy efficiency spending to be rolled out between the spring of 2023 and the end of 2024.

The 2021 versions of REALPAC's normalization methodologies for calculating energy- and water-use intensity address issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and lower occupant densities in office buildings.

Many hydro accounts specifically tied to the common areas of multi-residential buildings will no longer qualify for the 31.8 per cent rebate beginning in November 2020.

Despite a steep drop in province-wide energy consumption due to COVID-19 triggered business shutdowns, many building owners/managers expect a more modest flow-through dip in operating costs.

The energy demand load has shifted in sync with much of Ontario’s workforce from commercial to home offices, prompting calls for suspension of time-of-use pricing during the current COVID-19 related upheaval

A wider selection of high-performance windows and doors is expected to hit the market as Canada's National Energy Code continues to push the envelope toward net-zero-energy-ready development.

It's still unclear how the process of securing environmental approvals for combined heat and power systems will be streamlined, but the Ontario government's recent pledge has been greeted enthusiastically in the buildings sector.

Guidance related to natural ventilation, particulate filtration and compartmentalization of multi-residential HVAC systems are prominent in the list of identified "significant changes" compared to the incumbent 2016 version of the standards.

Few signatories to the Paris Agreement have specifically listed energy efficiency targets in required national plans for meeting their commitments so Three Percent Club founders see plenty of room to capture untapped emissions reductions.

Ontario draws on the legacy of more than a dozen years of programming, while Energy Efficiency Alberta has had little time to capture public or capital planners' attention.

Local distribution companies have been the prime drivers of the Conservation First Framework, tasked with collectively attaining 7 million megawatt-hours of energy savings in the 2015-2020 period.

In practice, the Ontario Energy Board has never exercised its authority to set electricity rates for sub-metered residential units because it has been finalizing a methodology for carrying out the new responsibility, which came into force in the spring of 2018.

Selected provisions enabling some of Ontario's key energy and water conservation programs will be transferred to the Electricity Act.

Energy efficiency advocates are working to enlist broader support and leverage existing influential backers at a time when government commitment is becoming more uneven across North American jurisdictions.

The Ontario NDP's proposed plan would focus efforts to manage peak demand more narrowly on the Industrial Conservation Initiative and voluntary residential programs enabled through smart grid technology.

The upfront costs of Ontario's electricity conservation programs are lower than some candidates for provincial office are alleging.