Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair, and committee members.
I would like to thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee this morning. My name is Benjamin Shinewald and I am CEO of BOMA Canada.
I will begin the presentation and then my colleague, John Smiciklas, our Energy and Environment Director, will take over.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada, or BOMA Canada, represents owners and managers that collectively own or manage over two billion square feet of commercial space in Canada. Our federated system includes 11 local associations that are active in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories and that collectively have around 3,300 members. We are also affiliates of BOMA International and have counterpart organizations in many countries around the world.
Several years ago, BOMA Canada took the initiative to develop a made in Canada program now called BOMA BESt, with BESt standing for “Building Environmental Standards”. This is a program for building environmental certification.
The program is a response to a true environmental challenge: how to address and minimize the environmental and energy challenges posed by Canada’s huge stock of existing buildings. The program is deliberately not about new building design, though there is a place for such programs too. Rather, our program, BOMA BESt, recognizes that the greater environmental and energy challenge arises from those buildings that already exist. The real solution to that challenge must arise from the effective and efficient management and operation of those existing buildings.
Today, BOMA BESt is the only Canadian-developed assessment and certification program of its kind for commercial buildings in Canada. The program provides a consistent framework for owners and managers to critically assess six key areas of environmental performance and management: energy, water, waste reduction and site, emissions and effluents, indoor environment, and environmental management system.
To date, over 3,500 buildings, representing nearly one billion square feet of Canadian commercial real estate, have applied for certification or recertification across our five categories: office, which is the most germane for you; open air retail; shopping centres; light industrial; and multi-unit residential buildings. We are very close to adding a sixth category for health care facilities, which have unique energy profiles. We are confident that there are markets for still many more categories.
Perhaps most importantly, BOMA BESt certification is exceedingly cost effective. Not only is the cost of certification extraordinarily low compared to other building certification programs, but BOMA BESt also provides energy and environmental targets that reduce a building’s environmental and energy footprint and therefore reduce building operational costs. The program pays for itself.
Indeed, a simple comparison of BOMA BESt buildings against the numbers identified in Natural Resources Canada’s commercial and institutional consumption of energy survey shows that: BOMA BESt level 2 certified buildings perform 6% better than the national average; BOMA BESt level 3 certified buildings perform 18% better than the national average; and BOMA BESt level 4 certified buildings perform 46% better than the national average.
The Government of Canada has recognized the benefits, both environmental and financial, of BOMA BESt. For instance, Public Works and Government Services Canada, which owns or leases approximately 23% of government real property, we understand, has mandated that every single one of its structures, whether owned or leased, must go through a BOMA BESt assessment. This is a win-win for the government, we believe, as it is saving significant funds while also showing tremendous environmental leadership. In fact, this building that we're sitting in right now is slotted to go through certification in the coming weeks.
However, we also believe that there is more the government can do. I'll ask my colleague, John Smiciklas, to continue.