Government Operations committee  As to targets, or aspirational targets, going through the assessment process allows people to know where they stand. When they find out where they are in comparison with other areas, it tends to drive improvement. Regarding the greenhouse gas emissions, I've done greenhouse gas

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Just very quickly, since dozens and in fact hundreds of Public Works buildings, and not only the ones they own, but ones that are managed and leased, are going through our process, we would actually have the data over the next little while to be able to actually report back to th

Government Operations committee  There is the awareness factor. I used to run sustainability at Research In Motion.

Government Operations committee  Yes, it's now BlackBerry, but it will always be RIM to me. One of the key things internally there was celebrating successes—people knowing that there's a goal and a target, but not knowing how to get there. You've told me I need to get somewhere, but you haven't given me the too

Government Operations committee  The key feature about the BOMA BESt program is that it really tries to be as inclusive as possible, so the idea is to raise the vast majority of buildings to a higher standard rather than a select group to a very high standard. You can gain significantly more from an environmenta

Government Operations committee  I'm going to say there are a couple of things. One is to have clear goals, clear targets. We need the opportunity and the tools to reach those targets. We need a competitive and benchmarking process. It's amazing what you do when you have buildings competing against each other an

Government Operations committee  I'm going to go back here and bring some of my personal experience, as I said, as an auditor for about 20 years. Yes, there is this problem of operations versus capital. In the private sector and the government sector, you have people who say “I'm procurement. I have to spend le

Government Operations committee  I'll just make it very quick. First, as a qualified ISO 9,000, 14,000 auditor, I know a bit about the standards industry. But the whole point behind BOMA BESt is that it applies to a large segment and the idea is, it sells like the rising tide. You don't look at one or two build

Government Operations committee  In terms of the environmental performance, my understanding is that there are nine departments within the federal government that look after real estate. You have DND. The assessment protocols that we've developed for the vast majority of commercial buildings don't really fit wit

Government Operations committee  My understanding is that there would be some. I'm sure that some of the other ones have taken small parts of their portfolio and gone through the process. We'd have to take a look at that.

Government Operations committee  Again, I don't know the cost benefits, etc. I'm just saying that's the current situation. I'll leave it up to the committee to decide the benefits of that.

Government Operations committee  This comes from some experience I've had working with Canada's largest architectural firm. They operate on a global basis. Having audited their projects on a global basis, I would point out that in the United Kingdom, the government there is mandating for new construction a certa

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Benjamin. In our remaining moments, I'm going to suggest that there are two key things that the Government of Canada can do to further its environmental performance and save taxpayer dollars at the same time. Both of these ways would optimize the management of the gov