Evidence of meeting #40 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was buildings.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
I'm going to call to order this 40th meeting of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.
Madame Nash, would you like to say a word?
3:40 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have tabled two motions that I'd like the committee to look at. Of course, the procedure is that today I give notice of motion, and there is normally a 48-hour notice period.
The two motions are concerning the Public Appointments Commission Secretariat. One of them deals with the report of the secretariat prepared for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
The other motion is about the activities of the secretariat and whether they're in compliance with the Federal Accountability Act. It then asks the minister responsible to come here to report on the activities of the secretariat.
I would ask the committee to waive the 48-hour notice. I'm aware that we would need unanimous consent to do that, but I seek that consent because we are about to have a hiatus of two weeks when the House won't be sitting. If we were able to deal with these motions today, that would allow two weeks for those motions to be implemented and for those responsible to be prepared to come before the committee. So I think it is a reasonable request that we waive the normal 48-hour notice.
3:40 p.m.
An hon. member
No.
3:40 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
If we can't get unanimous consent to waive the 48 hours, can I just ask if it would be possible to have an emergency meeting during the two-week period that the House is not sitting so that we can deal with this?
The appointments issue has been very high-profile. Appointments continue to be made, and we have not had the opportunity to examine the work of the secretariat. In fact, some of us were surprised that the secretariat was even conducting work. I certainly wasn't aware of that.
So if we can't get unanimous consent to waive the notice, I'm wondering if we could agree to have an emergency meeting over the two-week hiatus when the House is not sitting.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
You're supporting the motion that we have a meeting during the break?
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
On a point of order, this is a motion and it would require 48 hours' notice to be introduced.
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
3:40 p.m.
An hon. member
That's it. We move on.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
I guess we're not meeting during the two weeks.
Our guests are waiting to speak to us. I know one of them is looking to take a flight at six o'clock, so we won't hold them up any longer.
Pursuant to our study on the greening of government, and especially the buildings in government, we have with us two witnesses. They are Ms. Deb Cross, from the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada Inc.; and Thomas Mueller, from the Canada Green Building Council.
Perhaps we'll start with Mr. Mueller. I believe he has to take a flight at six o'clock.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Normally, we ask you to make a statement. Perhaps we'll get a statement from you and a statement from Ms. Cross, and then we'll ask our questions and go from there.
3:40 p.m.
President, Canada Green Building Council
How long would you like the statement to be?
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Normally, you have five to ten minutes. You're both speaking, but sometimes it's better if there's more time for questions.
3:40 p.m.
President, Canada Green Building Council
I'll keep it as short as possible.
Thank you very much for inviting me to address the committee. I have a handout that I'll take you through. Given the time, I'll skip over some slides and emphasize just the important ones.
The Canada Green Building Council, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a national non-profit organization made up of mainly industry representatives. It was created in 2002. Ours is an elected board, with cross-representation from the industry, across Canada, in our committees and chapters.
We are a largely self-funded organization that delivers programs to the industry to improve the performance of buildings. We use the LEED building rating system in Canada as an avenue to accomplish this. LEED is a building rating system that came originally from the U.S. We adapted it for Canada's use in 2004. Since then the LEED adaptation has been used in Canada to certify new and existing commercial, institutional, and high-rise residential buildings, as well as for tenant improvements. These two rating systems are directly applicable to Public Works and Government Services Canada.
There are four levels of certification: certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The certification is done through third-party assessment teams. Really, it's a true third-party certification of building performance, as designed.
There's often the question of why buildings should be LEED certified. LEED provides a common framework or language that defines what a green building is. It covers five areas: energy, water, materials, indoor environmental quality, and site development. As I mentioned before, it verifies the actual performance of a building through a third party. It supports performance benchmarking with other jurisdictions. It has become, for new buildings, the de facto national green building standard in Canada over the last three years.
More importantly, the application of LEED results in the lowest life cycle cost for buildings. Quality assurance is built in to the LEED system to really ensure that buildings that go through the LEED process target high performance and ensure that things are maintained that might otherwise fall off the table through the design process. As well, the focus and discipline are maintained in the design to achieve certain performance goals for a building.
The LEED uptake in Canada has been significant. On page 6 we have listed a range of organizations that have adopted LEED. Provincial and local governments, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and a variety of private sector developers, such as Victoria's Dockside Green, have adopted LEED with a requirement to certify the buildings under the LEED system.
The levels of certification vary that the organizations have committed to. Usually it's between silver and gold. At least one organization, Dockside Green, has committed itself to a platinum level for all buildings they are developing. That's a private sector development.
The cost of LEED has often been discussed. I can show you some slides that present the current knowledge on the cost of LEED and LEED certification.
On page 7 is the LEED cost for the General Services Administration in the U.S. Basically the graph line on the left-hand side is for the courthouse, which is a new building. The office building, on the right-hand side, is a renovation where the GSA did an in-depth analysis. It basically shows that certified, silver, and some gold buildings can be delivered within the existing construction contingency budget established by this national organization. GSA is the largest building owner in the United States, and they have studied this issue in great depth. They have found that even without incentives, they could quite easily achieve LEED certification on their buildings. However, if additional money were available, they could achieve even higher levels of certification.
One page 8 we mention a study done in California. The findings correlate the average cost premium with the level of LEED certification. The findings here are consistent with what we're finding with Canadian LEED projects. On average, a LEED silver building and a LEED gold building can be delivered with an additional cost of about 2%. As the experience grows in the industry with green building, we will see those costs continue to be reduced. Basically, we're still in a learning curve in Canada, which is reflected in these costs.
The costs and benefits of LEED certification are broken down on page 9. These are California numbers, but they clearly show that the energy value really exceeds the cost premium for green buildings over a 20-year net present value.
Even though our energy costs are lower here, our experience shows that the additional costs can be paid back in a very short period of time and benefit the building owner over the life of the building.
So the question for most building owners to ask is whether they are willing to pay a little more money now and save over the life of the building or operate the building using more energy. Basically it's pay now or pay later. I think that's really the decision to be made.
Clearly the benefits are there, and the often overlooked benefits are in productivity and health benefits for buildings. As an employer, your investment is in your staff rather than the building, because they consume so much more in salaries.
The California study has found that 70% of the benefits are health and productivity benefits. The productivity benefits they identified will accrue to 70% only if they get 1% more productivity out of state employees, which is five minutes per day. So you can see the magnitude of the investment a good working environment and good buildings can provide to employees of a federal government, or any employer in the country.
The LEED costs are on page 10. These are the average costs associated with LEED registration and certification fees, and they always depend on the size of the building. They are charged per square foot.
There are also the LEED documentation costs. These are the packages that have to be prepared for our assessment teams. They cost an average of $25,000 to $30,000. This is pretty consistent and represents 25 buildings that have been certified in Canada under the LEED system. These are quite manageable costs to achieve LEED certification.
On the progress to date with the Government of Canada, Public Works was one of the first organizations that adopted a LEED policy in the country--a green building policy with LEED gold. To date, four buildings have been certified under the LEED Canada system, and 16 are currently registered. There are projects in every part of the country that are owned and operated by the federal government. The registered buildings are currently under design or construction.
The federal government projects make up over 5% of our registered and certified buildings in Canada. We are making some good progress. However, the application of LEED in different regions is still somewhat inconsistent. I think the government has a LEED gold policy. When we look at the four certified projects, two are certified, one is gold, and one is platinum. There's a Parks building in Saanich, British Columbia, that's the leading green building in Canada. It is a LEED platinum building, and the only one so far in Canada.
Two recent reports have shown that green buildings can make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gases in Canada. A study by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy shows that if we reduce energy used in residential and commercial institutional buildings by 50%, it will take us almost halfway toward our Kyoto commitment.
The second study was done by NRCan on energy efficiency trends in Canada. It gives a lower figure, but it confirms that buildings can make a significant contribution to achieving greenhouse gas reductions and taking us closer to Kyoto. A 30% reduction in consumption load could be achieved, and a 20% reduction could be achieved by changing the operating period--how long your fan, chiller, or air conditioning is running. So there's room in readily available technology and design knowledge to achieve those goals.
On the recommendations of the Canada Green Building Council, we encourage the Government of Canada to adopt the 50% greenhouse gas reduction challenge in buildings in Canada. It is possible now. It could start with its own buildings, with the help from LEED as a tool to achieve this goal. Over time it could also develop some programs to encourage the private sector to do that as well.
The government could develop an overall real estate property policy with respect to new and existing buildings.
Sustainability goals for green buildings can apply to all kinds of projects, whether it involves designing or building new buildings, leasing, purchasing, or leasing-purchases. On leases, there are all kinds of properties the government owns and operates that could benefit from a green building policy.
The government also has a number of custodian departments that could be encouraged under the policy to develop a strategy on how to achieve the target.
LEED certification at this point is key. We're still early in green building, and LEED certification could really help establish the baseline from which you continue to measure the performance of buildings once they are designed--how they operate--and create feedback loops to ever increase and better improve the performance of buildings across Canada. This is really important. It is data-driven, performance-driven, and benchmark-driven in how we approach buildings.
The Canada Green Building Council has several programs that could help support the federal government. We help with training and education. We can also help with policy implementation. We have several courses that we offer to building owners on how they can implement policy. We also have courses that educate industry, contractors, and designers to deliver better buildings.
The next step could be for the Government of Canada, the custodian departments, and the Canada Green Building Council to work together toward performance benchmarking and verification, education and training, and green policy and standards development and implementation. We would also encourage the custodian departments to become members of the Canada Green Building Council, as all the revenue generated from the work they are doing goes directly back into accelerating green buildings in Canada.
Thank you very much.
3:55 p.m.
Deb Cross Executive Vice-President, Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada Inc.
Absolutely, and thank you so much for inviting me to be here. I'll follow along on that great presentation.
An awful lot of the information that was provided by Thomas is very relevant to the information for our organization. In fact, if I may say so, we are in the process of working on a formal agreement to collaborate as two organizations, because of the compatibility and the synergy of the system that is delivered by the Canada Green Building Council for new construction and BOMA Canada's program, which is for existing commercial buildings.
So just by way of a bit of an introduction, BOMA Canada, the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada, is a national, not-for-profit association representing the commercial real estate industry, primarily office buildings and some industrial and retail. It does not cover the residential area, just to be clear, but primarily the office buildings across the country.
As a national organization, we represent about 1.9 billion square feet of commercial space across the country, and our members are real property owners and managers, developers, asset managers, leasing agents, and brokers. That's the sort of realm we're dealing in.
The organization addresses issues of concern to the industry, and one of the biggest initiatives we have launched very recently, in the last couple of years, is BOMA Go Green, which is a national environmental certification and recognition program. That's the reason I'm here and that's the reason we are working with Canada Green Building Council.
Again, I would like to emphasize that it's a Canadian-developed program. It was created here by BOMA, by the industry, by representatives of the industry. A portion of the program is related to benchmarking, and that's in the Canadian context. It is a voluntary program, and it's available not just to BOMA members but also to any buildings in the country. In this case particularly, we are continuing to work closely with Public Works and Government Services Canada to roll the program out across the crown-owned portfolio of buildings for the government.
I'd like to just give you a few details about the program itself.
Again, for existing buildings it's a voluntary program. It is designed to encourage environmentally conscious management and operation of buildings. So once they already exist, then it's the next steps in the life cycle of a building to make sure it's operated in an environmentally efficient manner and that they've looked for ways to reduce resource consumption. This program is designed to facilitate that, to measure that, and to recognize that in the industry.
We have over 250 properties that have been certified across Canada in pretty much all provinces right now. We have about 10 of the major commercial real estate firms that have committed their entire portfolios to going through the program in the next period of years, to be certified and to participate in this whole process.
Public Works and Government Services Canada...of course, we're in the process of rolling that out, as I indicated, to the 300 crown-owned buildings in Canada, and the Alberta Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation has adopted the program for Alberta. I should also mention, just as an aside--and you may have seen it in the paper yesterday--that the Ontario Power Authority is collaborating with BOMA Toronto in a conservation demand program that is directly linked to the Go Green program, whereby the Go Green program is the measure by which the conservation will be determined and therefore incentives delivered. So that was a pretty exciting announcement from our standpoint.
Go Green basically has two elements. The BOMA Go Green program, which was originally developed, is a best practices program, probably designed more for smaller buildings that are not in a position to be able to undertake the full program but wish to show environmental leadership and wish to be recognized as such. Go Green Plus is a performance-based program that's based on the Green Globes online web assessment tool. BOMA Canada delivers Green Globes for existing buildings in Canada now under the banner of Go Green Plus. It's the Go Green Plus program that we're looking at for Public Works and Government Services Canada.
The specific reason for that is because it not only encourages environmental leadership, but it also provides the tools to measure and to assess changes, advancements, and improvements in resource consumption and energy usage, for example, and it also involves the building management in the whole process. It's not an outside consultant who comes in and does the process. The building management is involved in assessing their building and measuring it on an ongoing basis.
The areas that are covered are very much the same as the LEED program: resource consumption in energy and water use; waste reduction, construction, and recycling; building materials, including hazardous materials and material selection; interior environment, including indoor air quality and HVAC maintenance; and a very specific component related to a communications program and tenant awareness, because in commercial buildings and office properties in particular, the tenants are participants in the process.
