Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, members of the committee. As the chair introduced me, I'm John McBain, assistant deputy minister for the real property branch at the Department of Public Works and Government Services. With me this morning is Robert Laframboise, the director general of PWGSC's Office of Greening Government Operations.
I am pleased to follow-up on our October 2012 appearance, in particular from my perspective on the role of PWGSC enhancing the energy efficiency of the buildings owned or operated as part of our portfolio.
In our mandate to house the office requirements of the Government of Canada, PWGSC constantly assesses its real property portfolio to meet this mandate and to maximize the use of taxpayer resources. As we assess performance and short, medium, and long-term planning needs, we are also able to identify opportunities for energy savings and the implementation of cost-efficiency measures. PWGSC utilizes industry recognized environmental benchmarking tools to assess the performance of our portfolio.
The typical PWGSC-owned building is, on average, now 50 years old. As we add new buildings to our portfolio or undertake major retrofits, we implement sustainable building practices because we know that these bring operational and productivity dividends. As I mentioned, we are using industry recognized tools. We have set Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—commonly known as LEED gold—accreditation as the target for all new construction built-to-lease as well as lease-to-own office building projects. We have set LEED silver or three Green Globes targets for our non-office buildings, acquisitions, and major renovations. We use the Building Owners and Managers Association's BOMA BESt operational standard for existing crown-owned buildings and new or renewed lease assessments.
I think it is clear from those points, I should note, that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to achieve increased energy efficiency in our building assets. As we look at owned versus leased delivery, and short-term versus long-term needs, tenant requirements, and our overall portfolio strategies—these involve intention or disposal as well—all of these impact our decision-making process.
Mr. Chair, you've heard previous witnesses speak to the typical energy efficiency of Canadian office buildings. We are pleased that these witnesses have provided information that indicates PWGSC is a leader in real property management. In my view, the indications are clear.
The average office building in Canada uses approximately 320 equivalent kilowatt hours per square metre, versus the PWGSC office building, which only uses 285 such hours per square metre. I would also note that 77% of the PWGSC building portfolio area is below the average of Canadian energy intensity. PWGSC's LEED gold buildings use as little as 149 equivalent kilowatt hours square metre, well below the average of other LEED-certified buildings in Canada.
PWGSC is committed to build upon this success. As you may recall, Mr. Chair, our department has set its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target to 17% below our 2005 levels to achieve that target by 2020. To achieve this objective, PWGSC is continuing to adopt new technologies, such as reforming its building management and tenant engagements.
While energy efficiency projects in the past were considered special initiatives or unique undertakings, they are now very much part of our standard operating mode, embedded with all other projects into our building management process priority ranking approach.
We have also partnered with many federal departments and agencies to share best practices and successes. We have active memoranda of understanding with other government departments, including Natural Resources Canada and the National Research Council.
We are leveraging the expertise of private sector service providers, for example, through our alternate forms of delivery service contracts and our work with the Canada Green Building Council and the Building Owners and Managers Association.
In addition to the work the department continues to pursue in our projects, repairs, and building modifications, we continue to develop our approach as part of our federal sustainability development strategy: planning a detailed approach to our reduction targets, documenting assessment tools used for both project delivery and building management, and implementing guides for staff use.
We recognize that as we look towards 2020 there will be further opportunities to address energy reduction and sustainability targets that are not presently available. In this regard, in the past PWGSC has been an early adopter of new approaches. I would mention our early take-up of the federal buildings initiative, LEED target-setting, adoption of BOMA BESt assessments, and federal buildings leadership—for example, our construction of the Jean Canfield Building in Charlottetown, which is the first LEED gold certified building in Atlantic Canada.
These examples highlight the strength of PWGSC's approach in real property management. By leveraging the knowledge and resources of our broad spectrum of partners and service providers, the department intends to remain at the forefront in addressing future energy challenges, and we will be in a position to provide leadership for other departments through our actions and the way we manage real estate.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to provide these remarks, Mr. Chair.
I will now pass the floor to my colleague, Robert Laframboise.