EP 46 · 2023-03-24 · 1:27:10
Why Atlantic Canada Is Already Behind on Net Zero — and What BC Got Right | BuildGreen Atlantic Panel
Four Atlantic Canada green-building practitioners pull apart why net-zero remains stuck — too many definitions, split capital/operating budgets, and a labour force that hasn’t caught up — with BC’s step code and Peter Paulie’s Halifax developments as the clearest local proof-of-concept.
LR
Lara Ryan
⟶ The story, written up — a sharp read with every fact on the record. Or skip straight to the moments that matter, as clips.
// CHAPTERS — TAP TO JUMP THE PLAYER
0:42Introductions and BuildGreen Atlantic 2023 preview — Host Dan introduces the four panellists and Lara Ryan previews the BuildGreen Atlantic 2023 conference: sold out at 370 delegates and 49 trade-show booths, first event in three and a half years.3:00Murray’s five-step framework and the government’s mixed signals — Murray Tate lays out the five steps to net zero (super-insulate, right-size windows, right-size mechanicals, air-seal, offset with renewables) and describes investing in Airtight Spaces only to watch mandatory blower-door testing get removed from the 2020 energy code, illustrating government saying one thing and doing another.9:20Fourteen definitions of net zero and the Finance-trumps-everything problem — Keith Robertson reveals that across North America there are fourteen different definitions of net-zero energy. The panel explores how split capital/operating budgets in public tenders — especially province-builds/school-board-operates structures — systematically favour cheap up-front builds over life-cycle cost thinking.14:00Energy labelling, BC’s step code, and consumer behaviour — The group debates mandatory home energy labelling (using the EnerGuide appliance-label analogy), cites BC’s step code as the gold standard for predictable ratcheting targets, and examines how homeowners still choose granite countertops over air-sealing because invisible efficiency can’t be shown to friends.20:00Retrofit capacity crisis and the incentive gap — The panel quantifies the retrofit gap: 780 certified auditors nationally, Halifax’s target of 5,000 retrofits per year. Murray describes the Airtight Spaces business challenge of needing contents removed before air-sealing and proposes bundling retrofit triggers with floor replacements and house sales. Federal green-homes incentives are discussed as carrots that haven’t yet moved the market.30:00Peter Paulie / Esport Properties as local proof-of-concept — Keith profiles local developer Peter Paulie (Q Lofts, Woodman’s Grove) who builds above code within normal budgets but is now being penalised: he can’t access green-finance programs because his buildings are already too efficient to show 25% improvement. Lara describes Esport Properties’ Burnside warehouse holding 8°C during a -30°C cold snap with all systems off, proving resilience value.41:00Code lag, thermal bridges, and the design profession’s detail libraries — Keith explains how thermal bridging means a nominally R23 wall can perform as R12. Nova Scotia’s adoption of the 2020 code is already overdue; some known loopholes from the 2017 code are being carried forward. The panel criticises architects and engineers for defaulting to standard detail libraries without understanding real-world performance.51:40Mechanical systems: electrify + decarbonise, and the grid constraint — Will Marshall explains the ‘electrify and decarbonise’ strategy: in Nova Scotia electrification saves operating cost even with the current coal-heavy grid; in Quebec nearly zero-emission anyway. The panel notes the grid capacity constraint — oversized legacy distribution can’t absorb rapid load growth — and Will advocates designing for low-temperature distribution today so heat pumps slot in later.1:00:50Passive survivability, ESG drivers, and the case for letting leaders win — Murray cites the passive-house-at-minus-25 story and Alex Wilson’s ‘passive survivability’ concept (coined post-Katrina). Keith argues ESG reporting requirements and insurers asking about portfolio risk mitigation are becoming more effective drivers than code. Panel agrees early adopters should financially benefit, not be penalised by refinancing hurdles.1:10:00Embodied carbon, new materials, and the two-trillion-dollar opportunity — Keith introduces embodied-carbon metrics (kgCO2/m²) as the next frontier, noting a net-zero building’s entire carbon impact shifts to materials production. Photovoltaic cladding and carbon-sequestering materials are flagged as emerging plays. The panel closes with calls for education at trade level, code enactment without further delay, and a green-seal credential pathway.1:18:50Closing remarks and BuildGreen Atlantic workshops — Lara promotes pre-conference workshops including passive-house intro and Will’s zero-carbon course. Panellists summarise: education + political will to enact existing policy = the path forward. Keith’s final point: energy labelling is also an Atlantic Canada talent-attraction tool as the fastest-growing region in Canada.
// THE INTRO
Recorded as a pre-conference panel for BuildGreen Atlantic 2023, this 87-minute roundtable brings together Lara Ryan (Lara Ryan Design / BuildGreen Atlantic organiser), Murray Tate (Tate Engineering / Airtight Spaces), Keith Robertson (Solterre), and William Marshall (LMMW Group) to diagnose why the Atlantic Canada construction industry is still far from net-zero despite years of policy talk. The conversation is structured around five recurring tensions: (1) fourteen competing definitions of net-zero energy paralysing procurement and design; (2) split capital/operating budgets that let public-sector and developer clients externalise energy costs onto tenants and taxpayers; (3) mandatory blower-door testing being dropped from the 2020 National Energy Code under industry lobbying, causing Engineers Canada to declare 2030 already missed; (4) a retrofit-capacity crisis — only ~780 certified residential energy auditors across Canada vs. Halifax’s plan of 5,000 home retrofits per year; and (5) trades and engineers defaulting to over-sized, familiar equipment rather than right-sized high-performance systems. Positive signals discussed include BC’s step code as a replicable ratchet model, Esport Properties’ zero-carbon Burnside warehouse (which held 8°C interior during a -30°C snap with all systems off), Q Lofts / Woodman’s Grove by local developer Peter Paulie as an operator-funded proof that net-zero-ready buildings are financeable within normal budgets, and the emerging TEDI (Thermal Energy Demand Intensity) metric as a common performance language. The panel ends with calls for mandatory energy labelling, a ‘green seal’ trade certification pathway, and government simply enacting the codes it has already committed to.
// THE LESSONS
See all 16 lessons ▸Sequence net-zero upgrades by demand reduction first: super-insulate, right-size windows, right-size mechanicals, then offset residual load with renewables — in that order.
“super insulate, right size your window and doors, right size your mechanical equipment and then that minimal offset with Renewables”
Splitting capital and operating budgets across different entities (province builds, school board pays bills) is the structural root cause of under-investment in building energy performance.
“you need to mix these bags of money of capital and operational and make decisions on total cost of building ownership”
Developers with tenant-paid utilities have a rational incentive to build to minimum code; removing that misalignment requires either mandatory labelling or split-incentive reform.
“when decisions are being made on projects the question gets asked who’s paying the utility bills yeah … and then the decision gets made”
BC’s step code — a pre-announced ratchet of air-tightness and insulation targets every 3–5 years — is the most replicable model for driving industry-wide performance improvement without market shock.
“every three to five years they ratchet down the air tightness they up the insulation values … they make it simple”
Mandatory energy labelling at point-of-sale is the single fastest behaviour-change lever for the existing housing stock, provided it is phased in starting with new construction.
“if we had a requirement that people label their homes … before it you were able to sell your home you bet people would be fixing the drafts”
Air-tightness is the highest-ROI first step in any retrofit because it reduces the demand on every downstream system — mechanicals, renewables, and insulation all shrink.
“air tightness is the number one target … take care of air tightness first because it reduces the demand on everything else”
Bundle retrofit interventions with lifecycle events (flooring replacement, sale) to eliminate the empty-space prerequisite and make deep retrofits financially viable.
“when you’re doing flooring retrofits do your windows and then … the casing and the baseboards all off then you seal it”
Financing programs designed for ‘above-code’ buildings can accidentally penalise first-mover developers whose buildings are already too efficient to demonstrate the required percentage improvement.
“he can’t get access to funds … because now he can’t access … that the folks building just over code are getting access”
A nominally R23 wall can perform as R12 once thermal bridges at floor connections, wall connections, window frames, and structural penetrations are accounted for — engineers and architects routinely underestimate this.
“we think it’s an R23 wall it actually might be an R12 wall”
Design professionals default to familiar detail libraries because using known details is how they protect fee margins; changing high-performance assemblies requires a client willing to fund the extra iteration time.
“I make money because I’m using something I already know … to do some stuff that’s Innovative you need a client who’s interested”
Design low-temperature heat distribution (radiant, low-temp fan-coils) in any building today, even if the budget doesn’t allow heat pumps yet, so a high-performance mechanical upgrade can drop in later without stripping out baseboards.
“make sure the distribution is low temp right so now I can take it off that boiler I can put in a technology that doesn’t need to be operating at 180 Fahrenheit”
ESG disclosure requirements and insurers asking about climate risk are now more effective decarbonisation drivers for institutional building owners than voluntary incentive programs.
“if you’re a building owner and you have investors they’re going to want to know what your ESG plan is for your portfolio”
Passive survivability — designing buildings to remain habitable for days to weeks without active systems — is the missing resilience metric and should be standard alongside energy-use intensity.
“what happens to this building if I don’t have utilities for a certain period of time”
Embodied carbon (the carbon locked into materials before a building opens) becomes the dominant climate impact metric for net-zero buildings, because operational emissions approach zero — the whole game shifts to procurement.
“in that case the entire impact is on … embodied carbon the embodied impact of materials”
Upskilling existing tradespeople incrementally — adding high-performance details to red-seal holders rather than creating new designations — is faster and more scalable than building new credential programs from scratch.
“we don’t necessarily have to create all these new trade designations we need to incrementally train the existing trades folks we have”
Code is the legal minimum — building above code should be the industry’s default expectation, and government’s role is simply to adopt and enforce codes already agreed to, not waffle on timelines.
“a code is the minimum legal requirement to build to … we should be building above code constantly”
// CLIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
Story · 3:44
“it was interesting when Roxanne and I started our business we were looking for an opportunity”
Framework · 6:10
“there's a couple of layers to that I mean there's always the political will component”
Hot take · 7:05
“Keith and I did a presentation for public works and that was their piece”
Hot take · 9:13
“Finance trumps everything isn't just for private this is something you deal with publicly as well”
Story · 10:44
“we've seen this language coming into rfps and an example would be a school”
Story · 17:27
“people ask us who's your number one competitor and I say the granite countertop guy down the road”
Exchange · 21:44
“the most interesting comment we get when we're doing our sales pitches my building is tight enough”
Framework · 23:22
“we have about 80 dealers in our Network across North America and every year we go to a conference in Ohio”
Hot take · 31:51
“the feds put out the program for the green homes right they're going okay we're going to spend this money”
Story · 36:05
“we did a project for Lindsay's and esport properties and we took 90 of the leakage in with our system”
Story · 39:18
“we had a developer involved locally who was kind of a front-runner and a leader as far as Net Zero”
Story · 41:06
“I was thinking about a post I seen on LinkedIn this winter I think it was esport properties did a test”
Hot take · 43:55
“let's acknowledge that a code is the minimum legal requirement to build to”
Hot take · 44:39
“when the 2020 code went out for public consultation it had mandatory blower door testing in it”
Framework · 54:46
“Engineers are no different than Architects they've got a library boilers are easy”
Story · 1:01:29
“they did a test in Toronto using low Teddy buildings and they ran that test for up to two weeks”
Hot take · 1:09:04
“I've seen examples in the commercial industry where engineer needs to size a domestic hot water tank”
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// FEATURED BUSINESSES
Airtight Spaces
Airtight Spaces is the authorized AeroBarrier dealer and automated building-envelope air-sealing contr…
East Port Properties Limited
Atlantic Canada commercial real estate developer, builder and property manager that designs, develops,…
LMMW Group Ltd.
Energy, facility, and training services company that helps public- and private-sector building owners …
Solterre Design
Halifax-based green architecture and high-performance building firm specializing in LEED certification…
// FACT-CHECKED ✓ web-verified, with sources
✓ VERIFIED
BC's step code ratchets air-tightness and insulation targets every 3–5 years and is the gold standard for predictable industry-wide performance improvement.
Confirmed. BC Energy Step Code enacted 2017, ratchets requirements on a multi-year schedule toward net-zero-ready by 2032. First mandatory step-up occurred May 2023. The mechanism (pre-announced targets giving industry time to prepare) is accurately described.
SOURCE ▸// COMPANIES & ORGS ✓ verified
Solterre Design ▸Keith RobertsonEast Port Properties ▸Peter PolleyAirtight Spaces ▸LMMW Group Ltd. ▸Q LoftsWoodman's Grove ResidencesBC Energy Step Code
// PROJECTS NAMED
BuildGreen Atlantic 2023Q LoftsWoodman's Grove ResidencesEsport Burnside WarehouseHalifax Climate PlanCanada Greener Homes ProgramBC Energy Step CodeNatural Resources Canada Net-Zero Ready ProgramCHBA Net-Zero Pilot
SOURCE: podscope · public episode data · cBSQHSkCZvw