Carbon pollution limits and reporting for existing large commercial and multi-family buildings
By 2030, we’re aiming to cut our carbon pollution from buildings in half compared to 2007 levels.
Adopted regulations and requirements
2022 summary of regulation requirements
From 2019 to early 2022, City staff engaged building owners, managers, utilities, and other industry stakeholders on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission regulations for existing large office and retail buildings.
Following this engagement, Council approved staff recommendations to introduce annual energy and carbon reporting requirements, GHG intensity (GHGi) limits and Heat Energy Limits. Review the Council report PDF file (797 KB) and amendments for more details
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Regulatory requirements implementation timeline
2024
Annual energy and carbon reporting:
Commercial ≥ 9,290 m2 (100,000 ft2)
2025
Annual energy and carbon reporting:
Commercial ≥ 4,645 m2 (50,000 ft2)
Multi-family ≥ 9,290 m2 (100,000 ft2)
2026
Annual energy and carbon reporting:
Multi-family≥ 4,645 m2 (50,000 ft2)
2027
GHGi limits come into effect for commercial office and retail buildings ≥ 9,290 m2 (100,000 ft2):
Office = 25 kg CO2e/m2/year
Retail = 14 kg CO2e/m2/year
Technical Advisory Committee
This committee will help shape the technical details of regulatory development.
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has a mandate to:
Advise us on detailed implementation guidelines, requirements, and programs about the annual GHGi and heat energy limits approved by Council for the largest office and retail buildings in Vancouver
Inform the next set of existing commercial and multi-family building regulations in the Regulatory Roadmap (This will include exploring any additional measures that will be necessary to meet the 2030 and 2050 GHG reduction targets.)
We invite you to join us and help advance the regulatory requirements for green buildings if you are:
A recognized local or national expert on commercial and multi-family building energy use, GHG reduction retrofits, building performance standards, equipment efficiency standards and regulations, and/or represent a key stakeholder in the commercial or multifamily sector and have extensive experience with building energy systems
An individual who would like to share your technical expertise to help drive positive change and reduce building emissions in the city by shaping our building performance regulation and mechanical equipment efficiency standards
A team player who enjoys collaborating and problem solving together with other building energy experts and stakeholders
Information icon We are recruiting members by distributing open call letters PDF file (500 KB) to the industry stakeholders from the end of January to February 2023.
Building owners and managers will get access to retrofit planning tools and the benchmarking helpdesk to create their building’s energy and carbon reporting profile.
What you will receive when you report to us each year
A performance scorecard that will compare each individual building to others of the same type
A carbon pollution retrofit checklist to guide you towards next steps to ensure you are planning in advance to meet future regulatory requirements
Support for smaller building owners will include a customized 2040* retrofit plan that is aligned with a building’s capital investments and planned improvements.
Important note 2040 retrofit plans will enable building owners, their consultants, and mechanical contractors to identify and sequence retrofit measures.
Important note Commercial owner support will be developed and announced in 2023. Programs will include recommissioning and preparation of 2040 retrofit plans.
For residents living in condos, we are partnering with industry associations, senior government, and utility companies to establish a retrofit accelerator program for condos and offer financial tools and incentives for low carbon retrofits that include:
The Rental Energy Retrofit Plus Reinvestment Program, which will launch in early 2023 to support GHG emission reductions and increased seismic resilience in purpose-built rental housing
The Non-Market Housing Climate Resilient Retrofit Program, which will support heat pump retrofits in non-market housing buildings in Vancouver
Important note More information will be shared here when available.
We are offering free consultant support for energy and carbon reporting to 100 multi-family building owners and/or managers from March to October 2023.
Multi-family and commercial buildings represent 50% of Vancouver’s building-related carbon pollution.
As part of the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP), City staff are tackling these emissions with a first-of-its-kind regulation in Canada: a hard cap on carbon pollution from commercial buildings that will lower over time. This means these buildings will produce less climate emissions by switching to renewable energy and technology to future-proof them to our changing climate.
City staff will research, consult on, and recommend regulations that will cover additional building types that are contained within the regulatory roadmap.
An amendment of the Building By-Law to remove energy upgrade requirements for all buildings except one- and two family dwellings.
Create a Technical Advisory Committee and a Community Accountability Advisory Committee to advise staff on future policy and program development.
Explore an interim heat energy limit for 2032 as part of the regulatory roadmap and bring forward related recommendations in 2024.
City staff will publish implementation guidelines for the energy and carbon reporting requirement, the GHGi limits, and heat energy limits here in 2023.
