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ENERMA Energy Modelling Services
What is a Zero Carbon Building?
A Zero Carbon Building is one that achieves significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy use, and the reduction of embodied carbon from construction materials and building operations. In cases where emissions cannot be fully eliminated, high-quality carbon offsets are utilized.
ENERMA Energy Modelling Services
ZCB Certification Pathways
We offer services for both ZCB-Design and ZCB-Performance certification pathways. These two certifications cover the full life cycle of buildings, ensuring that both new projects and existing buildings meet zero carbon standards.
ZCB Certification Pathways
1. ZCB-Design Certification
(For New Construction and Major Retrofits)
The Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard is focused on helping new construction projects and significant retrofits reduce anticipated carbon emissions. This certification ensures that your building will be designed to operate with zero carbon emissions once completed.
Key Focus Areas:
- Energy Efficiency: Integrate energy-efficient HVAC, lighting, and mechanical systems that minimize energy consumption.
- Embodied Carbon: Select low-carbon construction materials to reduce the carbon footprint of the building.
- Refrigerants: Address the climate impact of refrigerants used in heating and cooling systems.
- Airtightness: Ensure high levels of airtightness to prevent energy loss and improve building performance.
- On-Site Combustion: For buildings using combustion-based equipment (e.g., for heating), develop a transition plan that phases out combustion equipment in favor of zero-carbon alternatives over time.
Why Choose ZCB-Design Certification?
- Long-term sustainability: Align the project with national and international climate goals.
- Innovation in design: Meet regulatory and market expectations for green building practices.
- Increased access to financing: ZCB-Design certified projects may qualify for funding, tax rebates, and green bonds.
ZCB Certification Pathways
2. ZCB-Performance Certification
(For Existing Buildings)
The Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard is for buildings already in operation. It focuses on measuring and reducing carbon emissions from normal building operations such as heating, cooling, and electricity use.
Key Focus Areas:
- Zero Carbon Balance: Achieve a balance where all carbon emissions are either eliminated or offset by renewable energy credits (RECs) or carbon offsets.
- Energy Efficiency: Track and report the building’s Energy Use Intensity (EUI) to identify areas for improvement.
- Carbon Offset Management: Purchase and management of carbon offsets for any remaining emissions.
- Operational Monitoring: Ongoing evaluations of energy consumption and carbon output, ensuring that the building meets zero carbon standards on an annual basis.
- Refrigerants and Embodied Carbon: Account for emissions from refrigerants and any major upgrades or new materials used in building maintenance.
Why Choose ZCB-Performance Certification?
- Operational Efficiency: Drive down energy costs while reducing carbon emissions.
- Annual Reporting: Continuous monitoring to ensure the building meets certification requirements year over year.
- Zero Carbon Transition Plans: For buildings using combustion equipment, create a clear plan for transitioning to zero-carbon systems.
ZCB Certification Pathways
ZCB-Design and ZCB-Performance Standards: Key Requirements
Both certification pathways are rigorous but flexible, allowing buildings of any type—commercial, residential, industrial, and institutional—to work toward achieving zero carbon emissions.
For ZCB-Design:
- Zero Carbon Balance: The building must be modeled to achieve a zero-carbon balance once operational.
- Energy Efficiency: Meet one of three energy efficiency approaches, ensuring the building consumes less energy.
- Embodied Carbon: Reduce and limit embodied carbon emissions from construction materials.
- Refrigerants and Heating: Implement strategies for addressing refrigerants and space heating to minimize the carbon impact.
- Grid Citizenship: Ensure the building minimizes its demand on the local electrical grid by reducing peak energy loads.
For ZCB-Performance:
- Energy Use Intensity (EUI): Track and report the building’s energy performance.
- Peak Energy Demand: Measure and manage seasonal peaks in energy consumption to avoid grid stress.
- Refrigerants and Carbon Offsets: Account for and offset any refrigerant leaks or embodied carbon from renovations or upgrades.
- Zero Carbon Transition Plan: Develop a roadmap for transitioning away from combustion-based equipment to fully decarbonized systems.
ZCB Certification Pathways
Benefits of Zero Carbon Building Certification
- Reduced Operating Costs
Zero Carbon Buildings are highly energy-efficient, which leads to significant cost savings on energy bills over the long term. In addition, as carbon taxes and energy prices continue to rise, ZCB certification helps future-proof building against these financial pressures.
- Enhanced Market Value
Buildings certified under the Zero Carbon Building Standards are more attractive to investors, tenants, and buyers. Their sustainability credentials, combined with energy savings, increase overall property value.
- Access to Financing and Incentives
Zero Carbon Building certification opens the door to numerous funding and financing opportunities, including:
- Green Bonds
- Sustainability-linked Loans
- Federal and Provincial Tax Incentives
- Rebates and Grants from organizations like the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Green Municipal Fund (GMF), and the Green and Inclusive Communities Buildings (GICB) program.
- Climate Leadership
By certifying your building under the ZCB standards, you demonstrate a commitment to climate action, aligning your business with global sustainability goals and national regulations.
ZCB Certification Pathways
Ready to Build a Zero Carbon Future?
Our Zero Carbon Building services provide the expertise, guidance, and resources you need to transform your building into a sustainable, zero-carbon asset. Whether you're planning a new construction project or seeking to decarbonize an existing building, we can help you every step of the way.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can assist in achieving Zero Carbon Building certification for your next project.
ENERMA Energy Modelling Services
ENERMA Sustainable Solutions Ltd.
Introduced as a voluntary standard in 2017 and now required to varying degrees by municipalities across the province, the Step Code aims at quantifying the total energy consumption of a building and targeting reduction of loads through improved envelopes and heat recovery. Our strength is in finding the most cost effective means of achieving these targets, applying holistic multi-disciplinary solutions.
In Vancouver, nearly 60% of the carbon pollution comes from buildings. That’s why the city of Vancouver has its own Zero Emissions Building Plan to eliminate carbon pollution from new buildings before 2030. Because of this plan, new buildings produce 70% less carbon pollution than they did in 2007. The plan has four strategies to require the majority of new buildings to have no operational greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, and all new buildings to have no greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
These four strategies include:
- Limits: establish GHG and thermal energy limits by building type and step these down over time to zero.
- Leadership: require City-led building projects to demonstrate zero emission building approaches where viable.
- Catalyse: develop tools to catalyse leading private builders and developers to demonstrate effective approaches to zero emission new buildings.
- Capacity Building: build industry capacity through information sharing tools and the development of a Centre of Excellence for Zero Emissions Building to facilitate the removal of barriers, the sharing of knowledge, and the development of the skills required to successfully achieve this goal.
These strategies for achieving zero emissions new buildings were developed specifically to ensure comfortable and healthy indoor environments, maximize local economic development, ensure long-term building resilience, protect housing affordability and to facilitate achieving the City’s Renewable City Strategy target to have all buildings in Vancouver (including those already built) use only renewable energy by the year 2050.
Zero emissions new buildings will be achieved by incrementally lowering the permitted Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions for new construction in Vancouver`s Building Bylaw over time. This Plan establishes greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) targets (GHG emissions per unit area per year) by building type and includes a stepped reduction timeline to reflect these targets as maximum permitted limits in Vancouver`s building policies and Building Bylaw.
Reference City of Vancouver Zero Emission Building Plan.
Retrofitting is simply upgrading or renovating a house so it will keep the heat in during the heating season and keep it cooler during the summer. This means adding insulation, caulking and weatherstripping, improving or replacing windows and doors, and improving the mechanical systems. Retrofitting also means including energy efficiency measures in all your renovation and repair activities. Within the context of the Canadian climate, retrofitting makes a lot of sense.
The importance of energy retrofits can be summarized as follows:
Energy efficiency. Retrofitting costs less than producing new energy supplies to heat a house. More than 16 percent of Canada’s annual energy goes to heat our homes, and this energy comes mostly from non-renewable resources such as oil and gas.
Comfort and health. A well-insulated, air sealed and ventilated house makes for a comfortable home. It is also much quieter, and there is less dust and pollen to worry about.
Durability. By retrofitting your home, you can also improve air and moisture control. As a result, your house will remain in better shape and last longer.
Save money. Improving a home’s energy efficiency is one of the best investments you can make, paying tax-free dividends immediately in the form of lower energy bills.
Protect the environment. Consuming less energy means fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, retrofitting uses fewer new resources than building a new house.
A professional energy evaluation service is the best way to assess your home’s energy improvement potential. An energy advisor certified by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) evaluates your home from the attic down to the foundation, including a measurement of your insulation levels and a blower door test to determine air tightness. You will receive a personalized report, including a checklist of recommended retrofits to improve overall energy efficiency, as well as an EnerGuide rating so you can compare the energy efficiency of your home with other homes.
Reference Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
As one of the most proactive cities in the country for energy efficiency regulation, Vancouver leads the way by setting aggressive targets for new buildings, especially those undergoing rezoning. Our team can help your project navigate the challenging and dynamic Vancouver energy regulations.
As we strive toward a more sustainable future, our Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) services provide expert guidance in the design, construction, retrofitting, and operation of buildings that minimize carbon emissions. In alignment with the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) standards, our ZCB services help you achieve compliance with national and global climate goals.
Our services cater to both new construction and existing buildings through the ZCB-Design and ZCB-Performance standards, offering tailored solutions that meet your building’s unique needs.