What Vancouver's Sustainability Goals Mean for Homeowners
Last Updated: Mar 17, 2025The city of Vancouver has audaciously declared the goal of leading the world in green building design and construction. More specifically, by the year 2020, the city aims to require all new buildings to be carbon neutral in operations, and they hope to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings by 20% over 2007 levels in that same timeframe.
Since 2007, the progress that Vancouver has made in implementing green building techniques and methods has effectively decreased the kilograms of CO2 per square meter of new buildings from 21 kg to 11.8 kg. At the same time, these initiatives—especially the building retrofit strategy—will account for savings for Vancouver residents to the tune of $90 million and 160,000 tons of greenhouse gasses, per year, by 2020.
While these sustainability goals are certainly impressive and represent an exciting example of how city planners can implement policies to stimulate the construction of greener, healthier, and more ecologically friendly homes, these policies also represent changes and adjustments that Vancouver residents need to be aware of.
Rise recently talked with Chris Higgins, a Green Building Planner for the city of Vancouver, to better understand what Vancouver’s goals mean for homeowners. As buildings account for a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions (40%, by some measures), the strategy must be two-pronged: addressing newly constructed homes as well as existing housing stock. He explains some of the challenges, opportunities, and struggles associated with helping the homeowners of Vancouver move towards a carbon zero future.
Think about this: invest 2-7% more into your new home today, and see savings of 20-25% over the cost of building according to standard building codes. What’s that translate to in real numbers? That’s as low as $8,000 on a $400,000 home - that would mean thousands in savings each year.
Table of Contents
- Carbon Zero Homes in Vancouver
- Vancouver's Building Codes
- What is the Vancouver Building Bylaw 10908?
- Important Sustainability Lessons from Vancouver's Building Bylaw
- The Challenges to Retrofit Existing Homes in Vancouver
- Sustainable Home Professionals in Vancouver
- Lanefab Design/Build
- Clay Construction
- Naikoon
- Cast Sustainable Construction
- Ritchie Construction
- Marken Design and Consult
Carbon Zero Homes in Vancouver
Chris believes that for new homeowners, the carbon zero goal is relatively easy to adapt because there is very little difference in terms of the livability and the operation of the home itself. More energy-efficient insulation and windows will certainly improve the energy performance of a home, but to the everyday homeowner, windows are still windows and insulation is still something you rarely deal with.
According to Chris, most of the implications of the sustainability goals as they pertain to new buildings rest on the shoulders of builders. “For new homes,” he explains, “it is easier because you´re working with an architect or builder, and you can address greenhouse gas usage before they even begin to build. The process of adapting is opaque because people just move in (to the new home) and have to accept (the carbon zero standards).”
Another central tenet of the carbon zero goals for Vancouver homes is helping transform homes to rely 100% on electricity, moving away from using natural gas, oil, and other fossil fuels for energy needs. “Around 92% of natural gas usage in Vancouver is for space heating and hot water,” Chris clarifies, “so we have some strategies for new buildings that are based on greenhouse gas intensities. Many newly built large homes go all-electric and use their greenhouse gas limits for cooking or fireplaces.”
Since almost half of homes in the Vancouver area will be newly built by the year 2050, these new building codes, along with energy reporting and benchmarking requirements, making for a relatively easy transition towards a carbon zero future. Chris reminds us that “with new construction, if the builders don’t comply with the city's codes and policies, they simply don't get a permit, just like a home that builds stairs that don’t follow the code for acceptable tread and riser measurements.”
The Challenges to Retrofit Existing Homes in Vancouver
Unlike codes and regulations for new homes, implementing retrofit strategies that lead towards higher energy efficiency standards for existing buildings is a bit trickier. “With existing buildings, it's a bit more difficult,” Chris admits. For example, “homeowners can switch from oil or natural gas to an electric heat pump to heat their homes, and there is a dollar value increase program to help people with that transition.” However, it can be a challenge to get existing homeowners to upgrade their heating systems to more sustainable and energy-efficient models—most people only address these issues when there is a crisis caused by a mechanical failure. “If a furnace goes out in the fall time,” Chris details, “it's not a great time to start talking about putting in an electric heat pump, because people just want to get heat into their home.”
In terms of regulation, “it has all been very voluntary up till now,” Chris admits. “However, we could in the future have stricter regulations on replacing existing mechanics like hot water heaters or furnaces.” For example, Chris imagines future regulation that could require replacement mechanics to follow rigorous energy factors, which are metrics used to compare the energy conversion efficiency of residential appliances and equipment. Since the ideal 1:1 energy factor can only be obtained through electricity (and not with fossil fuels), this policy or code would influence homeowners to make energy-efficient upgrades that would save them money in the long run while also cutting back on the carbon footprint of their home.
Chris wants homeowners across the city to know how easy it is to convert from fossil-fuel based heating systems to a heat pump. “The common citizen just wants to adjust the thermostat in order to heat up their home…and it doesn’t matter to them where that heat comes from. If they knew how easy and cost-effective it is to make the conversion to heat pumps, for example, it would make for an easier transition,” he explains.
The City of Vancouver's Green Building webpage also admits that “we’ll continue to use a combination of incentives and regulations to meet our green building targets.” One of those proposed regulations is to “update the retrofit requirement options in Vancouver’s Building By‐Law to further reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.”
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
