One of the actions we're taking to reach our climate goals involves eliminating carbon pollution from our buildings, which account for almost 50% of all carbon emissions generated by the City. To achieve this, we joined the Building Benchmarking BC program along with other local governments.
What is building benchmarking?
Building benchmarking is one of the quick start actions under the This is Climate Action, a framework developed to guide the City towards carbon neutrality by 2050. Building benchmarking is the process of collecting and monitoring energy and greenhouse gas data from a large number of buildings over time, allowing owners, managers, occupants and governments to compare the performance of similar properties. It helps governments and building owners direct resources to the best interventions in the right buildings to achieve the highest climate benefit.
Climate action is a community-wide effort
We're proud to be among the first municipalities to join the benchmark program, together with the owners of 19 private sector buildings in Burnaby. As more participants join the program, the more effective our efforts will be.
If you are a building owner, manager or developer, you can register for the program by emailing buildingbenchmarkbc.ca.
Progress so far
The City shared energy and emissions data for 30 civic facilities in the second annual report from Building Benchmark BC (released on March 1, 2022), which includes details about:
total greenhouse gas emissions
energy use and greenhouse gas intensity (per sq. m)
comparisons to civic buildings in the same use category
This data will help us make smarter investments, reduce carbon, improve efficiency and save money.
