Our Sustainable Affordable Housing initiative supports local affordable housing providers – including municipal, not-for-profit organizations and housing co-ops – to retrofit existing affordable housing units, or construct energy efficient new builds.
These five factsheets provide a "how to" for successful projects and outline the benefits they provide, from increased affordability to lower GHG emissions to better quality of life for residents. Whether you want to make your current buildings more efficient or begin design on a high-performance new build, these resources will provide key insights to help achieve your performance targets.
Installing an energy monitoring system
Why install a building energy monitoring system?
Read: Get started on energy monitoring to lower costs and emissions
Retrofitting existing housing
Why an energy-efficient retrofit?
If you want to understand the value of energy-efficient retrofits, this factsheet is for you. It outlines what constitutes deep energy retrofits, the benefits they provide, and the various ways you can achieve them. You’ll get crucial pieces of advice, like why you should bundle multiple retrofits together.
Read: Why undertake energy-efficiency retrofits
How to retrofit in the climate era
Whether you’re planning a single energy-efficiency retrofit or a series of projects, this five-step process for planning and implementation will help you complete the project on time and on budget. From preparation to measurement and verification, this process minimizes risk and is tried-and-tested for comprehensive projects.
The business case for deep-energy retrofits
A well-developed business case will streamline your decision-making process and ultimately help you get funding for more ambitious projects. Discover what constitutes an effective business case and how to develop one to secure funding for your project.
Read: Developing a business case for an energy-efficiency retrofit
Building new housing
Why your new affordable housing should be high performance
Designing and building for higher energy and environmental performance than current building code requirements has many benefits. Learn more about high-performance buildings, their key attributes and potential certifications to consider.
How to build high-performance affordable housing
Effective planning of high-performance buildings involves a collaborative design process with a team of professionals who typically work independently on their part of a project. This factsheet presents the five steps of an Integrated Design Process for a successful high-performance residential construction project.
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