As 2024 draws to a close, a few key themes have emerged from LC3’s work across the country— all aligning with the conditions needed for cities to successfully transition to a net-zero future by 2050: fostering a low-carbon, sustainable economy and enhancing community well-being.
Climate action makes for good economic strategy
Cities including Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal are already capitalizing on climate action to drive their economic growth. Through tried-and-true economic development approaches—such as industrial strategies, local workforce development, investment attraction and green economic development driven by policy frameworks—they are meeting local and global demand for goods and services that support the transition off fossil fuels and towards net-zero.
Enhanced energy performance in buildings is a powerful green economy driver, improving and upgrading living and working conditions for people and businesses. Policies like the Toronto Green Standard and Building Emissions Performance Standards create market certainty that can signal economic opportunity for innovators and entrepreneurs in technology, real estate and construction. This green building leadership creates economic opportunity for local construction and retrofit industries as other jurisdictions catch up.
In Vancouver, the green economy is booming, with a 2024 analysis released in June 2024 showing that Metro Vancouver has over 185,000 green jobs. Construction is the region’s largest green employer, with over 40,000 jobs in that sector alone. The Zero Emissions Innovation Centre’s (ZEIC) new economic development team has supported this research and will be drawing on it as it builds out further research and programming to enhance the green economic development sphere.
The pathway to a prosperous low-carbon future was also the topic featured at the Ottawa Climate-Economy Opportunities Summit, a full-day discussion hosted by the Ottawa Climate Action Fund in October. The summit began with a shared understanding that the best way to solve the climate and housing crises in Ottawa is to solve them together. Discussions started out from the city’s top economic priorities— downtown revitalization, affordable housing, 21st century jobs and a growing, thriving tech sector. Discussions focused on five action areas, each pointing to a significant opportunity for business development, jobs and wider cooperation to reduce carbon pollution, increase the supply of affordable housing, and help businesses and residents prepare for the local impacts of climate change.
Supporting the retrofit economy in targeted sectors
Alberta Ecotrust Foundation’s Climate Innovation Fund (CIF), in partnership with Kambo Energy Group and the Cities of Calgary and Edmonton, is zeroing in on retrofits that address energy poverty. The Home Upgrades Program funded with $200,000 from CIF, tackles energy affordability by providing free energy efficiency education and home upgrades for eligible lower-income households. Upgrades improve the efficiency, comfort and safety of participants’ homes, and reduce residential greenhouse gas emissions. Support is provided based on each household’s unique needs and may include high-efficiency furnaces, air sealing and insulation upgrades.
Since launching in July 2023, the program has helped 105 families in Calgary and 133 in Edmonton. Homeowners will benefit from energy savings and reduced energy bills, paired with an estimated average of 2.0 tCO2e greenhouse gas reductions per home per year.
“The Home Upgrades Program is an excellent example of how we can improve affordability for homeowners while mitigating climate change,” says Mike Mellross, Vice President at Alberta Ecotrust Foundation. “We know there is a great need across the province for a collaborative program of this nature and are looking for opportunities to scale this work to impact more homes with additional funding support.”
Alberta Ecotrust is invested in reducing emissions from the building stock as they account for 40 to 60% of emissions in Calgary and Edmonton alone. Their recently launched Retrofit Accelerator program provides free coaching services to guide large building owners through the deep retrofit of their properties, reducing emissions, energy consumption and operating costs. In 2024, their Emissions-Neutral Building Information Exchange (ENBIX)— a collaborative initiative that brings the industry together to share knowledge, build capacity and support building and renovation practices in Alberta—expanded their services beyond Calgary and Edmonton to support smaller urban centers and rural communities across Alberta.
Caption: Alberta Ecotrust Retrofit Accelerator launch
In Montreal, a second year of activity unfolded in 2024 focused on MultiRes, a retrofit program to decarbonize Multi-Unit Residential Buildings in Greater Montreal. The City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec have started to introduce regulations that will require building owners to use electric space and water heating. The initial focus is on removing heating oil from buildings, but natural gas will also be targeted as part of general mandate to decarbonize the building sector. In response, the Fonds Climat Grand Montréal (FCGM) and its partner Efficiency Capital (EC), will be launching a fully funded turnkey retrofit program to decarbonize Multi-Unit Residential Buildings (MURBS) in the 82 municipalities of Greater Montreal. The pilot phase of the program kicked off in 2024 with three owners and six buildings with different profiles.
In July of 2024, The Atmospheric Fund and Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) kicked off a deep, multi-measure retrofit at a townhouse complex in North York that is home to about 175 families. The retrofit project targets a 50% reduction in energy and carbon emissions. These upgrades will foster healthier, more comfortable indoor living environments for families, while the resilience measures will safeguard residents from Toronto’s increasingly extreme summer heat. The retrofit is expected to save more than $5 million in utility costs for TCHC over 20 years and create many local employment opportunities. These local job opportunities will be coordinated and filled by Building Up, a social contractor and TAF partner, whose workforce will support the project by installing LED lighting, painting and providing general site labour.
Construction is now underway to install efficient mini split heat pumps, baseboards and smart controls, ventilation, new LED lighting and water-saving measures. A second phase will convert gas hot water heating to electric and will eliminate gas combustion from the complex.
In Metro Vancouver, ZEIC is making sure that the best energy retrofit advice is available to busy strata (condo) councils interested in bringing climate and energy upgrades to their buildings. “Across BC, condo residents are asking for better cooling and ventilation and more energy efficient homes,” says Melina Scholefield, Executive Director of ZEIC. “Solutions like heat pumps, electric water heating, and distributed renewable energy systems can meet these needs while reducing GHGs. However, many strata councils don’t know where to start—that’s where the Strata Energy Advisor comes in.” The Strata Energy Advisor program will provide hands-on guidance for strata councils from start to finish. This includes identifying retrofit opportunities aligned with major capital renewals, navigating technology and financing options and supporting implementation.
Making the benefits of electric vehicles more accessible
While the electric vehicle (EV) revolution charges ahead, we want to make sure that no one is left behind. The Government of Canada recently established a standard that all new passenger vehicles sold be zero emission by 2035. This will exponentially increase demand for EV and EV charging over the coming decades.
Charging at home is the most affordable and convenient option for most EV owners. Yet while a third of Canada’s population live in multifamily buildings, only a fraction have EV charging access. This is due to a range of barriers including high investment hurdle rates, an absence of incentive programs, complex internal approval processes and a lack of awareness regarding the upcoming surge in EV charging demand.
A 2024 report by the LC3 Network outlines how Canadian decision-makers can support futureproofing of multifamily buildings and ensure all residents can access EV charging at home. It presents 16 recommendations related to policy, incentives, financing and capacity building to accelerate comprehensive retrofitting instead of incremental approaches.
On the same theme of making electric vehicles more accessible, the Halifax Climate Investment, Innovation and Impact Fund made a grant of $75,000 in 2024 to Communauto carshare to ensure that Communauto can provide consistent and reliable charging options for carshare members as it pursues the electrification of its fleet.
Looking ahead to 2025
With overall projects supported by the LC3 Network now reaching over 200 in number, there is a lot of activity to review and reflect upon. And we are just getting started in exploring ways that urban climate action—positioned for scale and equitable outcomes—will drive the economy of the future. Stay tuned for new local stories of climate, equity and economy coming in 2025.