This past Canada Day, while all of us were enjoying a well-earned day off, the three North Shore governments together passed an important milestone.
On that day, the City of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver, and District of West Vancouver all began requiring new homes to meet a significantly higher level of energy efficiency than what the building code otherwise dictates. Now, everyone who buys or rents a new home on the North Shore will enjoy better indoor air quality, lower utility bills, and a house that is both warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
We are both home builders; between us we have 40 years of experience on the North Shore. Our companies, Blackfish Homes and Naikoon Contracting, by industry standards are competitors, but we share values rooted in respect for the environment. We specialize in building and renovating single-family homes. Our projects are some of the most energy efficient homes on the North Shore—in our business we call them “high-performance” homes.
We are delighted to see our local governments taking the lead and requiring higher-performance new homes with the BC Energy Step Code. At the same time, though, we recognize some builders will have an easier time navigating the new requirements than others, and we do have concerns about adoption and the path ahead.
The BC Energy Step Code regulates building energy efficiency with a staircase metaphor; each “step” from 1 to 5 represents a higher level of energy efficiency. Builders need to demonstrate, through on-site testing and software simulations, that their project will meet the requirements of a certain step. The North Shore governments brought in the BC Energy Step Code at Step 3, which means that every new North Shore home will be at least 20 percent more efficient when the last nail goes in than they otherwise would have been.
The “proving performance” aspect will give consumers confidence that their new home will be built to high standards. (We both know of cases where buyers thought they were getting a more efficient home than they actually ended up with, because there was no regulation in place.)
While we’re pleased to see our North Shore governments now require all builders to use the techniques, materials, and practices that we have been using for years, we know it won’t be easy.
That’s because, to succeed, home design professionals and builders will need to consider energy use right from the initial design phase. High-performance building demands a more collaborative approach—you’re not just “handing off” the project to the next professional, or trade, all the way through construction. For those with less experience with this approach, catching up will be challenging to say the least. There are still a lot of builders and business people across the North Shore who don’t even know what the BC Energy Step Code is!
Though we are competitors, we share common ground as high-performance builders and thus share information, so we can learn from one another. Now that Step 3 is the standard on the North Shore, we hope the industry as a whole will become much more collaborative.
The learning curve will be steep, but our local governments are actually doing our industry a favour. Why? In 2032, the province is going to require every new building in the province to meet Step 5. (Recently, it floated the idea of requiring Step 3 everywhere by 2022.) In other words, if it’s going to happen anyway, why not get out in front of it? There are tons of builder training opportunities underway, too—through CHBA-BC, BCIT, BC Housing, Passive House Canada, Built Green Canada, and through individual municipalities. The time to get Step Code savvy? Right now.
Finally, it is a myth that a high-performance house is an expensive house. New case studies of projects in the interior, on Vancouver Island, and elsewhere have proven that the construction cost premium of building to a Step 3 level is between zero and 2 percent. As more builders get up to speed, we expect these minimal cost premiums will come down. And remember that up-front construction cost is just part of the equation. Those living in a Step 3 home will pay a fraction of the energy costs that they would have otherwise spent, as well as enjoy better air quality and overall healthier home.
Despite the challenges that will arise during the next few years, we are proud of the leadership role that the North Shore has taken. In the booming market that we find ourselves in, it is a huge loss to allow outdated, sloppy building practices to continue. It is exciting that the entire industry is being mandated to learn more sophisticated building science in order to meet better energy standards and deliver better homes to the market.
Joe Geluch is president and owner of Naikoon Contracting, in the City of North Vancouver, David Adair is president and owner of Blackfish Homes, in the District of North Vancouver.
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