WHEREAS British Columbia municipalities are determined to advance solutions of sustainable community design and development in order to meet the challenges associated with climate change, rising costs of energy and infrastructure and to meet the goals set out in the BC Energy Plan; AND WHEREAS homebuilders in Canada are demonstrating leadership in advanced energy efficient building design and construction leading to near net-zero energy and net-zero energy homes, defined as homes that generate sufficient energy to offset their annual energy use: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities encourage the research, development and deployment of community scale net-zero energy housing, to urge federal and provincial governments to provide financial support for the projects and to incorporate a net-zero energy home standard into the provincial building code.
Ministry of Housing and Social Development The British Columbia Building Code BCBC establishes minimum requirements for a variety of code objectives, including energy efficiency for buildings. Net zero homes are being built in BC today. Industry is leading the process. The BCBC enables a net zero approach to houses but does not require that houses be constructed to meet net zero energy use.
Ministry of Natural Resources Natural Resources Canada NRCan has been closely working with the British Columbia BC government in regards to incorporating energy efficiency within the BC Building Code. The BC government announced changes to its building code coming into force September 5, 2008, whereby all homes will be required to include full height basement insulation. I understand that this first phase is to be followed by a further improvement to the BC Building Code that will see all new homes built in BC attain an energy efficiency level that will be 25 percent better than conventional construction.