Canadian LEED Buildings Have Reduced 1 Million Tonnes of CO2e in GHG Emissions Since 2005

LEED Gold projects in Canada also surpass 1,000 in first quarter of 2016 Canadian LEED certified projects have now cumulatively reduced over one million tonnes of CO2e in greenhouse gas emissions, says the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). This represents the equivalent of taking 238,377 cars off the road for a year.

The announcement comes as Canadian governments at all three levels are accelerating efforts to formulate climate change strategies. As the voice for green building in Canada, CaGBC supports sustainable infrastructure as one of the most practical and effective solutions to our changing climate. This is demonstrated by the GHG reduction and a number of other big impacts (calculated cumulatively between 2005 and the end of 2015) that show how green buildings have benefitted Canadians:

• energy savings of 6,503,647 eMWh — enough to power 220,702 homes in Canada for a full year
• water savings totalling 12.8 billion litres — the equivalent of 5,131 Olympic-sized swimming pools
• recycling over 1.6 million tonnes of construction/demolition waste —which represents 491,174 garbage truck loads
• installing 231,608 sq. metres of green roofs — an area the size of 153 NHL hockey rinks, to reduce the urban heat island effect and mitigate storm water flows in urban areas

In addition to these key impacts, the CaGBC has also certified Canada’s 1000th LEED Gold project in the first quarter of 2016. LEED Gold, the second most rigorous level of certification, now makes up 38% of all LEED certified projects in Canada, the highest percentage of all levels. This is evidence of the industry’s enhanced capability to achieve higher levels of building performance.

The market penetration of LEED certified buildings in Canada has been growing over the last decade, from 0.8% across all asset classes for the period of 2004-2009 to 10.7% for all new construction floor space (2009 to 2014). The growth of LEED is projected to generate approximately $59.1 billion in direct dollar gross output, $25.44 billion in GDP, and create almost 330,000 direct jobs over the lifetime of the buildings1.

Overall, LEED certifications in Canada continued to have steady growth in the first three months of the year, with 106 registrations and 91 certifications, bringing the total number of LEED certified projects in Canada to 2,675. Year-to-date-totals (up to March 31, 2016) by LEED certification level are as follows:

• 18 LEED Certified
• 32 LEED Silver
• 35 LEED Gold
• 6 LEED Platinum

Find out more about LEED and CaGBC: https://www.cagbc.org.