CaGBC Releases New Study on Zero Carbon Skills Gap for Alberta’s Building Trades

June 24, 2020

Recently, CaGBC released a new study that looks at the readiness of Alberta’s building trades to meet the demand for zero carbon, high-performance buildings. In Trading Up: How Alberta’s Trades can Build a Zero Carbon Future, CaGBC explores the following questions: What are the zero carbon skills Alberta’s construction trades need for the future, and how can this workforce be upskilled to meet the design, construction and retrofitting, of zero carbon buildings at scale?

As governments look for shovel-worthy projects to help reignite Canada’s post-COVID-19 economy, green building projects are increasingly attractive. However, zero carbon buildings require the construction workforce to adapt, retrain, or upskill. Like other provinces, Alberta has an opportunity to leverage the demand for high-performance, zero carbon buildings to its advantage by creating future-proof jobs that will grow the economy and create more resilient communities.

This study builds on similar reports — one that focuses on Ontario and another tailored to engineers, architects, and renewable energy specialists. Together they help provide an overview of the opportunity green building could provide — and the barriers we need to address to mobilize the sector for Canada’s low-carbon future. This need to address the training and upskilling of building trades and professionals is also a key component of CaGBC’s green recovery recommendations, as outlined in Ready, Set, Grow.

You can read the report HERE.