Why isn’t every new or renovated building in North America green?
CEC releases series of in-depth analyses of three pillars of green building construction
Montreal, 17 December 2013—North America’s energy and climate goals will not be met without private financial backing, supportive policies from governments and qualified professionals. A series of reports released today by experts at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation seek to unravel challenges and best practices in these three key pillars of interest in the green building sector and provide recommendations to the governments of Canada, Mexico and the US. To view the reports, click here.
Key recommendations include:
- In financing: Ways to enhance private sector investment for retrofit and new construction with government support. Without this, market illiquidity and uncertainty will remain obstacles to private investment in green building;
- In education: Help to build better networks between technical training programs and professional associations in the construction, renovation and repair industry to improve adoption of sustainability training tools;
- At the local policy level: Use the “tried and tested” approach by starting with government programs, then introducing voluntary measures to the private sector coupled with incentives and finally move to solidify mandatory requirements once there is broad industry acceptance.
Collectively, these three reports represent over a year of consultations with a long list of green building experts from across the continent as well as detailed examinations of best practices from places like Austin, Mexico City, Toronto, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
To read Improving Conditions for Green Building Construction in North America: Enhancing Capabilities of the Green Workforce, click here.
To read Improving Conditions for Green Building Construction in North America: Models for Local Government Support, click here.
To read Improving Conditions for Green Building Construction in North America:
Financing Models and Opportunities, click here.
About the CEC’s Green Building Project
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation has been working on promoting green building in North America since 2010. Looking forward, the Commission’s Trilateral Green Building Construction Task Force will work on strategies to engage the private sector to advance green workforce training and resource use efficiency, as well as explore opportunities to increase availability of green building construction in isolated communities across North America. For more information, visit www.cec.org/greenbuilding.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.