Concert Takes Up the Challenge To Be a Leader in Green Buildings

Image courtesy Canada Green Building Council.

Would you be willing to bare your energy, water and carbon usage for all the world to see?

That’s exactly what Concert has committed to as part of the “Disclosure Challenge” recently launched by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), a national non-profit organization whose mission is to lead and accelerate the transformation to high-performing, healthy green buildings, homes and communities throughout Canada. By challenging real estate companies to disclose their energy use, the CaGBC wants to demonstrate the value of data transparency, remove barriers within the wider real estate community, and help more municipal and provincial jurisdictions develop requirements for public reporting. The final result? Healthier buildings.

As part of Concert’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, Concert is one of only three real estate companies in Canada that have pledged to disclose energy usage across all its properties – both residential and commercial – for one year, with the data readily available to designers, building operators, energy management professionals, researchers and the general public.

“Concert is an enthusiastic supporter of the CaGBC’s Disclosure Challenge,” says Brian McCauley, Concert’s President & Chief Executive Officer. “We recognize the need for our industry to show leadership in the reporting and reduction of energy use and carbon emissions. Through our participation we hope to show that we are not only active partners in helping fight climate change, but also responsible asset managers and community builders.”

While many European and American jurisdictions have required building energy disclosure and benchmarking for years, public energy disclosure is relatively new in Canada.

“With the Disclosure Challenge, we hope to increase understanding of how buildings are performing and where they can be improved. This, in turn, will help governments identify the sectors and building types most in need of retrofit to achieve maximum emissions reductions,” says Thomas Mueller, CaGBC’s President & Chief Executive Officer.

With buildings generating over 30 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, including construction materials and operations, green building is a key part of the solution to help meet Canada’s climate change commitments.

To follow Concert’s journey and for more information about this worthy initiative, visit: https://www.cagbc.org/disclosurechallenge.