New Construction & Existing Buildings

Goal:

New and existing buildings achieve low carbon, energy efficient operations, incorporate low embodied carbon materials and design, and provide residents with safe and healthy homes that are resilient to the effects of climate change.

Targets

By 2030, embodied carbon in new buildings is reduced 40% versus baseline building

By 2030, at least 50% of homes have active, low carbon cooling increasing to 100% before 2050.

  • Supported by a passive-first approach to provide thermal comfort for new buildings
    and a plan to facilitate accelerated cooling upgrades in existing buildings

By 2035, building operational emissions are reduced by at least 60% from 2022 levels.

  • Supported by achieving the Land Use Plan commitment to defining a pathway to achieve net-zero operational emissions in new Neighbourhood buildings no later than 2030.

By 2050, all buildings in UBC’s residential neighbourhoods achieve net-zero operational
emissions and are resilient to current and future climate conditions.

Waterfall diagram
Net-zero emissions pathway for New Construction & Existing Buildings. (Click to open in a new tab)

Action Highlights

🟩 high impact mitigation   🟦 high impact adaptation

Selected key actions are summarized below. To see the full detailed list of actions, please refer to the NCAP action matrix located in the Documents and Resources page.

New Construction

  • Update REAP in 2025 to require all new buildings be designed to meet:
    • The Zero Carbon Step Code Zero Carbon target to reduce operational emissions.🟩
    • A Cooling Energy Demand Intensity target.🟦
    • 10% embodied carbon reduction.

 

 

Existing Buildings

  • Streamline the permitting process for in-suite heat pump installations.
  • Produce educational materials (e.g. toolkits, guides, etc.) that identify incentives for building owners to install energy efficient equipment shared through UNA communication channels.

New Construction

  • Complete Neighbourhood District Energy System (NDES) expansion in Wesbrook Place to provide low carbon heating and cooling to new Wesbrook Place homes. 🟩
  • Explore opportunity for a total carbon (operating plus embodied) target for new buildings.
  • Build capacity for design of efficient, low carbon and resilient buildings.
    • Share learnings from building benchmarking program.
    • Showcase successful projects at UBC and beyond.

 

 

Existing Buildings

  • Facilitate partnerships to develop demonstration projects to support low carbon heating and cooling system equipment replacements and upgrades for residents and building owners.
  • Identify regulatory mechanisms to enable low carbon and resilient performance requirements for domestic hot water and space heating equipment replacements.
  • Develop a plan to facilitate accelerated cooling upgrades in existing buildings. 🟦

New Construction

  • Update REAP by 2030 to require minimum 40% embodied carbon reduction to align with or exceed the City of Vancouver target.🟩
  • Implement pathway to net-zero embodied carbon in buildings (before 2050).

 

 

Existing Buildings

  • Fully transition the NDES to low carbon energy supply (aligned with Wesbrook Place completion, approx. 2030).🟩
  • From 2030, at time of replacement, require low carbon-only equipment for domestic hot water and space heating systems or connection to low carbon NDES.🟩

Actions in this scope area will also help deliver the following co-benefits:

•  Affordability: reducing the costs associated with taking climate action
•   Health & Wellbeing: improving health and wellbeing conditions for community members
•  Access for All: making it easier for everyone to access spaces, information, processes, or programs
•  Climate Leadership: highlighting where UBC is leading climate action policy
•  Academic Connection: providing opportunity for research connections with UBC’s academic community

New Construction & Existing Buildings

Highlights of Progress to Date

  • In 2006, UBC established the Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP) as a Land Use Rule.
  • Established performance-based energy targets in 2015.
  • Adopted Step 3 of the BC Energy Step Code and early adopter of BC Zero Carbon Step Code (Moderate Step) in 2023
  • Established future climate design criteria in 2020 to prevent overheating in new buildings.
  • Established mandatory embodied carbon reporting requirement in 2020 and established mandatory guidelines for embodied carbon calculations in 2023.
  • Since 2020, REAP has included optional credits to support the use of wood construction, including responsibly sourced materials, and mass timber superstructure.
  • In 2022, completed the Evolve project, a fully electric Passive House project that incorporated academic monitoring of outcomes into the project.
  • Leader in establishing energy benchmarking in multifamily buildings (founding member of Building Benchmark BC).

Actions You Can Take

  • Install low carbon equipment in homes and buildings (e.g. heat pumps for heating and cooling). Visit the Building Permits page for the forms required for heat pump installation. 

 

Equity Considerations

  • Consider impacts on tenants and other residents with less agency to take action.
  • Prioritize accelerated cooling supply to vulnerable community members.
  • Identify how to support retrofits for lower income residents if other government incentive programs are no longer available.
Explore More
UBC's Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP)
REAP is UBC’s mandatory green building rating system, created to address the unique conditions of neighbourhood growth on UBC’s campus and implement requirements that are best suited for our local context.
/sustainability/sustainability-action-plans/green-building-action-plan/residential-building-requirements/residential-environmental-assessment-program-reap-33
Green Building Action Plan
The Green Building Action Plan is a policy framework that outlines the pathway for academic and residential buildings at the UBC Vancouver campus to advance towards making net positive contributions to human and natural systems.
/sustainability/sustainability-action-plans/green-building-action-plan-0
Embodied Carbon in Buildings
Learn more about what UBC is doing to reduce embodied carbon in buildings on campus.
https://planning.ubc.ca/sustainability/sustainability-action-plans/green-building-action-plan/institutional-building-requirements/embodied-carbon-buildings