A step beyond B.C. building codes

Business alliance encourages local developers and politicians to support energy-efficient building guidelines

In an effort to positively influence the environmental impacts of new developments in the province, the informal business alliance known as Three for All BC is encouraging local governments to pay close attention to a recently prepared report delivered to BC Housing and the Energy Step Code Council.

While energy efficiency was introduced to provincial building mandates in 2008, the newer “step code” has gone, well, a step further, offering additional approaches for new construction—particularly performance-based metrics. 

While some builders have voiced concerns that meeting such mandates will add thousands of dollars to the cost of new-construction units, Three for All says energy-efficiency needn’t have drastic financial repercussions. The BC Energy Step Code Metrics Research Report, a 2016 study commissioned by the province that examined the costs of high-performance buildings, found that meeting the requirements of the lower steps of the BC Energy Step Code involve only very modest construction premiums. “In most situations, builders can achieve the lower steps for less than a two per cent construction cost premium above that of a home built to the requirements of the B.C. Building Code,” according to the report.

Three for All notes that premiums associated with just the first step of the new code create even smaller budget ripples. Ultimately, the campaign—which launched in late September at Vancouver’s Union of B.C. Municipalities Conference—urges politicians to adopt by-laws in keeping with the third step of the suggested incremental energy plan. The province, meanwhile, has pledged to adopt building code updates that showcase minimum requirements reflecting “the higher levels of the B.C. Energy Step Code” by 2032.