Effective as of May, the BC Building Code introduced changes to require better energy efficiency in most new buildings in the province, and either encourage or require lower carbon emissions in new buildings.
The newly introduced changes to the BC Energy Step Code require 20 per cent better energy efficiency for most new buildings in the province. Further, the new Zero Carbon Step Code provides tools for local governments in the province to encourage or require lower emissions in new buildings.
Together, the changes meet commitments in the CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 to gradually lower emissions from buildings until all new buildings are zero carbon by 2030 and net-zero energy-ready by 2032.
While the Zero Carbon Step Code is a voluntary, provincial standard for reducing emissions, the BC Energy Step Code is a mandatory energy-efficiency requirement in the BC Building Code for most new buildings.
Local governments reference the Zero Carbon Step Code in bylaws and programs to require or encourage lower carbon new construction in their communities. Local governments can still encourage or require a level of energy-efficiency in new construction that goes above and beyond the minimum energy-efficiency step required in the BC Building Code.
The province engaged with stakeholders, including industry experts, local governments, and utility providers to develop these changes. The province is now co-ordinating templates and best practices to facilitate these building code changes for local governments and the construction industry.
The Building and Safety Standards Branch, responsible for building codes and standards, invited treaty nations and Indigenous communities to comment on these code changes in summer 2022 and continues to meet with other nations and communities as these new changes go into effect.
If a treaty nation or Indigenous community enforces the BC Building Code, they retain the discretion to enforce all or part of it.
“New energy-efficiency regulations are a key measure to help British Columbia meet our CleanBC 2030 goals,” says George Heyman, minister of environment and climate change strategy. “We are building a future with better, healthier communities for families, while taking action on climate change. Our government is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in B.C., now and in the future, has access to a healthy environment.”
What a pile of crap. This is absolutely not based on any current accepted science and is a vehicle of the political left. This policy will have no result in achieving the purported goal.
I have been in this industry for 37 years and during this time the Building Code has become a vehicle for social engineering rather than its original goal of safety. It is bloated and becoming a liability for cost and flexibility in design.