BUILDING BETTER

As a passionate follower of the “Passive House” movement (very high-efficiency buildings), and as an informed observer of Canadian Building Code regulations, I strongly support many of the points made in the Oct. 15 opinion piece, “Wasteful construction practices must go.”

Nova Scotia’s Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act states that climate change is recognized as a global emergency and requires urgent action that should be prescribed by regulation to ensure the province will be netzero by 2050. In Nova Scotia, it is recognized that buildings are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGS) — something in the order of 42 per cent. Therefore, the province should take swift action to improve building efficiencies through the adoption of a systematic, incremental approach such as outlined in the New Step Code (National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings, 2020).

Furthermore, I’d voice my support for the province to act on a number of the other recommendations made in the article, such as introducing mandatory energy and carbon-embodied labelling on all new buildings and ensuring all new buildings are Ev-charging-friendly.

One final point I feel very strongly about, which supports a recommendation from Passive House Canada, is that the federal and provincial governments should be leading the way by adopting Passive House, either through retrofitting or ensuring all new buildings are designed to the standard. Passive House is the pinnacle of building efficiency, and it would give governments the ultimate leverage for demonstrating a can-do attitude to the building industry — something we much need. Nigel Owen, Halifax