Compared to other industries and business ventures, housing developments are among the most environmentally damaging. With the average home emitting up to 100 tons of CO₂ in the construction stage alone, homes have an enormous impact on the environment ⁽¹⁾. This pattern of emissions continues during the full life cycle of Canadian buildings, with Ontario and Quebec citing households as their greatest source of emissions across all industries within their respective provinces⁽²⁾.

One method of reducing the carbon footprint of an individual building is to explore the benefits of alternative heating and cooling systems with reduced environmental impact. One such option is installing a geothermal heat pump, a sustainable option that has been steadily increasing in popularity over the past few years. First developed and used in the 1800s, geothermal heating is based on the premise of utilizing the earth’s temperatures through a system of subterranean pipes, which in summer store a building’s heat underground, and in winter and autumn draw heat up from the earth through the network of pipes, presenting an emission-free alternative to a gas furnace or air conditioning unit ⁽³⁾.

Canada is also taking steps towards more environmentally friendly housing through various initiatives, including those of the Canada Green Building Council, whose aim is to gather industry professionals and technological experts to bridge the gap between the construction industry’s established techniques and government demands for greener alternatives to current building methods, while advancing sustainable housing codes and policy at a local and regional level. Another focus of the council is to support the retrofitting of old buildings, revitalizing those previously in a state of disrepair, eliminating the need to construct a new building, and thereby cutting a large part of a building’s net carbon footprint ⁽⁴⁾.

Canada has been greatly advancing sustainable building practices through government initiatives and industry-based efforts, but further expansion and innovation is necessary if these practices are to be adopted on a larger scale to maximize environmental benefits. Canadian initiatives also provide an invaluable use case globally, helping other governments and industries to determine the most cost-effective and efficient practices for sustainable buildings in their area, to move towards greener living for all.

Sources:

1.  Climate Portal. 2022. MIT

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-co2-emitted-building-new-house

2.  Canadian System of Environmental–Economic Accounts: Energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, 2020. Released, 2023. Statistics Canada.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230216/dq230216f-eng.htm

3.  8 Green HVAC Technologies to Minimize Carbon Emissions. 2023. Green Building Canada

https://greenbuildingcanada.ca/green-hvac-technologies/

4.  Initiatives: Uniting the green building community. 2024. Canada Green Building Council

https://www.cagbc.org/our-work/initiatives/

 Photo credit: Canada geese sculptures suspended in the Eaton Centre, Toronto, Canada by F. Brown