Past President Mandy Hansen was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Foundation of BC in April of 2015. Mandy participated on behalf of the Foundation at the Pathway to Net-Zero Buildings Thought Leadership Forum hosted in early June.

The following is the information from Pembina Institute.

We've been busy writing up a summary report from our Pathway to Net-Zero Buildings Thought Leader Forum that we hosted in early June. The Pathway to Net-Zero Buildings Report is now available on our website.

At the forum, the Pembina Institute brought together over 80 individuals representing over 50 organizations, institutions and companies, including representatives from local and provincial government, the building industry (e.g. developers, builders, architects, engineers, and consultants), utilities, and research/advocacy groups. Participants discussed what is needed to evolve provincial building standards so that all new buildings are "net-zero ready" (i.e. so energy efficient that they could generate on-site as much energy as they consume over the course of a year) within the next 15 years.

We believe B.C. can make a leap to net-zero ready buildings by 2030. How? Check out the policy proposal section of the report to find out. Here's a sneak peek: we call for significant investments in pilot programs (similar to Brussels' Exemplary Building Program), for the B.C. government to lead by example and require new public buildings to be net-zero ready, and for a transparent process to set future energy efficiency requirements in the B.C. Building Code so that industry can plan ahead.

The government currently seeking input on its Climate Leadership Plan discussion paper and the building sector is a key area being considered for reducing carbon pollution. We wanted to make our recommendations broadly available to help inform your input into this process.