Buildings decarbonization: Companies publish a manifesto

Grouped within the Quebec Council of Energy Efficiency Businesses (CQ3e), 24 companies, which include building managers, construction firms, engineering firms and electrical product suppliers, have joined their expertise to present a Manifesto on the decarbonation of Quebec buildings. The recommendations made by this group of experts aim to help Quebec reduce the costs linked to electrification, to maximize the use potential and to minimize the environmental impacts. Their directives are essentially based on three pillars, namely: consumption reduction, judicious electrification and power demand management.

 

The CQ3e highlights that Quebec consumes 3.5 times more energy per capita than the world average and that the province has the highest electricity consumption per capita in Canada. According to the manifesto, the consumption reduction could partly be achieved by the recovery of the energy lost in buildings, whether they are residential, industrial, commercial or institutional and several solutions exist to resolve this problem. The recommendations also call for buildings envelopes improvement such as walls, windows, roofs and by imposing minimum energy performance thresholds and maximum GHG emission rates per building

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According to the Legault government, Hydro-Québec will have to produce significantly more

electricity to meet the demand in an energy transiton context. According to the strategic plan

of 2022-2026, tabled last year by Hydro-Québec, Quebec will need 100 additional terawatt hours (TWh) of energy if the province wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To reach such objectives, the manifesto recommends to support the development of the renewable natural gas (RNG) sector for certain uses, to stimulate the development of a Quebec sector in storage technologies for energy buildings, as well as developing the literacy and skills of real estate managers ,contractors and construction professionals on technologies, peak energy management and storage.

 

This manifesto is addressed to the Quebec government, Hydro-Québec, Énergir, developers, builders and real estate managers. The list of companies signatories include Aedifica, Ainsworth, Akonovia, Ambioner, Bouthillette Parizeau, Ciet, C-nergie, Dunsky, Econoler, Ecosystem, Energénia, Énergère, Enero solutions, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Krome, Lemay, Master, Nordexco, Pomerleau, Siemens, Sofiac, Trane and TST.