ZEBx

Join us for ZEBx’s second tour of 2025. We'll be visiting a Vancouver duplex just finishing construction, designed by Scott Kennedy of Cornerstone Architecture. For those who have been following Cornerstone Architecture, it won't come as a surprise to know that this building is designed to meet the Passive House standard and the top step of the Zero Carbon Step Code. It's an all-electric building that's packed with the latest cleantech, including a Longi solar array, an EG4 battery, and VanAir ventilated interior doors.

With their ability to provide highly efficient electric heating and cooling, heat pumps are our most promising and important building decarbonization technology. Installing a heat pump in a commercial building can be complex and requires careful engineering and attention to detail.

Join us April 3 as City of Vancouver staff share insights from the first year of the City’s mandatory energy and carbon reporting program and preview what industry can expect in the current reporting cycle and beyond.

As energy efficiency and carbon pollution become a standard consideration for new and existing buildings, the supply chain is responding with new products that make climate-friendly buildings more achievable than ever. One of the newest products that is now available to BC's building industry is the Galletti HTH HS line of electric air-to-water heat pumps, distributed by Riada Sales.

Come join us to learn about the leadership taken by the Squamish Nation on the impressive Sen̓áḵw development and the tactics that have allowed this project to meet both climate goals and housing needs while bringing in thoughtful cultural integration.

Achieving Net Zero Energy in existing homes comes with unique challenges—but also major opportunities. High-performance building envelopes, low-carbon materials, and integrated renewable energy are key to reducing emissions while improving comfort and resilience.

Reducing embodied carbon and advancing the circular economy are increasingly important efforts in the sustainability realm - but how do they relate to each other in practice?  

Decarbonizing buildings in colder climates presents unique challenges and opportunities. Ground-source heat pumps (i.e., geo-exchange) and cold-climate air-source heat pumps are emerging as critical solutions to reduce emissions, while maintaining performance in cold climates. 

Deep energy retrofits are a critical piece of achieving our carbon pollution reduction targets and improving the comfort of homes and workplaces. Programs offered as part of the BC Retrofit Accelerator provide guidance to building owners to identify and plan for retrofit projects to significantly reduce building emissions, including commercial and multi-unit residential strata, rental, non-market, and off-reserve Indigenous housing.

There is currently a growing trend in the construction industry to specify materials with low embodied carbon emissions to help decarbonize the building sector and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.