The City of Colwood is seeking input from residents to develop a Building Retrofit Strategy to help the City's homeowners reap the advantages of being climate smart and future ready.
This strategy is one initiative of many outlined in Colwood's Climate Action Plan which takes an integrated approach to reducing emissions, adapting to thrive in a changing climate, and maximizing community well-being and economic benefits from the actions we take.
Why encourage building retrofits?
We spend most of our time inside buildings – at home, work, school, running errands and spending time with friends and family. Many of these buildings produce more energy and create more greenhouse gas emissions than they need to, which contributes to climate change and increases energy bills. Many of these same buildings are also at risk of the impacts of climate change, including extreme heat, wildfires and wildfire smoke, and flooding.
To achieve Colwood’s climate goals of reducing community-wide emissions, building our climate resilience, and ensuring safe and comfortable homes for everyone, we need to increase the rate of building retrofits across the city. This means improving and updating our homes and buildings to become more energy-efficient and climate-friendly.
What are building retrofits?
Building retrofits are activities that help reduce how much energy a building uses and carbon it produces, while increasing its resilience to the impacts of climate change. This includes updating mechanical systems like space and water heating systems, as well as building envelope improvements (such as adding insulation, upgrading windows and doors, and air sealing).
How are building retrofits beneficial?
Aside from reducing emissions, building retrofits can help reduce energy bills, improve our comfort, safeguard our health, and generally improve access to high quality homes and buildings.
What is the Building Retrofit Strategy?
To support the adoption of building retrofits, the City of Colwood is developing a Building Retrofit Strategy. Its purpose is to increase building retrofits in Colwood to help meet targets in reducing emissions while increasing energy efficiency and improving climate resilience (being able to handle and recover from the effects of climate change). The City hopes to speed up this change in a way that benefits as many Colwood residents as possible.
What types of buildings will the strategy look at?
The strategy will explore retrofit opportunities for:
- Residential (for example, houses, apartments)
- Commercial (for example, office buildings, retail stores)
- Industrial (for example, buildings for warehousing, manufacturing)
Stay informed & share your experiences
We want to hear from residents about their goals and experiences with building retrofits in our community.
Head over to Let's Talk Colwood to complete the survey and share retrofit stories.
Media Contact
Sandra Russell, Communications Manager
srussell@colwood.ca
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