Victoria and Saanich have partnered with the Building Owners and Managers Association of British Columbia (BOMA) in a commitment to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years.
This partnership creates what is being called the ‘Greater Victoria 2030 Resiliency District’, in which participating building owners and managers will voluntarily cut their buildings’ energy use, water and emissions by 50% by the year 2030 from 2007 baseline levels.
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“This is an important opportunity for the City to partner with progressive building owners and managers, to help drive efficient, high-performance, and low-carbon improvements in our large building stock,” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps.
“Over 30% of Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions come from large buildings, so we are very excited to partner with BOMA’s 2030 District program, which will bring local leaders together to collaborate and take action to eliminate building GHG’s and improve sustainability.”
The Greater Victoria 2030 District initiative is the second of its kind in Canada – the first was launched in Toronto earlier this year – and there are 21 similar districts across the United States.
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This cross-municipality partnership was also unanimously supported by the Saanich council which is expected to formally approve their participation at an upcoming meeting on September 30th.
To achieve their targets, BOMA will be supporting municipalities by providing:
- Education and assistance on optimizing retrofits at the time of planned building renewals;
- Tracking, aggregating and reporting on building performance metrics;
- Securing group purchasing discounts for new and emerging building technologies and
professional services; and, - Advancing seismic safety upgrades and resilience to extreme weather events.
