U.S. Energy Star building rating system goes Canadian
November 21, 2011
By
Canadian Consulting Engineer
The Canadian and U.S. governments are creating a common benchmark for assessing the energy performance of institutional and commercial buildings.
The Canadian and U.S. governments are creating a common benchmark for assessing the energy performance of institutional and commercial buildings.
Under an agreement signed between Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software will be enhanced to include Canadian reference data such as Canadian weather, energy and emissions factors, and metric units. The tool will also be available in both official languages.
The agreement is part of the “Clean Energy Dialogue” established between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama as a bilateral mechanism “to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy while enhancing energy security and revitalizing the economy by creating jobs in this emerging sector.”
The Energy Star tool has a database of 250,000 buildings. It provides measures on energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.S.-Canada agreement runs from October 1, 2011 to March 30, 2016.
