Enhancing Building Performance in Community Housing in Canada

The National Housing Strategy aims to mobilize the retrofit and repair of community housing buildings to improve living conditions and reduce energy and GHG emissions. But with such diversity in building types, provider capacity, energy sources, and stakeholders, how can policies and programs effectively meet the scale of this challenge? How do different community housing buildings differ in energy performance? And what retrofit strategies can be used to effectively deliver the environment, economic, and social benefits?

This session will present the results of graduate student research projects exploring these questions. The research is part of the Community Housing Canada research collaborative, within the Enhancing Building Performance in Community Housing area of focus led by Dr. Runa Das. An overview of the research area will be followed by presentation and discussion of results from two research projects, described below.

Who should attend?

• Community housing providers and others decision makers of retrofit projects.
• Government, non-profits and other organizations involved in designing retrofit policies and funding programs
• Anyone in leadership or board member roles, or who would like to learn more about community housing and retrofit projects.

What will you learn?

• What research is currently being conducted by Community Housing Canada scholars and researchers to improve subsidized housing energy performance in Canada.
• How and when different community housing stakeholders are involved during the early-stages of decision-making about retrofits and capital repairs, and the factors that shape these decisions.
• Opportunities to improve the integration of asset management and energy efficiency policies and programs that can support improved energy savings, resident comfort and health.
• How different types of community housing buildings differ in their energy performance and what retrofit strategies can be used to deliver the most environment and social benefits at the lowest costs

Presenters:

Dr. Runa Das 

Dr. Runa Das is an Associate Professor in the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Royal Roads University. She is currently leading research on Enhancing Building Performance in Community Housing in Canada. She will present an overview of this research area.

Robbi Humble 

Robbi Humble is in the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program at Royal Roads University. Robbi’s research explores the people and processes that influence decision-making during the early stages of major projects in existing community housing buildings – such as capital upgrades and energy efficiency retrofits. Using surveys in Saskatchewan and BC, she describes the involvement and influence of community housing stakeholders during the early stages of identifying, prioritizing, designing, and approving potential major projects. Through focus groups and system mapping methods in Saskatchewan, the factors that influence this decision-making process are explored in more detail.

Shabnam Edalatina

Shabnam Edalatina is in the Master of Arts in Environment and Management program at Royal Roads University. Shabnam investigates how multi-residential community housing buildings in BC differ in energy performance. She has benchmarked 23 buildings managed and operated by BC Housing and CoolAid Society using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and utility bills. In combination with benchmarking, she has examined the costs and benefits of various retrofit scenarios to develop various package scenarios for retrofitting.