Building Benchmark BC sees major growth!

The second annual Building Benchmark BC report is now available at buildingbenchmarkbc.ca! 

The report, released earlier this month, shows a steady uptick in the program’s second year amongst property owners and jurisdictions. We are excited to report that the program has more than doubled in size, with over 1,100 buildings registered to voluntarily report their emissions and energy use. 

The program is now tracking 30 different building typologies, and the year-over-year scorecards for each building have been expanded to include month-to-month performance, comparisons with other similar buildings, and energy conservation recommendations. 

We look forward to building upon our progress as the program enters Year 3!

Download the full Year 2 Report [PDF]

Announcing... the Building Benchmark BC Awards!

This year, in addition to the annual report, we are thrilled to present the inaugural Building Benchmark BC Awards, recognizing excellence in improving building, climate, and energy performance. 

As of the end of Year 2, Building Benchmark BC has grown to include 16 partner jurisdictions, and 38 private and public sector organizations, and we wanted to do something special to recognize their hard work and leadership in energy efficiency. Congratulations to all the award recipients!

See our blog post for more on the awards, and visit buildingbenchmarkbc.ca to learn more and sign up for Year 3!

The IceBox Challenge like you've never seen before...

As you may recall, last month we teamed up with the Australian Passive House Association to sponsor the IceBox Challenge in Sydney, Australia. For the first time, the challenge is recoded in a time lapse video - see the results for yourself!

The Icebox Challenge consists of two boxes, one built to Australian Standard Code, and the other to Passive House Standard, filled with an equal quantity of ice, to be measured again at the end of two weeks to demonstrate the passive cooling abilities of each building code. In the end, the Australian Standard box contained just .8kg of ice, while the Passive House Box still had 413.8kg - a testament to the benefits of the Passive House Standard. 

Welcoming some new faces (and Dave!) to OPEN Technologies

We are excited to introduce some new additions to our team:

Dave Ramslie, Chief Operating Officer
At the end of this month, OPEN Co-founder, Dave Ramslie, will be joining us full-time! Dave’s work at OPEN will be to support Donovan and the rest of the team in product management and development, as well as having core accountability for leading our core business development work and custom solutions portfolio.
 

Gaurav Vijayvargia, Senior Developer, Custom Projects
We are also thrilled to have Gaurav Vijayvargia joining us at the start of April! Gaurav is a skilled senior software developer, with a passion for exploring the unknown. Gaurav’s work will be mostly centered around shaping and developing our Custom Projects portfolio.


Check out our blog post for more details!

Current Opportunities

We're not done yet, join our team!

OPEN Technologies is accepting applications for two positions: 

• Product Manager (UX Specialization), tasked with shepherding the CMHC-funded Affordable Housing Navigator project from concept to launch and beyond; and 

• Intermediate Developer, to join our growing software team on the product side of the practice.  

See our career page for the details, and how to apply!

New and Notable

A few news stories, reports, opportunities, and other resources that recently caught our eye:

• The Atmospheric Fund has released an article with proposed changes to the Toronto Building Code, to include meaningful reductions in carbon emissions, and to improve long term affordability. 

• UVic announces the ReBuild Initiative, a hub for knowledge exchange and co-creation between small startups, large firms, jurisdictional departments, and researchers from universities across the country, to pool knowledge and develop solutions for energy efficiency in buildings. 

• The European Union is aiming to reduce it’s dependence on gas sourced from Russia by nearly 80% this year, which could mean a major acceleration to meeting their 2030 climate targets. 

• Efficiency Canada’s AdvocacEE Workshops are back! These quick, 45 minute sessions help build skills in mobilization and advocacy strategies, specifically for the energy efficiency sector.