The built environment

Improving Canadian housing, buildings, and communities by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and creating a carbon-neutral built environment

Our areas of focus

CanmetENERGY Ottawa’s Built Environment research and development (R&D) program focuses on building energy systems, pathways to carbon-neutral housing and buildings, and low-carbon community energy systems. Currently, we are focused on:

improving building energy systems: developing novel envelope, mechanical, and energy storage technologies capable of reducing building GHG emissions by at least 80%, while simultaneously improving affordability, resiliency, and comfort for occupants and industry confidence in these solutions
developing pathways to carbon-neutral housing and buildings: developing and de-risking low-cost and low-GHG pathways for deep energy retrofit, net-zero energy (NZE), and net-zero energy ready (NZER) new construction, as well as for next-generation, carbon-neutral housing and buildings
advancing low-carbon communities: developing advanced energy technologies, design and analysis tools, and methods to support resilient community energy systems that significantly reduce GHG emissions
delivering Local Energy Efficiency Partnership (LEEP) initiatives: accelerating energy efficient construction by enabling builders and renovators to reduce their time and risk. We do this by finding and trying innovations that can help them build higher performance homes better, faster and more affordably