Transition Planning Resources

Resources developed for Transition Planning provide concrete steps to identify and assess exposure to climate-related physical risks and energy-transition risks, conduct financial analyses such as cost-benefit assessments, funding opportunities, and investment planning, and define a recommended path to lower carbon emissions, higher energy performance and long-term asset value.

Learn more about our Carbon Transition Planning Guide, Climate-Related Risk Playbooks, and Guide to Codes and Regulations.

Who are these resources for?

All stakeholders involved in building upgrades and financial planning. This includes building owners, asset managers and their project teams and consultants, including engineers, architects and sustainability experts.

Carbon Transition Planning Guide

This planning guide is a key resource developed under CAGBC’s Transition Planning project, funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Codes Acceleration Fund. It is purpose-made to support existing building owners as they adopt and comply with the highest performance tiers of the
National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings (NECB) and regional high-performance codes and regulations to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

The Carbon Transition Planning Guide is a critical step in expanding the building sector’s capacity to plan and implement effective zero-carbon building transitions. It explains decarbonization is necessary, and outlines how to identify transition risks, evaluate building retrofit opportunities, develop a carbon transition plan, and align that plan with typical capital renewals. The approach outlined in this guide is applicable to different building types across Canada and is flexible enough to accommodate a range of building projects and timeframes.

Why choose CAGBC’s Carbon Transition Guide?

• A national tool from Canada’s green building leader: CAGBC’s Carbon Transition Guide provides a framework that’s applicable across Canada and draws on 20+ years of leadership advancing national building codes, regulations and green building standards.
• Covers all asset types: These resources address transition planning across a wide range of asset classes including MURBs, office, retail, and industrial buildings.
• Designed for sustainability and climate resilience: Helps project teams address both physical climate-related risks and energy transition risks within broader decarbonization and retrofit planning.
• Prepare for NECB and regional high-performance building codes: Roadmaps are designed to encourage adoption of and compliance with the highest tiers of the NECB and regional high-performance codes and regulations, and can set buildings up for success pursuing CAGBC’s certification programs such as LEED^® and Zero Carbon Building Standards™.
• Accounts for industry and regional diversity: Acknowledges and reflect the needs of municipal, non-profit, and Indigenous building owners aligned with funder expectations including different ownership models, decision-making contexts, and financial return considerations.

Climate-Related Risk Playbooks

REALPAC or the Real Property Association of Canada developed these four Climate-Related Risk Playbooks, tailored for different asset types: multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs), Industrial, Retail, and Office. Targeting building owners and building and investment managers, these resources provide practical guidance for integrating transition planning into asset management and investment decisions.

The playbooks provide an overview of transition and physical risk fundamentals, considerations for addressing climate-related risks at the portfolio versus the asset level, key financial planning terms, and regional considerations, as well as case study examples.

Understanding the Risks

A well-crafted transition plan that reflects the highest possible performance for your asset or portfolio is a strategy for managing risks such as.

1. Physical Risk: The risk of damage to a building asset due to climate-related factors, such as rising temperatures and extreme storms.
2. Transition Risk: The risk related to the transition to a low-carbon economy, including changes to the regulatory landscapes, limited energy resources, increase costs to insurance and taxes, as well as reputational and market shifts.

Understanding these risks and how to proactively manage them is now a business imperative for real estate investment and management.

Guide to Codes and Regulations for Existing Buildings

We know keeping track of applicable codes, programs, and sustainability frameworks can be a challenge. CAGBC has put together a resource to help quickly identify the drivers promoting low- or zero-carbon buildings in Canada’s major metropolitan regions.

Download the quick reference guide for help identifying the codes, standards and programs that will impact your transition planning and implementation, or access the full Environmental Scan for more detailed information.