Development of a building performance rating and labelling system in Canada

The recent GBC '98 conference presented the results of a two-year process of developing and testing a new approach to the performance assessment of buildings. The international process is continuing, but in many jurisdictions, including Canada, there is a desire to test the implementation of a system, one that includes ratings and labelling as well as performance assessments. This paper attempts to outline some of the factors that are seen by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) as relevant to the need, market potential and barriers to such a system. The roles of various actors are considered including industry and government organizations, investors, utilities, building information centres, standards organizations, performance assessors, building owners and operators, tenants.