Insights | MCC Energy Strategies Inc.

Building owners are starting to realize that they need to adopt a Zero Carbon emission approach in order to do their part to mitigate climate change.  Microsoft has set the goal of being "Carbon Negative" by the year 2050, which is to say  they will be sucking in more carbn through their operations, including all their computer servers, than they will be emitting. A truly lofty objective!

To provide guidance, the Canadian Green Building Council has shifted it's focus from buildings that a strictly green to having all new and existing buildings adopt a Net Zero Carbon approach. CaGBC have created two variations of the Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) standards to provide a blueprint for building owners and their facility team. MCC Energy Strategies can guide you through 

ZCB-Design for new buildings, and includes embodied carbon in the materials of construction.

ZCB-Performance for existing buildings, and seeks to ensure that the HVAC and other building controls are operating at their peak performance level.

Note that to achieve Zero Carbon, a building owner may need an organization such as offsetters.ca.

As an interesting aside, Offsetters has a tool that permits people to calculate the carbon emissions of a trip by car or plane.