If there’s one thing Canadian politicians agree on, it’s that we need more housing. We need to build more affordable homes and the infrastructure that surrounds them. And, wherever possible, we should be building them with Canadian materials.
But if there’s another thing that the majority of Canadians agree on, it’s that more housing should not come at the cost of meeting our climate goals. We talk a lot about the need to heat, cool and power our homes with renewable energy to reduce emissions. But what’s talked about less are the emissions caused by building those homes in the first place.
Producing construction materials like concrete, steel, drywall and insulation causes significant industrial emissions. Before you get the keys to your new home, it has already locked in 20 to 120 tonnes of emissions. At the high end, that’s equivalent to 30 years of driving the average gas-powered car. For the housing build-out we need to see by 2030, that would mean more than a year’s worth of Canada’s total emissions from the entire economy.
In short, we cannot ignore the climate consequences of the housing debate. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s housing plan promises that low-emissions materials will be prioritized in the build-out, but in a housing crisis, there may be worries about a trade-off between green and affordable, or between green and fast.
Thankfully, cleaner options are already available, and they do not need to cost more. A new report by Clean Energy Canada shows that low-emissions alternatives for concrete, steel, insulation and drywall are available at no or negligible-cost premiums.
Drywall and insulation alternatives that cut emissions in half or even reduce emissions by as much as 98 per cent are already available at standard market rates. Even high-emissions steel and concrete can be replaced with cleaner alternatives, usually without paying extra.
Where slight cost increases were found for projects built with cleaner materials, in most cases these added up to no more than $2,000 to $3,000 per material, less than cents on the dollar for multi-million-dollar projects that deal with larger cost variations every day.
What’s more, preferring clean materials gives Canadian producers an edge, as our relatively clean electricity grid and innovation in clean material industries have made Canadian construction materials on average cleaner than those imported.
Governments can support domestic industry by adopting a “Buy Clean” approach, requiring government-funded buildings and infrastructure to use cleaner materials and meet whole-building emissions reduction targets. At no extra cost, that means Canadian housing and infrastructure dollars are spent on clean, often Canadian, materials. Investing in clean manufacturing will also help Canadian industry be competitive in export markets like the EU, which is adopting an emissions-based import tax on a range of industrial products, including steel.
In addition to cleaner materials, construction projects can cut cost and carbon through more efficient design. Simplifying existing designs and not overbuilding can already save time, dollars, and emissions. Taking this a step further and rethinking how a building can provide the same function with less material, builders can achieve emission reductions as large as 40 per cent. Building parkades and basements underground are examples of particularly carbon-intensive structures, not to forget flood risks. Thinking about the climate, as well as cost, early on can lead to big savings.
If the new federal government is looking for ways to tie the housing crisis to the tariff war, a common solution can be found in building efficiently with clean, made-in-Canada materials. It won’t break the bank.
This post first appeared in the National Observer.
