2021 Program Updates

This year, our checklists have limited updates, mostly clerical and minor verbiage adjustments. Over the last few years, we’ve updated / added a number of checklist items based on industry input, code changes, new innovations, and input from our Technical Standards Committee and the Board of Directors. Many of these have created new opportunities to earn points toward BUILT GREEN® certification.

We’re particularly interested in greenhouse gas emission reporting and encourage innovation by awarding points for these. As well, we want builders to consider checklist items related to disaster preparedness and home modifications for aging in place, as well as the Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS) certification, which is an option for Water Conservation.

Looking ahead, with new codes coming, we anticipate more updates for our 2022 Checklists.

I.  Project Enrolment: March 31 Deadline

Projects using the 2020 checklists must be enrolled by March 31, 2021. Should there be extenuating circumstances, please contact us.

II. 2021 Program Checklists

Program checklists will be available to members on the BUILT GREEN® Portal. Or, contact our office. 

• Single Family New Construction
• Single Family MURB New Construction*
• Single Family Whole-House Renovation
• Single Family Room Renovations (Kitchen, Bathroom, and Basement)
• High Density New Construction
• High Density Renovations
• Communities

*A note about multi-unit residential building (MURB)—new checklist, same program: % LTRH recalculated

As a reminder, MURB projects will continue to go through our Single Family program; however, our current calculation for the percentage lower than reference house deducts the baseload (25.62) based on one unit. Applying EnerGuide (V 15.8), any single family building with a secondary unit should be modelled as a multi-unit whole building, and so, the baseloads change depending on the number of units. As such, our single family checklist has been updated for MURB projects and now provides an input for the number of units, which allows the baseload calculations to be adjusted accordingly.

Multi-Unit Residential Building (MURB) defined: a building comprised of a common entrance and separate units that are also known as apartments constructed for dwelling purposes. Multi-Unit Residential Buildings must have one primary exterior door access, with each of the apartments connected by an interior door.

We know this is a challenging time, with COVID-19 and uncertain economic times, but also with building code changes, escalating costs, and more. Though we head into 2021 amidst the second wave of infection, which will create a weaker start to the new year, we are optimistic that the vaccine deployment will set the stage for the economy to improve later in 2021.