Affordable Housing Renewal: Testing Innovative Retrofit and Procurement Solutions in Vancouver

The Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development (Pembina) has partnered with the City of Vancouver, BC Housing, and the BC Non-Profit Housing Association on a strategy to dramatically reduce energy use and carbon pollution from existing social housing in Vancouver. To achieve these objectives, Pembina will: • Work with social housing associations to select two to five sites for possible deep resiliency retrofit pilots based on state of the asset and potential for energy/carbon savings; • Mobilize cutting edge suppliers, manufacturers, and designers (local through international) to develop a Request for Proposal(s) (RFPs) to solicit submissions for designs meeting certain performance metrics; • Connect interested design teams to experts on resiliency and efficiency topics and coordinate workshops for teams to exchange learnings prior to proposal(s) development and submission; • Assemble an expert panel to assess these proposals based on team experience, rigour of proposal, and innovativeness of design; • Prepare a report that compiles all design proposals to assess feasibility of replication at scale including modeling that will help determine how best to balance the trade-offs between deep envelope retrofits and fuel-switching, so as to optimize operating and capital costs with energy demand and carbon reductions; and • Facilitate decision making with BC Housing and owner to move to RFP construction design services for one to five pilots. This market-informed approach to feasibility studies offers two advantages: it anchors the feasibility assessment based on a range of perspective in the industry (instead of only one) and it provides a low-cost method to scale feasibility to several sites. The deliverables of this study will be a template RFP for full construction design of 1 building and a report that compiles all initial design proposals to assess the feasibility of replication at scale and identifies institutional and financial barriers to retrofit implementation. Through a combination of energy saving strategies and potential fuel switching, Pembina will aim to reduce GHGs by 80% and improve energy efficiency by more than 30%. Ten low-rise multi-residential buildings who utilize natural gas as their primary heating source were identified with the potential to be selected for this study. Assuming five were selected for follow-on pilot project retrofits the estimated GHG reduction would range from 870 to 1,065 tCO2e annually and over 21,000 tonnes over a 25 year period. A $24,000 reduction in operating costs is estimated annually per building. Innovative aspects: This study is the first of its kind in B.C. and is innovative on three fronts: 1. Innovation in retrofit design – Pembina will aim to assess the feasibility of pre-fabricated integrated retrofit solutions that can deliver deep resiliency at scale. It reduces the risk of contractor error and design, procurement costs for future similar projects and time on-site minimizing the need for interior access to suites. 2. Procurement process innovation - Instead of commissioning one engineering firm to conduct a pre-feasibility study Pembina will use in-house resources to front-load background research. Pembina will then go to market with a collaborative RFP for design services to test how the industry can meet the desired objectives and obtain cost estimates. This procurement model creates efficiencies of scale and fosters innovation by getting comparable opinions from a range of solution providers. 3. Innovation through a comprehensive market development strategy – This study will be supported by a market development team tasked with looking beyond just technical solutions by considering the barriers to retrofit investments such as lending practices and regulatory drivers. Replicability: The intent of this study is to accelerate replication of retrofits of affordable housing building stock. • The feasibility study will explore solutions that are turnkey yet customizable. • The potential for future projects replicating this approach is significant given that 53% of the total units in B.C.’s affordable housing stock are either low-rise apartments or townhomes. • Pembina will report and share lessons learned about technical, regulatory, and financing barriers at the feasibility stage, and update these results as they move to pilot stage. Pembina will have the possibility of making presentations to key stakeholder groups and presenting findings at industry conferences. Pembina also has initiated similar projects with cohorts of municipalities in BC, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia who will directly benefit from the results of this initiative. (Project description from original funding application)