BIRCH Housing’s Plan to Complete Portfolio-Wide Utility Analysis and Benchmarking & Stakeholder Engagement

BIRCH Housing (est. 1975) provides community housing to 576 low- to moderate-income units across nine housing developments in five Ontario cities (Toronto, Oakville, Oshawa, Newmarket, and London). The planning grant will be used to complete a portfolio-wide utility analysis in the Toronto, York, Durham and London developments to develop and deliver an awareness campaign to residents and the Asset Management Board Committee. The awareness campaign will better equip the residents with knowledge and education on reducing energy consumption, and to inform the Committee of components necessary for achieving high-performance housing. The campaign will consist of presentations, posters, handouts, and a half-day webinar. The utility analysis will provide a baseline from which BIRCH may measure electricity, natural gas and water consumption of the units. Currently BIRCH does not have this data and does not have any tangible energy or water use targets, the latter of which is important to identify and prioritize properties for efficiency upgrades. Following these planning activities, BIRCH's aim is to identify and prioritize buildings for further evaluation. BIRCH intends to apply for GMF's feasibility study grant to evaluate the potential for implementation of energy conservation measures within the identified properties in order to achieve a minimum of 25% reduction in energy consumption. (Project description from original funding application)