Building clean does not need to break the bank

May 28

construction workers at a job site — Producing construction materials like concrete, steel, drywall and insulation causes significant industrial emissions. More housing should not come at the cost of meeting our climate goals. Photo by Mikael Blomkvist/Pexels

By Jana Elbrecht

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.

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