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Canada and United States creating common platform for energy performance of buildings

November 9, 2011 - Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have signed an agreement to create a common platform for measuring and assessing the energy performance of commercial buildings in both countries.

November 9, 2011  By  Anthony Capkun


“Energy benchmarking is an important aspect of an effective strategy to improve energy efficiency in buildings, because what gets measured gets done,” said Joe Oliver, minister of natural resources. “This agreement is another example of how we are working with the U.S.—through the Clean Energy Dialogue—to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.”

The agreement will harmonize the approach of the two countries by enhancing EPA’s existing Energy Star Portfolio Manager software tool to track and rate the energy performance of Canadian commercial buildings, in addition to buildings in the States.

“This agreement between EPA and NRCan is part of a broad commitment to working together on energy efficiency, an important element of cleaning the air and securing our energy future,” said EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We are glad that Canada selected EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool to support their national energy management program for existing commercial and institutional buildings and we look forward to the benefits this new partnership will create for the health of our families, for our economy and for our shared environment.”

With a database of more than 250,000 buildings (representing nearly 27 billion sf of commercial and institutional building space in the States), the Portfolio Manager tool provides both governments with solid, measurable information on energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reductions from commercial buildings.

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Through the agreement, enhancements will be made to Portfolio Manager, including the development of a Canadian-based energy performance scale and the addition of Canadian reference data (weather, energy and emissions factors, and metric units). The tool will also be available in both official languages.

The agreement, developed under the U.S. Federal Technology Transfer Act, took effect October 1, 2011, and will run through March 30, 2016.

CLICK HERE for more information on NRCan’s program.

CLICK HERE for more information on EPA’s program.


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