New construction guidelines have been adopted by Cranbrook City Council, as the new BC Energy Step Code measures are in place for all residential and commercial construction in the community.
The new Building Amendment Bylaw was unanimously approved by Council on Monday, effectively requiring all new construction in Cranbrook to meet Step 1 of the Step Code. By August 1, 2021, all commercial and residential buildings will then be required to meet Step 2, which mandates that construction is 10% more energy efficient.
“By introducing a requirement for Step 1 now, we will align with most other East Kootenay communities and Regional Districts that have adopted Step Code, which will help to prepare our industry to become comfortable with the new process. This will put our builders and suppliers at an advantage ahead of these hard adoption dates anticipated in the BC Building Code during 2022”, said Tony Luce, Building Inspector and Planning Supervisor for the City of Cranbrook.
“As we make this transition, builders should be aware that there are many time-limited, high-value incentives available from the Province and utilities right now and adopting Step Code allows us to support our builders and clients to access those,” added Paul Heywood, Manager of Building and Bylaw Services.
The bylaw amendment is meant to “harmonize” the required energy modelling and air-tightness testing with the Building Code’s new construction and performance requirements. The BC Energy Step Code is aiming for new construction to be net-zero by 2032.
“Many builders across the East Kootenay have successfully embraced the Step Code’s higher-efficiency, more comfortable and more durable building standards, and they are already achieving performance much higher than current code requires,” said Heywood.
In 2022, Step Code is mandating 20% higher energy efficiency from new construction across all of British Columbia. That’s compared to the baseline of the 2018 Building Code.
The City of Cranbrook said the majority of builders are already achieving Step 2 and 3 of the BC Energy Step Code from their current building practices.
MORE: BC Energy Step Code (City of Cranbrook)