Business View Magazine - August 2023

SSRIA achieved at a meaningful scale and has upfront cost affordability implications that need to be addressed while recognizing the ongoing operational cost savings for a net-zero home. On the commercial side, the energy intensity of buildings is 1.59 GJ per square meter, a reduction of only 0.05 GJ/m2 in the last 20 years[3] and a glaring example of slow adoption. Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association (SSRIA) building industry members (local to Alberta, Canada), were asked to identify the barriers and challenges to building net zero buildings. A stunning 15 barriers were identified demonstrating this is a multi-faceted and complex issue with an average of 4.5 barriers identified by each respondent. In 2020, the Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association (SSRIA) set out to address this challenge and revolutionize the design, construction, and operations of our buildings with the aim to reach a net- zero carbon built environment by 2050. The approach that SSRIA is taking has four key pillars, which are: • Collaboration - to optimize low carbon solutions while supporting widespread dissemination • Demonstrations - to validate solutions and reduce perceived risks • Business growth – to support and optimize the ‘solution makers’ for increased demand • FutureSkills - to prepare the existing and future workforce to implement the low carbon solutions Collaboration Buildings operate as a system but typically each of the professions and various trades complete a building in isolation from one another. This limits the ability to push building performance beyond code requirements and reduces the transfer of knowledge and learnings from projects across the various players involved. Additionally, collaboration is important between building professionals and the ‘solution makers’ to optimize the low carbon solutions being developed. SSRIA fosters collaboration through networking events, learning webinars, and relationship brokering, but is also a requirement on projects where the owner, designers, builders, suppliers, etc will all