RC123 MarApr 2026 - Magazine - Page 40
PEOPLE & EVENTS
EVENTS
OTTAWA
National Building
Decarbonization Forum
Bryan Flannigan, executive director of
the Building Decarbonization Alliance,
welcomed more than 250 building
sector leaders to the National Building
Decarbonization Forum.
MORE THAN 250 PEOPLE assembled
at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre this
week for the second National Building
Decarbonization Forum, the only event in
Canada to bring together voices from across
the entire building sector to prepare for the
electri昀椀ed future economy.
“The expertise needed to shape Canada’s
building transition is not somewhere out
there… It’s right here, in this room,” said
Bryan Flannigan, executive director of the
Building Decarbonization Alliance (BDA), an
initiative of the Transition Accelerator.
Attendees included leaders from the
construction and manufacturing industry,
electricity utilities, banking and 昀椀nance, all
levels of government, and other key parties
with in昀氀uence in Canada’s building sector.
“Preparing Canada’s buildings for an
electri昀椀ed future economy calls for a new
understanding of this $6 trillion asset
class,” said Flannigan. “Modernizing our
commercial and residential buildings means
changing our view of buildings: from
passive investments to critical infrastructure,
contributing to grid readiness, industrial
competitiveness, a昀昀ordability, and emissions
reduction.”
Journalist and political commentator
Chantal Hébert shared her insights into
Canada’s rapidly changing political
landscape in a keynote address, while Dr. Jan
Rosenow, leader of the Energy Programme
at the Environmental Change Institute at
Oxford, provided an optimistic international
perspective in his opening keynote, sharing
practical lessons for the Canadian context.
“We should be hopeful for what will
happen in the next 10 years in the building
space, because innovation is already
coming,” said Rosenow, an expert on the
global energy transition who recently
addressed energy ministers from all 27 EU
member states. “It’s there. The sector is ripe
for it. And with events like this, we’re going
to harness it and channel it.”
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40—RENEW CANADA –MARCH/APRIL 2026
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