The City of Abbotsford received the Industry Partner of the Year award from the Canadian Home Builders Association Fraser Valley.

According to a press release from the City, its partnership to deliver a series of educational workshops to building industry professionals on the BC Energy Step Code was an important factor in this victory.

The Fraser Valley Energy Step Code Super Series was led by the City of Abbotsford to advance high-performance building construction in the community by providing training and education on the Energy Step Code to help improve efficiency energy and reduce carbon pollution.

The City of Abbotsford is proud to announce that it has received the Industrial Partner of the Year award from the @chbafv in recognition of its partnership to deliver a series of educational workshops to building industry professionals on the BC Energy Step Code. pic.twitter.com/Sz2gbFLYte

– City of Abbotsford (@City_Abbotsford) November 6, 2024

The Energy Step Code workshop took place in Abbotsford on May 7. The City also hosted a Low-Tedi building envelope workshop as part of the series on May 14. A total of five workshops were held, with additional workshops held at the BCIT campuses in Burnaby, Chilliwack and Mission.

Participants included 170 architects and design firm employees, energy consultants, developers, custom and production home builders, remodelers and building inspectors.

The workshops were funded in partnership by FortisBC and BC Hydro and supported by the City of Mission, City of Chilliwack, Community Futures South Fraser, British Columbia Institute of Technology and the Canadian Home Builders Association Fraser Valley.

“Construction in Abbotsford is booming as we hit record construction values ​​this year,” said Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens. “As a city, our goal is to encourage responsible growth while ensuring a more sustainable future for us all. This award reflects our effort to help local building industry professionals utilize energy-efficient construction approaches while continuing to promote more growth and expansion in the city.

Part of the BC Building Code, the BC Energy Step Code sets out energy efficiency performance requirements for new construction and groups them into “steps” toward achieving its net-zero energy consumption goal. To comply with the BC Energy Step Code, builders use energy modeling software and on-site testing to demonstrate that their design and the constructed building meet the requirements of the standard.

The series supports the City’s goal of minimizing environmental impacts and combating climate change. Other achievements in this area include the continued implementation of the green fleet strategy to reduce emissions from transportation and company equipment, upgrading the city’s street lights to LEDs to save energy and improve lighting quality throughout the community, the launch of a $10 million heat recovery and optimization project at the Abbotsford Recreation Centre, testing the use of renewable natural gas (RNG) in heating systems at some city facilities, launching a comprehensive education and enforcement program on recycling contamination, expanding active transportation facilities through the construction of the Montrose Transit Exchange, and strengthening recycling restrictions water to support resilience in city-wide water use.

Since the start of the year, the City has issued building permits with an estimated value of nearly $700 million. This will be a record year, with the previous high being 2019 with $565 million.

Last month it was announced that the The City of Abbotsford also won two awards from the BC Municipal Safety Association.