Friday, October 4, 2024 
Friday, October 4, 2024
December 5, 2021
After another year of growth and innovation, leaders in the Ontario building industry celebrated and recognized their collective successes, achievements of their peers, and special projects demonstrating the best of home building.
2020 was a record year for certifying energy efficient homes, with this year’s additions reaching a total of over 100,000 homes certified to date as delivering the benefits of the ENERGY STAR label – built more than 15% better than the building code. Net Zero and Net Zero Ready homes are also contributing to steady growth in energy efficient buildings. In building energy efficient homes to established certifications – including ENERGY STAR, EnerGuide and Net Zero – EnerQuality’s community of builders has helped Ontario homeowners save $258M in lifetime energy costs, reduce over 1 MT of C02e (carbon dioxide equivalent), and shrink greenhouse gas emissions and overall environmental footprint.
The event also recognized the OHBA and EnerQuality team on the 100th job placement in the OBHA Job Ready Program. The OHBA Job Ready program matches eager job seekers from underrepresented groups with starter jobs in the construction industry – jobs from general construction labour to pre-trades roles and office positions supporting builders, manufacturers, and service companies. Employees receive basic safety training and construction industry orientation and employers provide on-the-job training to introduce participants to a career in the construction industry.
“Ontario builders are committed to building better. Hiring job seekers with transferable skills who are eager to learn on the job is also part of building better,” says Monica Curtis, EnerQuality President and CEO. “By building more efficient homes and hiring a more representative workforce, the province’s construction industry is meeting the twin challenges of environmental sustainability and diversity and inclusion.”
In its second year as a virtual event, over 200 building professionals joined the event online, representing HBAs, municipalities, and over 100 companies, including home builders, architects, engineers, energy advisors, building officials, tradespeople, manufacturers, and product and service providers.
This year’s event featured the Innovation Gauntlet – an exciting pitch session where manufacturers present their new solutions to optimize the high-performance new construction and renovation industry — and attendees voted on the most innovative new solution
“Builders are committed to building better and creating innovative, energy-efficient homes they are proud of, and homeowners seek out,” says Rose Benedetto, Managing Director of EnerQuality. “This drive is matched by the ability of leading manufacturers to anticipate the market direction, as shown by the finalists in the Innovation Gauntlet.”
The event draws nominations from across the building industry, with builders, licensed professionals, and energy advisors from over a dozen Ontario HBAs represented. The winners also show a cross-section of the building industry with newer builders alongside established, generational building companies.
“Increasingly, homeowners’ consciousness about their environmental footprint shapes their housing priorities. The EQ Awards showcase how the industry is building homes that use less energy, are more comfortable, with better indoor air quality and lower emissions overall,” says Ms. Curtis. “As the market shifts to focus on carbon, we expect to see even more builders certifying their homes and building better than code.”
The 2020 EQ Leader of the Year was awarded to Susan Cudahy. This award recognizes an individual or company for their commitment, advocacy and leadership in driving the growth of energy efficient housing in Ontario in 2020. Susan leads the Residential New Construction team at Enbridge, where she is the Supervisor of Strategic Builder Relations. In 2020, Susan and her team enabled nearly 1,500 learners to take training programs to help their organizations build more energy efficient buildings.
“This is an incredible honour to be nominated for this award and one that I truly would not have received without the full support of Enbridge Gas and our entire Residential New Construction team. We were so pleased that we could take a challenging situation like the pandemic and turn it into a province-wide opportunity to advance the training and education of our Builders. We are very proud of the Enbridge support we provided to our training associations to assist them in adapting, shifting and changing to meet the needs of the new environment we all found ourselves in. Together we were able to create a positive opportunity that has increased Builder Energy Efficiency Certifications and offered new insights and learnings into the art of advanced building science.” – Susan Cudahy, Enbridge Gas Inc.
Tamarack Developments Corp is the 2020 recipient of the Impact Award. This EnerQuality-selected award is given to a builder that has made significant long-term voluntary progress in reducing carbon emissions and showed outstanding achievements through energy efficiency and sustainable practices.
About
EnerQuality Corporation is the market leader in green building programs. Founded in 1998 as a partnership between the Ontario Home Builders’ Association and the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance, EnerQuality’s mission is to transform Ontario’s housing into the most energy efficient and sustainable in the world.
