Preparing Alberta's Buildings for Severe Weather

Alberta is facing more severe weather events, with rising temperatures, wildfires, and more frequent extreme storms threatening homes and businesses. Our report, Preparing Alberta's Buildings for Severe Weather−written in partnership with the Alberta Ecotrust Retrofit Accelerator program−highlights the need for deep retrofits to ensure the province’s buildings can withstand these changing conditions.

Four of the last decade’s 10 most costly and severe climate events in Canada occurred in Alberta. Over the past decade, the cost of insurable losses in Alberta increased by 495%, which is unsustainable in terms of cost and availability of coverage. The province is at heightened risk from a range of severe weather events, and multiple actors are advancing building retrofits for resiliency and adaptation to protect homes and businesses and their occupants.

The report highlights the current barriers to completing resilient retrofits and provides recommendations to accelerate them in the province. It lays the foundation for developing a strong insurance business case, emphasizing the cost of inaction and the benefits of proactive retrofitting.

Key Findings

The majority of Alberta’s existing building stock will still be in use in 2050, but lacks the resilience to withstand current and future climate events.
Multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) require dedicated resources and financial support for retrofitting.
Strengthening building codes, providing incentives to go beyond minimum code standards, and integrating climate resiliency measures into policies can drive large-scale retrofits.
Additional beyond-energy benefits, such as health and safety, of resilient retrofits should be accounted for in the full costing of deep retrofits.
The insurance and real estate industries must be active participants in building out the alternative business case to help demonstrate the cost of inaction and standardize the value retrofits add to homes.