Local Energy Efficiency Partnerships (LEEP)

LEEP accelerates energy efficient construction by enabling builders and renovators to reduce their time and risk identifying, exploring, and adopting innovations in the residential construction industry. Initiated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) years ago, LEEP assists with bringing innovation into the market in a well thought-out and responsive way. LEEP is delivered regionally with the intention to establish an ongoing critical mass of builders and renovators that can identify the best innovations suited to their region which can, in turn, pull through a responsive supply chain.

The results include:

Energy savings for homeowners
Competitive advantage for participating builders, renovators, and manufacturers
Builder and renovator driven enhancement to local building practice

Builders and Renovators use LEEP to:

reduce their time and risk in finding and trying innovations that can help them build/renovate homes to higher levels of performance - better, faster, and more affordably,
use federal research results to inform their technology decision making, and
pool their buying power regionally to make it worthwhile for manufacturers to address specific issues for builders and renovators.

CHBA’S Role in LEEP

The CHBA has been supporting LEEP for more than 10 years and encourages its expansion because of its exceptional success in accelerating adoption and deployment of emerging technologies through its builder- and renovator-led model. It drives manufacturers to meet high-performance housing needs, helps local experts expand their knowledge and share best practices, and brings regional builders, renovators, trades, energy advisors and building officials together to review options and streamline implementation of innovation.

Now, CHBA is working with NRCan to scale the LEEP initiative. CHBA will be working closely with local and provincial Home Builders’ Associations to expand and deliver LEEP to strategic markets across Canada, moving LEEP from an ad-hoc approach to a coordinated national delivery. CHBA will conduct deep dives into specific technologies carried out by NRCan’s LEEP workshops and forums, leveraging its HBA network for regional delivery, with ‘best of’ forums refined to regional needs. CHBA is also uniquely positioned to disseminate the results across the Canadian home building and renovation industries and will do so through its expansive network and communication channels.

LEEP Workshops & Forums

Cost Benefit Analysis Workshops

These workshops are designed to help builders and renovators better understand the technologies and costs of building to higher levels of energy performance. The workshops will help select performance targets, define a case study home to work on, illustrate the range of technology combinations and associated costs, and explain how to choose the optimum solution while exploring options from a cost and technology perspective. The workshops are also designed for participants to trial NRCan's costing tool, in real-time, to have a working understanding of the tool as well as the output results.

When & Where: Please check back later

Technology Forums

These forums and technical workshops address specific industry challenges that are of interest to builders and renovators. These forums bring together industry experts, manufacturers, technical experts, and builders and renovators to analyze and explore technologies in real-time. Through these forums, builders and renovators will have access to manufacturers, identify opportunities to optimize their construction process, identify technologies that they’re like to trial, and work with industry and technical experts to innovate and advance the industry. Manufacturers, through the forums, gain feedback on their products, identify opportunities to innovate, and gain insights into the market.

When & Where: Please check back later

Innovation Exchanges

These forums are builder/renovator led and provide opportunities for builders and renovators to share their experiences and address what worked, what did not, what to be aware of, and what they would have done differently. These forums are designed to capture and share lessons learned to accelerate innovation within the industry. An output of these forum are Technical Guides and Tools that address, identify, and document potential gaps in the industry. The publications are produced as a result of builder and renovator experience.

When & Where: Please check back later

Integrated Design Process (IDP) Workshops

These events are designed to emphasize inter-disciplinary collaboration between builders, renovators, trades, industry experts, manufacturers, and other stakeholders from the beginning of the design process. IDP encourages discussion on the importance of various high-performance issues and establishes a consensus on the matters of concern. IDP takes a holistic approach of the construction process; costing, design of systems, energy engineering and simulations, material selection, building/renovating constraints, and provides objective information on the aspect of performance. IDP enables clear communication of performance targets, strategies to achieving these targets, and allows for continuous iteration through feedback loops.

When & Where: Click on your Province below to see details of LEEP sessions currently scheduled.

For more information on LEEP, you can check out the following on NRCan

Learn more here.

Builders and renovators participating at LEEP Technology Forums are invited to build energy efficient homes using some of the technologies they learned about. Learn more here.

Find guides and publication to help LEEP builders and renovators move forward to use new technologies pulled through the LEEP process. Learn more here.

Manufacturers respond to challenges set by builder groups. Learn more here.

LEEP Events

Find LEEP events near you!

National

National

There are currently no scheduled upcoming LEEP sessions in this area, but more are being planned. Please check back soon and let your HBA's Executive Officer know that you're interested in LEEP.

British Columbia

British Columbia

1. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA Fraser Valley, delivered in Abbotsford - February 6, 2024: Click here for registration.

2. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA Central Okanagan, delivered in Vernon - February 8, 2024: Click here for registration.

3. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA Central Okanagan, delivered in West Kelowna - February 9, 2024: Click here for registration.

4. Technology Forum for New Build (Envelopes) in partnership with CHBA Fraser Valley, delivered in TBD - February 27, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

5. Technology Forum for New Build (Envelopes) in partnership with CHBA Fraser Valley, delivered in TBD - February 28, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

6. Technology Forum for New Build (Envelopes and Mechanicals) in partnership with CHBA South Okanagan, delivered in Nelson - March 1, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

7. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA Vancouver Island, delivered in TBD - March 7, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

Alberta

Alberta

1. Technology Forum for Renovations and New Build (Mechanicals + Envelopes) in partnership with BILD Lethbridge - March 26/27, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

2. Technology Forum for Renovations (Envelopes) in partnership with BILD Edmonton - March 25, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

No events currently scheduled. Please check back shortly.

Manitoba

Manitoba

1. Technology Forum for Renovations (Mechanicals) in partnership with Manitoba HBA - February 20, 2024: Click here for registration

2. Technology Forum for Renovations (Envelopes) in partnership with Manitoba HBA - March 21, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

Ontario

Ontario

1. Technology Forum on Wall systems in partnership with Durham HBA - February 22, 2024:Click here for registration.

2. Technology Forum on Wall systems in partnership with London HBA and Waterloo Region HBA - March 7, 2024: Please check the respective HBA websites for registration information.

3. Technology Forum on HVAC systems in partnership with Durham HBA - March 21, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

4. Integrated Design Process Overview New Build in partnership with BILD GTA - March 28, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

New Brunswick

New Brunswick

1. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA New Brunswick, delivered in Moncton - March 18, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

2. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA New Brunswick, delivered in Fredericton - March 22, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

1. Technology Forum for New Build (Mechanicals Technical presentation) in partnership with CHBA Nova Scotia, Halifax- February 27, 2024: Click here for registration.

2. Technology Forum for Renovations (Mechanicals Technical presentation) in partnership with CHBA Nova Scotia, Halifax- March 5, 2024: Click here for registration.

3. Technology Forum for Renovations (HVAC Manufacturer presentation) in partnership with CHBA Nova Scotia, Halifax- March 19, 2024: Click here for registration.

4. Technology Forum for Renovations (HVAC Manufacturer presentation) in partnership with CHBA Nova Scotia, Halifax- March 26, 2024: Click here for registration.

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

1. Integrated Design Process for New Build in partnership with CHBA Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown - November 15, 2023, 2024: Details will be shared shortly.

Newfoundland & Labrador

Newfoundland & Labrador

There are no sessions planned at the moment. Please reach out to [email protected], if you'd like to see LEEP in NL.

Industry Feedback

Feedback from industry builders, renovators, and partners.

Have questions about LEEP? Contact:

Ejaz Hussain Farook

Project Manager,
Local Energy Efficiency Partnerships (LEEP)
613.230.3060 x242
[email protected]