Canada’s response to the housing affordability crisis and climate change should not force policymakers to choose between building more homes or building more sustainable homes. Jay Nordenstrom, a former Task Force member, stresses a more holistic view of building emissions — one that takes into account the environmental performance of the building throughout its life, not just the carbon emitted during construction.
Much of the discussion around low carbon construction has been about embodied carbon – the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the manufacture of building materials and the construction of buildings. While it’s important to reduce these emissions, Nordenstrom says the emphasis on that has overlooked another key factor: the operational carbon savings that materials can deliver when they improve a building’s long-term energy efficiency.
The debate is happening as the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes (CBHCC) is creating the 2030 Model National Building Code. In July 2025 the organization released its Climate Change Policy Position on Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions, proposing a framework based on the tiered approach previously proposed for operational carbon emissions in the 2020 Model National Building Code .
The opinion piece says the proposed direction places a lot of emphasis on energy-consuming equipment such as heating systems, water heaters and lighting, and little on construction materials that permanently reduce energy demand. Insulation is a great example . It can reduce operational emissions over decades of use .
Nordenstrom cites a lifecycle assessment done by Building Knowledge Canada on behalf of NAIMA Canada in 2026 that looked at the long-term environmental impact of insulation. The study found that in many cases the avoided emissions from cutting energy consumption exceeded the building’s embodied carbon over a 100-year life span.
The study also looked at carbon payback time, the time it takes for operational carbon savings to recoup the extra embodied emissions from higher-performance insulation. The simple payback periods for the types of buildings studied ranged from about 3.1 to 5.1 years, with the buildings expected to be in service for 75 to 100 years.
This, the article says, underscores the need to consider building materials over their full lifecycle, not just emissions during construction.
Nordenstrom also connects the discussion to the cost of housing. He says that while lower construction costs may translate into a lower purchase price for a home, homes with lower energy performance can result in permanently higher heating and cooling costs for homeowners, making the home less affordable over the long term.
He believes that affordability is not only about the initial cost of building, but also about the long-term cost of running. Using energy efficient materials helps lower utility bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect households from fluctuations in energy prices.
“If Canada looks only at embodied carbon, we could be stuck with decades of unnecessary emissions, higher maintenance and retrofit costs and more infrastructure needs and climate risk,” Nordenstrom warns.
He says electrification remains a key part of the energy transition in Canada, but many areas still rely on fossil fuels for their electricity. Homes heated with natural gas, heating oil or propane also continue to spew large amounts of greenhouse gasses.
“So the quickest and cheapest way to cut emissions is to cut the amount of energy buildings need in the first place, he says. He concludes: “Lowering carbon emissions and long-term housing costs are still one of the best ways to improve energy efficiency.
