Mission from MaRS

Better Buildings

Canada can lead the construction sector into a more sustainable era: where buildings go up quicker, are made of better materials, use low-carbon heating and cooling and have smarter building systems (like mechanical, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing).

 
Mission Overview

To meet our climate goals, we need to build better.

Accounting for 37 percent of global emissions, our buildings and construction sectors urgently need to decarbonize. Carbon-intensive building materials, outdated construction methods and inefficient heating and cooling are just some of the factors that make buildings the single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in dense urban areas. In Toronto, existing homes and buildings account for over 50 percent of emissions. With millions of new homes needed by 2030 to support Canada’s growing population, this new construction could add 18 megatonnes of emissions annually until 2030. Through this mission, MaRS is helping accelerate the adoption of Canadian innovations that can be part of the solution to decarbonizing our existing buildings and building better new ones.

Better Buildings Mission Objectives

The Better Buildings mission aims to help Canada achieve its climate goals in three key ways:

  1. Adopting innovations that can reduce the operational emissions of Canada’s buildings.
  2. Accelerate the uptake of low-carbon building materials and methods.
  3. Amplify the role of Canadian cleantech in existing efforts to create a more resilient, adaptive and affordable built environment.
Approach and Projects

Accelerate climate innovation adoption

Convene ‘innovator-friendly’ leaders from the construction and real estate industries to support adoption-ready ventures that can make high-impact decarbonization opportunities a reality.

Learn about the Adoption Accelerator

Establish and convene coalitions

Bring together a diverse group of subject-matter experts and stakeholders from industry, the innovation community and the financial ecosystem to guide Mission projects.

Check back soon

Enable project-ready solutions

Support made-in-Canada technologies with climate solutions through tailored programming and access to MaRS venture services.

Apply now

Better Buildings Adoption Accelerator

This adoption accelerator aims to recruit six Canadian ventures that are solving the building industry’s greatest decarbonization challenges and support their commercial deployments to broad-scale adoption.

Applications are now closed.