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

CHBA will be rolling out the following workshops.

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: CHBA is currently scheduling 12 of these workshops by March 31st. To see if there is one occurring new you, check out the schedule under LEEP Events below.

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: CHBA will be rolling these forums out in the fall of 2022.

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: CHBA will be rolling these exchanges out in the fall of 2022. Members can view the recordings from the National Kickoff LEEP Innovation Exchanges under "LEEP Events" lower on this page.

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: CHBA will be rolling these workshops out in the fall of 2022.

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

Kickoff LEEP Innovation Exchange

On October 5, 2022, CHBA National hosted three LEEP Innovation Exchanges to give members a taste of how these sessions run. Members can watch the recordings and access the PDFs below if they're logged in to the website.

SESSION 1

Whole Home Energy Performance
Presented by Energy Advisor Gilles Lesage | Total Home Solutions Inc.
Learn how builders set and reach their energy performance targets.

About the session
This session is aimed at all builders, whether they are currently building to minimum code requirements or all the way through to Net Zero energy performance. Participants will learn about the most essential elements of building science for high-performance homes. Three builders, each who have used a unique approach, will talk about their experiences. The session will conclude with a 15 minute Q&A discussion.

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SESSION 2

Envelopes
Presented by wall systems expert Graham Finch | RDH Building Science Inc.
Learn how builders design and build high performance wall systems.

About the session
This session is aimed at all builders, whether they are currently building to minimum code requirements or all the way through to Net Zero energy performance. Participants will learn about building high-performance wall systems, with a focus on the most essential elements. Three builders will share the approaches from recent builds during a panel discussion. The session will conclude with a 15 minute Q&A opportunity.

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SESSION 3

Mechanical Systems
Presented by mechanicals systems expert Rob Pope | Ecolighten Energy Solutions Ltd.
Learn how builders install compact and efficient mechanical systems.

About the session
This session is aimed at all builders, whether they are currently building to minimum code requirements or all the way through to Net Zero energy performance. Participants will learn about building high-performance wall systems, with a focus on the most essential elements. Three builders will share the approaches from recent builds during a panel discussion. The session will conclude with a 15 minute Q&A opportunity.