Canada’s Path to Net-Zero Must Prioritize Both Energy Efficiency and the Occupant Experience

When energy efficiency measures are pursued without considering thermal comfort, we risk creating buildings that operate effectively but leave occupants dissatisfied with their internal environments.

Through the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, the country is legally committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, but, these ambitious reductions can’t be the only end goal.

Without balancing the importance of energy efficiency and thermal comfort in building designs, Canada risks missing the mark on what truly makes buildings sustainable: being spaces people want to use consistently, to live and to work.

Policy Context: The Missing Piece

The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act establishes long-term emissions targets and formal reporting requirements, yet it does not describe how performance should be achieved at the building level, leaving key responsibilities to the designers, engineers, and policymakers.

A major pillar of the effort is the Canada Green Buildings Strategy, which aims to lower emissions from both new construction and existing buildings. The approach focuses heavily on reducing energy efficiency gaps by improving insulation, upgrading windows, tightening envelopes, and minimizing unwanted air leakage.

Not once does the strategy mention indoor environmental quality (IEQ), which includes factors like lighting, acoustics, air quality, and thermal comfort – subjective elements that impact how an individual experiences a space.

Occupant Comfort: More Than Just a Thermostat Setpoint

Thermal comfort is often misunderstood and oversimplified. There is an assumption that setting a thermostat to a specific temperature ensures comfort, but as Robert Bean – one of Canada’s foremost authorities on the subject – puts it, Using the thermostat reading as a proxy for thermal comfort is like calling baking soda a cake.

In reality, temperature is only one of six factors that influence our sense of comfort. These are defined in ASHRAE Standard 55 – Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy. There are four physical factors that contribute to thermal comfort, including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air speed, and humidity, along with two personal variables: one’s metabolic rate and clothing insulation.

These variables are expressed as numerical values that can be used to quantify personal comfort by calculating an index called the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). This index predicts the average value of a large group of individuals’ self-reported perceptions of the different factors, called “thermal sensation votes,” based on a sensation scale that ranges from cold to hot.

Designing With Indoor Environmental Quality in Mind

A tight, highly insulated building envelope reduces heating demand and boosts energy efficiency. However, without proper attention to ventilation, radiant conditions, or humidity control, it could leave occupants uncomfortable, even unhealthy.

Research from Efficiency Canada highlights that high-performance buildings designed with passive strategies – think building orientation, shading, airtightness, and insulation – paired with efficient active systems like heaters and heat pumps, deliver both energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

Meanwhile, smart technologies such as occupant-centric controls allow systems to respond to peoples’ real-time needs, not just static thermostat setpoints.

At Pretium, we understand this and prioritize the balance between energy efficiency and thermal comfort in our approach to building design and retrofits.

With a multidisciplinary engineering team that includes building envelope specialists, mechanical engineers and energy performance experts, we take a unique, whole-building systems approach and evaluate any improvements alongside their impact on occupant comfort, placing peoples’ needs at the heart of building performance.

A Delicate Balance of Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort

Success in achieving net-zero goals requires buy-in from Canadians, so Canada can’t afford to treat energy efficiency and thermal comfort as competing goals.

Our buildings need to serve both climate targets and the people who live and work in them.

By treating buildings as systems and designing with the six factors of thermal comfort in mind, we can create spaces that are efficient, sustainable and – most significantly – enjoyable to spend time in.