Online Micro-Certificate: Zero Carbon Building Solutions

What is the Zero Carbon Building Solutions Micro-Certificate?

This micro-certificate is a flexible eight-week online program that provides professionals in architecture, engineering and construction industries a thorough understanding of zero-carbon buildings. It will outline how to achieve zero carbon throughout building life cycle including embodied and operational carbon reductions and carbon offsets.

Why choose the Zero Carbon Building Solutions Micro-Certificate?

To support the 2050 Canadian carbon-neutral targets, it is important to recognize the importance of carbon emission reductions in building. This program provides an important tool for industry professionals to decarbonize buildings.

This program offers a unique perspective through whole building life cycle assessment and provides hands-on practice for industry professionals to understand and pursue zero-carbon building designs, manufacture, construction, and management. This micro-certificate is rooted in real-world applications focusing on domestic and international case studies, and making strong linkages for architects, engineers, contractors, and manufacturers.

What will you learn?

This flexible, eight-week online program is based on real-world case studies to examine and propose potential solutions from different perspectives to achieve zero-carbon building. The Zero Carbon Building Solutions program provides participants with the opportunity to understand:

1. The embodied carbon emissions from the manufacturing, transport, installation, use and end-of-life of building materials.
2. The contribution of carbon emissions during building operations and how to reduce emissions through energy use and the release of refrigerants during regular building operations.
3. The negative carbon emission strategies that could be used to further offset building carbon emissions outside of the value chain or life cycle of a building.
4. The most appropriate solutions to achieve zero/low carbon building designs from their professional background based on the knowledge learned.

Who should apply?

This program is applicable to a wide range of potential applicants who are working in or will go on to work in architecture, engineering and construction management positions in the private sector, government, non-governmental organizations and industry. This program is applicable to those working in BC, across Canada, and in an international context.

Applications are open to architecture, engineering and construction professionals and practitioners across all sectors who have demonstrated an interest in and a need to further their understanding of how to assess and reduce building carbon emissions, establish and administer carbon-related projects, and navigate the evolving landscape of relevant markets.

Employment Opportunities

1. Government departments – municipal, provincial/federal
2. Urban planners
3. Architecture (e.g., zero carbon building standard, net zero carbon, BC Energy STEP Code, Passive House)
4. Engineering (e.g., infrastructure, energy, low carbon project guides)
5. Construction (e.g., material selections, construction methods, onsite management)
6. Manufacturing sector (e.g., innovative materials with low embodied carbon, processing optimization, supply chain, low-energy manufacturing)
7. Non-governmental organizations (e.g., bioeconomy, forestry protection, renewable energy, carbon economy, and environmental groups)
8. Industry – many different organizations across sectors are being required to report carbon-related accounting and environmental reporting which requires carbon-related knowledge and practices