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Sustainability in Canadian industrial, office, and retail CRE sectors has traditionally been a challenge to achieve, but the Dream Group is making it look easy. 

 Canadian real estate companies, like the Dream Group, are a step ahead of its competitors, developing outstanding properties across North America and Europe. Its latest project involves a deep retrofit of its industrial, office, and retail CRE, as well as the creation of a new sustainable Zibi community in Ottawa. 

 

CIB Awards The Dream Group 

Canada was among the first signatories of the Paris Agreement, joining it back in 2016. Ever since, it’s been working diligently on establishing plans that would cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and ensure a lesser environmental footprint and greater sustainability. 

To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has been offering financial support to all infrastructure projects designed in the public interest. Most recently, it’s provided support to the Dream Group. 

The company received $136.6 million from CIB’s Commercial Building Retrofits Initiative to be applied to 19 of its properties across Ontario and Saskatchewan. The properties, built from 1875 to 1992, will undergo renovations that aim to decarbonize and modernize them. The Dream Group will start working on the retrofits in spring 2022. 

 

Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative 

The Dream Group’s aim is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. If successful, the project would help Canada reach its Paris Agreement targets 15 years earlier than expected. 

According to the CIB’s Commercial Building Retrofits Initiative criteria, the Dream Group must contribute a minimum of 20% equity and achieve a minimum of 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across its portfolio. No single building can have less than a 25% reduction of greenhouse gases. 

To move forward with its sustainability goals, the Dream Group became one of the first Canadian companies to join the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM). 

 

First Canadian Net-Zero Community by 2025

Besides investing in deep retrofit projects on some of its older properties, the Dream Group is also investing in new sustainable communities across Canada. 

The company’s Zibi project, located between Ottawa and Gatineau, is set to become the first net-zero community in the capital by 2025. 

The project boasts walking trails, four parks, cycling paths, plenty of retail CRE, multifamily, and office properties, and an array of appealing amenities, all designed to increase resident comfort and decrease their environmental footprint. 

 

Summary 

The Dream Group and others like them are preparing for the future and adopting net-zero standards. Its sustainability projects are not only helping Canada reach its Paris Agreement targets, but they’re also attracting investor interest and boosting the Canadian economy by driving activity in the industrial, office, and retail CRE. 

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