Canadian Building Organizations Abandon Cross-Promotion Plan

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada (BOMA Canada) have discontinued negotiations towards a cooperative relationship. According to Nancy Grenier, manager of communications for CaGBC, the two organizations had been pursuing a relationship in which they would promote each others’ products: CaGBC’s LEED rating systems and BOMA Canada’s GoGreen and GoGreen Plus certification programs. CaGBC’s LEED systems are currently focused on new construction, with most existing building certifications going to BOMA’s programs or to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings rating system. GoGreen was developed by the British Columbia chapter of BOMA Canada, and GoGreen Plus is BOMA’s implementation of the Green Globes assessment tool for existing buildings. While CaGBC fully supported GoGreen Plus as a robust, third-party-verified certification system for existing buildings, said Grenier, it had some reservations about GoGreen, and the two organizations could not come to agreement on the issue. Both parties agreed to end the negotiations and will look for other ways to collaborate on green building issues.