In partnership with the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association of Canada (NAIMA Canada), the Centre for Urban Growth + Renewal has developed an online training resource to help workers in the construction industry become more familiar with retrofitting in occupied buildings.

The retrofit industry is still developing in Canada and lacks knowledge, skills, strategies and specialized products to effectively carry out retrofits in occupied buildings. This can lead to inflated costs and risk – or buildings owners avoiding retrofits altogether. Deep retrofits are long, complex construction projects that can be disruptive and require specific strategies to avoid undue disruption to tenants.

This training module will introduce members of the construction industry to completing construction activities in buildings where residents remain in their units. It introduces concepts around healthy housing, energy efficiency, affordability and accessibility to help centre retrofit work as human-focused. The training also seeks to assist workers with communicating the benefits of retrofit work as well as reinforcing the rights of tenants.

Visit and try out the training here: guides.co/g/healthy-housing-advocacy/

This research and resulting online training was conducted and produced with the support of CMHC through their National Housing Strategy funding for Solutions Labs in partnership with NAIMA Canada, ACORN Canada, Evergreen, MaRS Solutions Lab and The Natural Step.