Building for a Greener Future Together

Climate change and poor gender diversity in the green building industry are jointly addressed in this hands-on, scalable project. Buildings account for more than one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), according to the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. Greening our built environment helps fight climate change, while building resilience into communities. A shift to green technologies and “green jobs” requires a dynamic and highly skilled labor force. However, women are underrepresented in the high-performance building industry, facing significant barriers and challenges along the education-to employment continuum. Poor gender diversity means the industry is less open to new ideas, and there is a significant lack of visibility of female leaders in the sector. Conversely, gender equality can have positive effects beyond industry by improving women’s participation in the economy and their standing in society. This project invests in indigenous women’s creative talents and involvement in green building design, planning and construction. It supports indigenous women as an integral part of building sustainable communities that combat climate change, and local knowledge experts on the impacts of climate change and ways of mitigating and adapting to its effects. This project starts small and aims big in helping indigenous women to lead and accelerate the transformation to high-performing, healthy green buildings, homes and communities across Canada.