Presented by BTZx with funding from the Province of Nova Scotia and The ReCover Initiative
Interested in enhancing your skills at integrating climate into building design?
The Climate Literacy: Building Design pilot course provides building design professionals with the opportunity to learn about the future of building performance. This full-day, in-person session will equip design professionals with the technical literacy to interpret climate data, the practical skills to design for resilience and carbon reduction, and the economic fluency to justify these interventions to clients.
Location: The PIER, 1209 Marginal Rd, Halifax, N.S.
Please note: This registration link is for the Climate Literacy: Building Design full-day of the workshop, January 28, 2026. A separate registration link is available for the Understanding ESG course offered on January 27, 2026.
About the Climate Literacy: Building Design Pilot
This pilot is an opportunity for building-sector leaders to experience and evaluate the course as a professional development opportunity before its full rollout in 2026. Your feedback will ensure it meets the real needs of your members.
Why Participate in Climate Literacy: Building Design Training?
- Improve your climate-science fundamentals: understand how shifting baselines and historical data are no longer predictive and how localized risks (urban heat island effect, precipitation intensity and wildfires) are changing building designs.
- Learn about defensive and resilient design: how do we ensure assets remain safe, insurable, and functional as hazards increase.
- Build knowledge and skills to reduce GHGs: demystify the “net zero” buzzwords and look at the physics of carbon.
- Prove the business case: beyond technical solutions, learn about the processes, policy and economic conditions that support successful project.
Who Participates in Climate Literacy: Building Design Training?
- Design professionals (modellers, engineers, architects)
- Retrofit and general contractors
- Building managers and project managers, and
- Consulting professionals advancing retrofit work.
Why Climate Literacy Matters
Many jurisdictions across Canada, including Nova Scotia, are exploring strategies to support the sustainable building industry. Research and consultation points to a critical gap: building professionals need accessible, job-relevant climate literacy and understanding of emerging roles in the building sector.
This course responds to that need for upskilling. By participating in this pilot, you and/or your association will help shape a resource that supports your members’ long-term success.
Support for this program
Developed by Building to Zero Exchange (BTZx) with funding from the ReCover Initiative and the Province of Nova Scotia, this course is part of a broader effort to improve climate literacy in the building sector.