The Building Emissions Reduction Standard cONSULTATION

Ontoly has launched its first public consultation on the pilot version (Version 1.0) of the Building Emissions Reduction Standard (BERS) on November 9, 2025. This pilot release focuses on operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions from multi-unit residential and commercial building retrofit projects within Canada and the United States. 

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The BERS Program mobilizes climate finance for the decarbonization of the existing building stock through a standardized carbon asset—the Building Emissions Reduction Unit (BERU). A BERU is a unique, serialized, and transferable digital asset issued exclusively by Ontoly, which will create pathways for building owners to connect with the buyer network to sell emissions reductions. 

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The BERS was developed in consultation with our scientific advisory committee and incorporates the latest scientific research and standards aligned with the building decarbonization industry. The program is founded on core principles of integrity, traceability and openness, scientific rigour, transparency of financial incentives, building-level assessment of GHG emissions, and ratings approaches for additionality. All information related to the start date, crediting periods, methodology, and additionality is outlined in our BERS document. 

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A notable characteristic of the BERS program is its accessibility and usability. While other carbon registries concentrate on larger-scale projects and require the aggregation of thousands of buildings for certification to be financially viable, Ontoly will enhance certification quality by evaluating projects at the building level. 

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The consultation opened on November 10, 2025, and the deadline for submitting comments was December 10th at 11:59pm PST.  Ontoly incorporated the feedback we heard from the consultation.

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The Consultation Form was posted here: Building Emissions Reduction Standard – Public Comment Form. 

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Details:

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Consultation Period: November 10, 2025 – December 10, 2025

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About the Consultation: Ontoly launched a 30-day public consultation to gather feedback on the pilot version of its Building Emissions Reduction Standard and associated Certification Framework. The objective was to refine Ontoly's approach to quantifying and certifying carbon credits from building emissions reductions through both whole-building and retrofit isolation methods. The pilot sought alignment with carbon market integrity principles, financial-grade carbon asset standards, and validation frameworks such as the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP). All public consultation responses were published in a summary report. Respondents were given the option to remain anonymous. Where anonymity was selected, Ontoly removed names and affiliations but could not filter identifying content within free-text responses. Feedback was submitted by December 10, 2025 (closing 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time).

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View the Summary of Consultation Feedback here. Respondent anonymity has been preserved, so only a summary of feedback is provided. Additional input was gathered through the Ontoly Scientific Advisory Board and targeted expert outreach — those themes are reflected in the summary as well.