Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1320139
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 | 25 Green Building Design building and progressive policies can achieve 1.5-mil- lion green building jobs by 2030. WSP, a company that continues to be a leader in greening existing and new buildings, has been working closely with CaGBC as reviewers for LEED submissions, LEED faculty, technical advisors, and LEED documentation experts. WSP is responsible for 60 percent of every square foot of buildings cer- tified under the CaGBC's LEED-EB rating system. The company understands that education and partnerships are essential to greening and building, and as a result runs the Tenant Engagement and Partnership Program, where landlords and tenants are shown the impact occupants' energy use habits can have on building performance. Another company taking the lead on green build- ing design is RWDI Consulting Engineers. This year, along with BentallGreenOak, RWDI was awarded the Canadian National Green Building Pioneer award. This award recognizes a deserving individ- ual or organization demonstrating an innovative approach to the advancement of green building technology, products, capacity building, policy, design, or operations. Together, BentallGreenOak and RWDI developed a proprietary climate-adaptation planning tool for BentallGreenOak's portfolio. By creating a data- base of 423 resiliency practices and working with property management teams to identify local and regional climate threats, 413 existing properties and 75-million square feet have since been provided with their own climate change adaptation plan, which includes a top-ten list of actions. "The impacts of climate change are upon us and we need to act now. We anticipate investments in measures to increase the resilience of building assets to be an increased priority for the industry at large," says Mike Williams, VP, Buildings RWDI. Terry Bergen, managing principal at RJC Engineers, has also seen a greater focus on energy efficiency as well as a growing understanding and wider appreciation of the embodied and operational emissions of buildings. Included in this is a focus on greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) – a new metric that is now required from certain funding agents. "BC Housing, for example, now has GHGI intensity targets for their projects. This came into effect back in April 2020 as part of an update to the BC Housing Design Guidelines and Construction Standards, which means there are carbon intensity targets for projects. These types of regulations and targets are also coming online in other jurisdictions, including Vancouver and Toronto," says Bergen. A number of clients are also looking at how to apply future climate loading to buildings, which Bergen says is a key learning point. "We have had large property portfolio managers like health authorities require that we design our environ- mental loads to RCP8.5, which is the far outlier – the worst case 'business as usual scenario' – referenced in the Paris Climate Accord. These clients are taking the cautious approach that our climate is going to get much warmer with more extreme weather events and they want their buildings and infrastructure to be much more resilient to accommodate this." While a growing environmental consciousness is driving this, so too is the rising insurance costs related to the costs associated with addressing the aftermath of more frequent and rising severity of climate- related events. Bergen is also seeing a greater appreciation and use of carbon-sensitive materials. This includes mass timber in higher density buildings as a structural alternative to higher embodied emission materials. RJC has been involved in a number of green building design projects including mass timber reduced carbon concrete, and as Bergen rightly says, most projects these days are somewhat performance driven. "Anytime we work on Step 3 and beyond of the BC Step Code we are trying to drive toward fairly laudable energy intensity targets. Like the BC Housing projects, we are not just considering the operational emissions but the embodied emissions in the structure, doing total lifecycle analysis to determine the most carbon efficient building solu- tion," says Bergen. Among those projects are Clayton Community Centre mass wood building in Surrey and Firehall 17 in Vancouver – the first Zero Carbon Building design (ZCB) certified fire hall in Canada. Utility companies continue to help drive the industry toward a greener future and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) is still offering a slate of interim green building pro- grams under the Save on Energy umbrella. The Energy Performance Program is one for buildings that consume over 1,500,000 kWh annu- ally and is considered a pay-for-performance program that allows for energy upgrades to be per- formed in any way a building owner sees fit. On the West Coast, FortisBC Energy Inc. recently announced a plan to complete a public offering of a Green Bond – a specialized investment targeted to support projects and activities that promote envi- ronmental sustainability. Upon successful issuance, the bond is expected to be the first Green Bond for a natural gas provider in Canada. The debt will be issued under FortisBC's Green Bond Framework and will allow the company to finance or refinance, in part or in full, new or exist- ing projects that offer environmental benefits. A Green Bond is a debenture, bond, or other financ- ing instrument where the proceeds are exclusively allocated to green projects and activities that pro- mote environmental sustainability and have clear environmental benefits, such as renewable energy generation or greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction initiatives. This year, BC Hydro has seen an increased focus on energy efficient electrification HVAC design, which the team says is a continuation of the trend they have seen over the past 10 years, but is even more prominent today. "Hybrid HVAC systems are becoming more and more a standard nowadays, which is a good thing as, if designed properly, can provide energy bill savings for building owners," says Bojan Andjelkovic, spe- cialist engineer. BC Hydro continues to promote and sup- port those wishing to delve into green building design and in addition to its electricity conserva- tion programs, BC Hydro supports the Provincial Government's CleanBC initiative to reduce green- house gas emissions. BC Hydro is working on a number of exciting projects in this realm, including The Summit at Quadra Village – a brand new 320-unit long-term care facility located in Victoria, B.C. The facility's environmentally sustainable design was influenced by the desire to minimize energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with the Capital Regional District's (owner) Climate Action Strategy and the Vancouver Island Health Authority's (tenant) Strategic Framework. Among the green design influences is the high-performance heat recovery wheels in each of the air handlers that in heating season transfer thermal energy from exhaust air to cold fresh air constantly supplied to the building. "These can also be used to pre-cool incoming air if needed during extremely hot summer days. These heat wheels are the single biggest saver of natural gas for the site," says Andjelkovic. A 2:55 PM Untitled-1 1 11/23/20 7:41 AM