Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1385297
J U N E 2 0 2 1 | 39 Sustainable Design Strategies Looking forward, Bergen is excited to see the data as the first wave of Step Code buildings come into service as that will bring with it mass results of air tightness testing as buildings move into occupancy, and then in-service energy use over time. "We will have the ability to measure and compare the per- formance of buildings on that metric across the province like we've never been able to do before." Lindsay Austrom, team lead, sustainability at Williams Engineering Canada says the pandemic was a bit of a wake up call in realizing how much we rely on systems and our community, adding that the crisis that came out of the pandemic in many ways resembles the crisis we face with climate change. "We know it's coming and we need to get our act together. We need to adapt to changes coming like forest fires, heatwaves, and cold snaps, and under- stand how to mitigate the risks associated with those changes. The Texas cold snap was an exam- ple of that; they reached a tipping point and a crisis occurred," says Austrom. As a result people are considering the potential impacts of climate change with a bit more gravity. "At Williams we are looking more and more at the vul- nerability of buildings as a result of climate change, whether that is new construction or extending the life of an existing building. People are also looking to see what they can do in their sphere of influence." One of the big challenges Williams is seeing is in identifying priorities and breaking it down to make the most sense for each individual client. "While for some clients electrification or renewables may make sense now, for others, it will be a case of waiting or looking at other solutions. There is no one-size-fits- all solution," explains Austrom. Utility providers have also been forging ahead when it comes to promoting sustainable design. Last year FortisBC informed Award it was beginning its gas absorption heat pumps pilot. The goal was to measure domestic hot water savings of installing two Robur gas absorption heat pump units to cover approximately 75 percent of the domestic hot water load at seven participating commercial buildings. And the results are now in! "There were several interesting findings. Across all sites there was an average gas utilization efficiency of 121 percent. We also learned this tech- nology worked better when it works hard. There were points it got up to 160 percent efficiency, usu- ally because the system is working really hard and has a lot of load and demand which drives efficiency. Installation was also shown to be really simple, plug and play; no different to installing a condensing boiler," says Jim Kobialko, program manager, inno- vative technology and projects at FortisBC. Kobialko says the results are a big leap forward towards the Pan-Canadian Framework's aspirational goal that all space and water heating technologies for sale meet an energy performance of more than 100 percent by 2035. This will also help FortisBC meet its 30By30 target to reduce its customers' greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by the year 2030. FortisBC is now looking into launching a rebate program to provide incentives for customers to invest in the technology. "Our rebates aim to cover the increments of cost of choosing the more efficient equipment," adds Nicole Brown, corporate commu- nications advisor at FortisBC. Over at BC Hydro, there has been some exciting news as they recently announced plans to launch the Creative Energy Decarbonization Project, a col- laboration between Creative Energy and BC Hydro. The project will add new electrode steam boilers to Creative Energy's existing natural gas-powered steam plant. Once in place, Creative Energy's system would have enough capacity to serve approximately 12-million square feet of new development, enough to serve over 10 years of growth in low-carbon build- ings in downtown, the West End, North East False Creek, and False Creek Flats. "We're excited to partner with Creative Energy on their move to heat buildings across downtown with our clean electricity," says Chris O'Riley, president and CEO of BC Hydro. "This project helps support electrification goals and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of removing 12,000 gas powered cars from the road each year." The future of sustainable design is indeed pos- itive, and the green building industry has now become a mature sector of the Canadian economy, generating more jobs than oil and gas extraction, mining, and forestry combined. "To reach our climate targets, Canada must not only address new buildings but also the large num- ber of inefficient buildings and homes," says Thomas Mueller, president and CEO of CaGBC. "Strong pub- lic policy, private sector investment, performance standards and certification programs like LEED will support this urgently needed transformation." A Prairie Architects.indd 1 2021-05-31 11:31 AM