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D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 | 35 Green Building Design R EN D ER I N G BY H EN R I Q U EZ PA RT N ER S A RC H I T EC T S/CO U RT E S Y G LOT M A N S I M P S O N Specialists in green building design are coming up with solutions for every eventuality by NATALIE BRUCKNER G reen building design is hardly a new concept, and yet its meaning has changed dramatically over the past four decades, and even more so over the past few years. At one time it was a reference to air tight buildings; today it is a more holistic concept that covers everything from reducing the harmful effects of a building on its occupants to structures that will withstand increasingly extreme weather events. One major benefit of this sector is the experts' willingness to evolve and pivot as necessary, according to new findings and a changing world. Case in point, Williams Engineering. Lindsay Austrom, team lead, sustain- ability at Williams says that after seeing a shift in focus during the pandemic toward building health, interest in green building design is once again at an all-time high. "In many ways the pandemic made us take a step back as buildings were running their air systems for longer and running at reduced capacity – from an energy efficiency perspective, it wasn't great. Now, especially with some of the extreme weather events that have occurred, we are more focussed than before and considering how our buildings can handle those stressors. It shifts the focus onto adaptation, mitigation, and resilience, as well as how to support the people in the building," says Austrom. The future, as Austrom rightly says, is largely unknown, and challenges with the supply chain, for example, have shown the industry it needs to be prepared for every eventuality. "It has made us question assumptions such as prepared- ness, and consider, 'are we being resilient in our approach?'" This has in turn resulted in some great opportunities. "Through a com- bination of smart new construction and developments, as well as creative rehabilitations and conversions, there are some great opportunities ahead. The Reframed Initiative is a great example of what is being explored when it comes to this," says Austrom, who is one of six teams involved in the B.C.-based pro- gram that is aimed at developing replicable deep retrofit solutions and scaling their implementation. The program (an initiative of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, the City of Vancouver, Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation, and the Pembina Institute) is now wrapping up. Findings from the six-month program that explored various deep retrofit design solutions for six multi-unit residential buildings will soon be available. "It has been an interesting process as we looked at various scenarios and systems. Projects like this allow us to access more information to make better decisions." Teamwork is indeed key to the future of the sector, and as such, Glotman Simpson joined the SE2050 initiative with the goal of working towards net zero embodied carbon structural systems by 2050. In addition, internally the team is developing tools to calculate the embodied carbon of all of its projects to better understand the environmental impact of each design decision. "The structural embodied carbon data will soon be displayed on the cover sheet of all of our projects," explains Harrison Glotman, project engineer at Glotman Simpson. "Calculating the embodied carbon is becoming much easier with new tech- nologies, programs, and the increased availability of EPDs," says Glotman. Beyond Great In addition to conducting LCAs at various stages of a project, Glotman says he is seeing a trend towards new green building materials such as eco-friendly concrete, green steel, and mass timber. Glotman Simpson has worked on a number of mass timber projects including CT7 in Los Angeles, the Burrard Exchange Building in Vancouver, and M5, which will serve as a tall wood net zero carbon prototype. "These projects push the boundary of what is achievable in mass timber," says Glotman. "Also, CT7 was able to adapt and reuse most of the concrete substructure – adaptive retrofit and reuse is a very important strategy in getting to net zero." Park Habitat with Westbank in San Jose is another stand-out project, because, as Glotman explains, "this is a concrete building, but the project team was very deliberate in its choices from the outset to reduce embodied carbon where possible. Through strat- egies like post-tensioning and by using mixes with lower cement content, we were able to substantially reduce the embodied carbon footprint from the baseline. These types of projects excite me because armed with embodied carbon data, we see that little changes in our design choices can make a big impact." According to Wendy C. Macdonald, sustainability consultant at RJC Engineers, she is seeing three areas of focus lately when it comes to green build- ing design: Carbon (embodied, operational, fuel switching, electrification of the grid); wellness (from ventilation to transparency of material ingredients); and climate resilience. "People are talking about these three elements in a far more nuanced way these days as peoples' understanding has evolved. Moving forward, these conversa- tions will need to be more interactive as they demand a greater understanding of how carbon, wellness, and resilience relate to each other," says Macdonald. One way these elements can come together well is in designing for the passive survivability of buildings – which is defined as "maintaining livable conditions in the event of extended loss of power or interruptions in heating fuel." As a carbon reduction firm and strong advocates for the "envelope first" approach, this is right up RJC's alley. As we know, more extreme weather events are a reality, but as Macdonald says, this is just the beginning of it. "The climate we are experiencing now is a result of what we did a couple of decades ago. We need to get on top of this in a hurry because what we're doing now locks in what's coming in the next few decades." As for what the future holds, no-one really knows, but Macdonald explains the same old, same old will no longer cut it. "In the past we designed to historical data but that's not all you need to think about now. We now need to consider things we don't have the answer to. While technology like mechanical systems can be swapped out should demands change, that's not so easy with the structure or envelope, so you want to make sure you get that right the first time." And that is indeed where RJC shines. Addressing embodied carbon still remains a hot topic, says Lindsay Oster, principal architect at prairie architects inc., and one project they are working on is taking a unique approach to this. "For the Bannerman Green Housing Co-operative we are looking through the lens of the International Living Future Institute's [ILFI] Living Building Challenge [LBC]," explains Oster. "With the LBC, energy is treated as a precious resource and significant effort is required to minimize energy-related carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Projects, both new and existing, must achieve significant reduction in total net annual energy consumption after accounting for on-site renewable power and must also demonstrate reduction in embodied carbon of primary materials. Additionally, there is focus on the project to be net-positive with respect to carbon – supplying at least 105 percent of the energy needs through on-site renewables without the use of combustion." Oster adds that the project will also need to account for the total embodied carbon emissions from construction, which includes the energy consumed M5, Vancouver, B.C.

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