Award

DECEMBER 2017 | 23 Green Building Design Loblick adds that there has also been a 180-degree turnaround in how people view green building design and the benefits from already available technologies to cut long- term costs; green building design is no longer the first thing to go when budgets are cut. One example of a project that had green building design at the forefront of its strategies is The Brewery District – a nine-acre, master-planned, sustainable, intel- ligently conceived work/live/play community located in New Westminster, B.C., which is estimated for completion in June 2019. Williams Engineering worked closely with Wesgroup Properties LP on the three residential high-rise buildings and provided mechanical systems design for all three buildings. Using existing technologies such as a central heat recovery ventilator (HRV) unit, electric baseboard heaters with individual room control and an innovative ventilation design that includes corridor ventilation provided through a high-effi- ciency natural gas fired rooftop outdoor air unit located on the roof of each build- ing, resulted in highly efficient buildings. But it's not just newbuilds that play a role in the green building design market. Indeed, existing buildings, which make up 80 percent of Canada's building stock, are expected to play a major role in Canada's goal of reducing GHG emissions. It's all about those design tweaks. Williams has been working on the Fish Creek Calgary Public Library (FCCPL) since 2007 when the company performed its first building envelope investigation on the facility. Over the years they have performed numerous case studies on its design and have updated a number of features including a complete roof replacement and electrical and mechanical upgrades. While forward-thinking leaders are indeed driving us toward a more sustain- able future, policies are also helping change the market. "The biggest change we have seen in green building design over the past 12 months has been the shift toward strict building energy performance targets and measurements," says Derek Bartley, project consultant – mechanical, certified Passive House designer, Norman Disney & Young. "This is reflected in the City of Vancouver's rezoning policy, which requires targets for Total Energy Use Intensity [TEUI], Thermal Energy Demand Intensity [TEDI] and Greenhouse Gas Intensity [GHGI] to be met. The City of Vancouver also recognizes the Passive House standard as a pathway to compliance." Bartley's colleague, Chi Zhang, project consultant – mechanical and energy at Norman Disney & Young, adds that the City of Vancouver's new Green Buildings Policy for Rezoning requires owners applying for rezoning to be either Passive House certified, or qualify under the policy's performance path. "The performance path has 11 requirements for projects looking to develop on land that require the city to upgrade the zoning allowance [typically to building to higher density]. The requirements fall into three broad categories: green buildings, healthy buildings and resilient buildings. The greatest departure from the previous policy is that LEED is no longer a requirement for residential buildings; instead three perfor- mance metrics measuring total energy intensity, thermal [heating] energy demand intensity and greenhouse gas intensity will need to be met," says Zhang. One building that NDY has worked on that demonstrates green building design is the upmarket condominium development on the historic Shannon Estates mansion grounds. The entire site, which comprises of three historic buildings and seven new additions along with amenity facilities, targets LEED Gold certification. NDY was engaged to provide the mechanical design for the site as well as head it's sustainability endeavours. Heating, cooling and hot water is provided by an on-site thermal energy system, which is designed to reduce carbon emissions by 70 percent. Working somewhat behind the scenes to further drive the industry forward are the utility companies. Over at BC Hydro an important resource tool called The Building Envelope Thermal Bridging Guide is helping to explore how the building industry in B.C. can meet the challenges of reducing energy use in buildings, in part by effectively accounting for the impact of thermal bridging. "With the release of the Guide, the Commercial New Construction program intro- duced a mandatory requirement in May 2015 to calculate, model and report effective wall R-values. This analysis work helped to educate and prepare the marketplace. This type of analysis work is now a requirement to the BC Building Step Code that was introduced in April 2017," explains Oscar Ceron, manager of BC Hydro's New Construction program. The New Construction program provides industry and cus- tomer training, financial support for the design and implementation of new high performing buildings, partnering with other organizations such as FortisBC Energy Inc. to drive towards more efficient buildings. We also offer the following services: Firestopping & Smoke Seal Spray Applied Insulation Please contact: Josephine Fajardo, DRI, IFRM & SFRM Managing Partner/ Estimator Spray Applied Fireproofing and Intumescent Coating Tel. 289.803.6498 | Fax. 647.956.4628 Email. info@edanshield.com | www.edanshield.com P.O. Box 639 Stn. Main, Bradford, Ontario L3Z 2B2 Edanshield Construction.indd 1 2017-11-15 9:47 AM

• Cover