Buildings
From ClimateNetworkWiki
Buildings is a Solutions page in the Knowledge Base that is designed to help the Planning pillar of goBEYOND. Contribute to our Knowledge Base by adding the building initiatives, policy, or building models that are used on your campus.
All campuses have buildings on them which contribute to GHG emissions. This page explores best practices like energy efficiency, living buildings, green roofs, and rating systems like LEEDS.
Environmental Impact of the Built Environment
Buildings are a major source of carbon emissions, and are thus a very important area to focus on for beyond climate-neutral planning.
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, worldwide, buildings account for
- 17% of fresh water withdrawls
- 25% of wood harvest
- 33% of CO2 emissions
- 40% material and energy use[1]
Architecture 2030, a group advocating changing building codes in order to meet the climate change challenge, emphasize that the way we think about energy use by sector obscures the environmental impact of buildings. In Figure A, they present energy use data divided into the typical commercial, industrial, residential, and transportation sectors. In Figure B, they take and combine estimates from the US Energy Information Administration on various building-related sectors (including the residential buildings sector, commercial buildings sector, industrial sector - buildings operations, and the industrial sector, annual building construction and materials embodied energy), and show that energy use by the 'building sector' accounts for nearly half of all energy consumption in the U.S.
Figure from http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/building_sector.html.
All new buildings for universities and colleges in BC are required to be built to LEED gold standard (BC Climate Action Plan pg.22[2]). (See also BC Government Letter of Expectations and Public Private Partnerships). There are also many ways that existing buildings can be improved through energy efficiency retrofits.
Energy Efficiency and Transforming Existing Buildings
Heating and hot water are major energy users in buildings, followed by other electricity demands such as lighting and appliances. Building energy efficiency can be increased through improving insulation, choosing double-glazed windows, changing lighting from incandescant to LED or compact florescent, installing occupancy sensors, and using more energy efficient appliances. It is often not difficult to persuade institutions to make energy-efficient and carbon-reducing improvements to buildings. According to Eagan et al. (2008), due to rising energy prices and a wide variety of grants and rebates from government programs and local utilities, "cutting carbon emissions has increasingly become synonymous with cutting costs" (p. 6 [3]).
- Natural Resources Canada offers a listing of Case Studies on Existing Buildings that have undergone energy efficiency retrofits.
- The CSA GHG Challenge Registry is a publicly accessible forum that allows for the comparison and publishing of best practices for reducing GHG emissions. Many BC colleges and universities are registered and have developed award-winning plans to reduce their GHG emissions from their buildings.
- The LEED for Existing Buildings Rating System helps existing buildings maximize operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts.
Case Studies
Building Retrofits at the University of British Columbia
UBC"s Renew Program addressed many problems at once. More than half of UBC's buildings are over 30 years old, and the institution was facing "a massive deferred maintenance debt of $319 million (UBC Land and Building Services[4]).
The premise of the project is that even though the interior and operating systems of a building might be beyond repair, the original foundations, structure and cladding are still useable. So instead of demolishing the buildings entirely, the UBC Renew program upgraded and renovated the existing buildings, saving taxpayer dollars and the environmental costs associated with demolition and creation of a new building. According to the UBC Sustainability Office, "when Phase 1 of the UBC Renew program is completed in 2010 the project will have:
- produced 10 renewed buildings,
- eliminated $77.4 million from UBC’s accumulated deferred maintenance debt,
- saved nearly $89 million in construction costs as compared to new construction, and
- prevented 6,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from being released in the atmosphere." (UBC Sustainability Office, 2008 pg. 7 [5]).
UBC Land and Building Services suggest that the UBC Renew model can be applied to aging building inventory across the province, saving the additional capital costs and greenhouse gases associated with new construction [4].
Vending Misers at Tufts University
Vending machines are not very energy-efficient, and are costly to run. "Vending misers" detect whether people are present, and turn off vending machines when no one is around. Beverages are still kept cold, as the cooler does come on periodically, even when no one is around. Tufts University used to pay about $380 in electricity costs for each vending machine every year [1], for an estimated total savings of $17,000 per year [2]. After installing vending misers, they have found that electricity consumption can be cut in half, and that the vending misers paid for themselves in 1-2 years. Their recommendations for others considering adopting them are posted at http://www.tufts.edu/tie/tci/pdf/VendingMiserHandout.pdf.
What is a green building?
Green buildings conserve the earth's natural resources through the efficient and intelligent use of energy, materials, water, and the building site. They provide their occupants with comfortable surroundings and healthy indoor environments. When clean energy technologies are incorporated into green buildings, the environmental benefits are even greater.
A green building is a building that has been constructed or renovated to incorporate design techniques, technologies, and materials that lessen its dependence on fossil fuels and minimize its overall negative environmental impact. Among these reduced impacts are minimal site disruption, lower water consumption, and fewer pollutants released during construction and occupation. Green buildings can be homes, offices, schools, hospitals, and other buildings.
One of the greatest benefits of green buildings is their reduced use of electricity and energy, which helps reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Building green has tangible financial, social, and environmental benefits. The upfront costs of green buildings have been coming down rapidly as more designers and builders gain experience with green design. While today’s upfront costs of building green remain slightly higher on average than standard building costs, these costs are offset by the building’s lifetime operating cost savings. The health and productivity benefits of green buildings for residents, students, and employees are more difficult to quantify financially, but numerous studies show that these benefits are important to consider and projections of cost savings are significant. Environmentally, green buildings reduce usage of their communities’ natural resources and decrease strain on the local energy and water infrastructure.[6]
Green Building Rating Systems
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
What is LEED® ?
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. LEED was developed by the United States Green Building Council.
LEED certification is awarded for meeting criteria in six different categories:
- Sustainable Sites
- Water Efficiency
- Energy and Atmosphere
- Materials and Resources
- Indoor Environmental Air Quality
- Innovation and Design Process
There are four levels of certification available, Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, depending on the number of points the project achieves in each category.
LEED Canada
LEED has been adapted for use in Canada by the Canada Green Building Council.
Living Building Challenge
The Cascadia Region Green Building Council is issuing a challenge to all building owners, architects, engineers, and design professionals to build in a way that will provide all of us and our children with a sustainable future. The Living Building Challenge is attempting to raise the bar and define a true measure of sustainability in the built environment, at least as far as what is currently possible and given the best knowledge available to-date. Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to be the most sustainable in North America and not merely less bad.
Passivhaus
Buildings built to Passive House or Passivhaus standards require very little energy to heat and cool, through incorporating efficient insulation, thermal mass, passive solar heating, and other design features. UBC will demonstrate Passivhaus standards in a retrofit of the Old Auditorium, with the goal of reducing its energy use and GHG emissions by 90% [5].
Passivhaus Organizations:
Thermogram of a Passivhaus building, with traditional building in background.
Source: Copied to Commons from http://en.wikipedia.org. Original source Passivhaus Institut, Germany http://www.passiv.de
Zero-Energy Buildings
According to Torcellini et al. (2006) with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, zero energy buildings "meet all their energy requirements from low-cost, locally available, nonpolluting, renewable sources. At the strictest level, a ZEB generates enough renewable energy on site to equal or exceed its annual energy use" (p. 2 [7]).
Campus Examples:
The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College is an early demonstration of zero-energy design (Torcellini et al. 2006[7]).
Florida State University’s new Off-Grid Zero Emission Building (OGZEB) is "completely solar-powered, with excess electricity being used to produce hydrogen for energy storage. The OGZEB plans to make use of hydrogen appliances as well as high-efficiency water and electrical systems, and is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification." (Sustainable Endowments Institute, 2008 [8]).
Natural Buildings
Natural buildings rely primarily on local, non-toxic renewable materials, local labour rather than machine power, and on landscape-fuelled design (Van Arsdale, 2008 [9]). Not only do natural buildings tend to have low energy needs in terms of heating and cooling, but they also have low embodied energy since the materials (such as adobe, cob, strawbale, rammed earth, cordwood, etc. [3]) that go into their construction require little processing when compared to buildings that rely on concrete and steel.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison project, in partnership with several of Wisconsin's Native American communities, is using natural building techniques to create affordable, energy efficient housing on tribal lands (Cassellius, 2007. [10]).
Green Buildings and Academic Performance
Facilities that place a priority on improving students’ learning environments can save energy, resources, and money, but more importantly, there exists a correlation between sustainable buildings and improved student performance. This seems intuitive, and a growing number of scientific studies now show the relationship between a school’s physical condition and student performance.
Two elements of sustainable building design that have received recent attention, and have been shown to have a profound effect on student performance, are daylighting and indoor air quality (IAQ). Daylighting refers to the wise use of natural sunlight for task illumination normally provided by artificial lighting fixtures. Air quality is concerned with chemical and biological airborne impurities that can have an adverse effect on student, faculty, and staff health.[11]
Examples of Green Building Projects
Dockside Green Victoria, BC
Program: Mixed - residential/commercial
Size: 1.3 million square feet
Certification: LEED Platinum (expected)
Date Completed:
Features:
- 100% of sewage to be treated on site
- Green roofs
- 66.5% less potable water consumption than conventional developments
- Buildings to be 47% more energy efficient than Model National Energy Code
- Waste wood gasification plant for heating
- Green House Gas Positive
Vancouver Island Technology Park Victoria, BC
Program: Office/tech facility
Size:
Certification: LEED Gold
Date Completed:
Features:
Burnside Gorge Community Centre Victoria, BC
Program: Community Centre
Size:
Certification:
Date Completed: 2007
Features:
Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability Vancouver, BC
Program:
Size:
Certification:
Expected completion date: Mid 2009
Features:
- Integrated and paperless design
- Sustainable mobility program
- Positive environmental impact
- GHG neutral
- Little mechanical ventilation/cooling
- Net energy producer
- 100% daylighting
- 100% rainwater
- Zero liquid waste
- Zero Solid Waste
- Sustainable building materials
- Healthy air quality
- Supermonitoring; adaptive controls
Green Roofs
Green roofs are engineered systems that incorporate the use of vegetation above traditional roofing.[12]
Green roofs are built on top of a human-made structure and can be located below, at, or above grade. There are three main types of green roof systems:
- complete systems where all the different components including roof membrane are an integral part of the whole system
- modular systems that are positioned above the existing roofing system
- pre-cultivated vegetation blankets that consist of growing medium and plants that are rolled onto the existing roofing system with drainage mats and root barriers as required[13]
Environmental benefits of green roofs in an urban setting include:
- Reduction in stormwater runoff that affects quality of local water resources which supply drinking water, are used for swimming, and serve as fish and wildlife habitat
- Reduction in energy consumption
- Reduction in the urban heat island effect and associated cooling costs
- Beautification of the City
- Creation of more natural green spaces
- Opportunities for local food production[14]
Green Roof Links
Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology (BCIT)
Building Policy Development Tools
Organizations and further resources
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre
Green Building Councils
Cascadia Green Building Council
For Further Reading
Bell, G.C., P.E., E. Mills, Ph.D., D. Sartor, P.E., D. Avery, M. Siminovitch, Ph.D., M. A. Piette. A Design Guide for Energy-Efficient Research Laboratories, LBNL-PUB-777, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Center for Building Science, Applications Team. September 1996. http://ateam.lbl.gov/Design-Guide/ “Energy intensities [in laboratories] are often five-times higher than those found in ordinary (non-laboratory) buildings, such as offices. In the case of cleanrooms, intensities are 10-100-times higher, depending on classification.” This guide, although a little dated, describes methods to improve the energy efficiency and general sustainability of laboratories.
References
- ↑ "Building Impacts" U.S. Green Building Council http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1720 (Accessed January 27, 2008)
- ↑ BC Climate Action Plan. 2008. http://www.livesmartbc.ca/attachments/climateaction_plan_web.pdf. Accessed August 2008.
- ↑ Eagan, David J., Calhoun, Terry, Schott, Justin, and Dayananda, Praween. 2008. Guide to Climate Action Planning: Pathways to a Low-Carbon Campus. National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology. http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/pdfs/climateactionplanning.pdf. Accessed August 2008.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 UBC Renew: A Remarkable Response to Deferred Maintenance at UBC. http://www.lbs.ubc.ca/renew/UBC_Renew_HC_06.pdf Accessed August. 2008.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 UBC Sustainability Office, 2008. Leadership and the Climate Agenda: Discussion Paper. http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/pdfs/ubc_climate.discussion.pdf. Accessed August 2008.
- ↑ Green Buildings Overview. Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. http://www.masstech.org/cleanenergy/greenbuilding/overview.htm (Accessed January 28, 2008).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Torcellini,P. Pless,S., Deru, M. and Crowley, D. 2006. Zero Energy Buildings: A Critical Look at the Definition. Conference Paper NREL/CP-550-39833 presented at ACEEE Summer Study, Pacific Grove, California, August 14−18, 2006 http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/39833.pdf. Accessed Augut 2008.
- ↑ Sustainable Endowments Institute, 2008. College Sustainability Report Card: A Review of Campus & Endowment Policies at Leading Institutions. http://www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustainability/CollegeSustainabilityReportCard2008.pdf. Accessed August 2008.
- ↑ Van Arsdale, Rob. 2008. Natural Building Lecture, Permaculture Design Course, O.U.R. Ecovillage, Shawnigan Lake, BC, July 2008.
- ↑ Cassellius, Brescia. 2007. Building green for less green: Design team plans lower-cost, energy-efficient housing. Media Release, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Aug. 2, 2007. http://www.news.wisc.edu/13979. Accessed August 2008
- ↑ Olson, Stephen L and Shana Kellum. The Impact of Sustainable Buildings on Educational Achievements in K-12 Schools. Leonardo Academy Inc. http://www.leonardoacademy.org/download/sustainableschools.pdf (accessed January 27, 2008)
- ↑ Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology. BCIT. http://commons.bcit.ca/greenroof/download/facts_myths.pdf
- ↑ "What is a Green Roof?" City of Toronto. http://www.toronto.ca/greenroofs/what.htm (Accessed January 27, 2008)
- ↑ "Study Findings" City of Toronto. http://www.toronto.ca/greenroofs/findings.htm (Accessed January 27, 2008)
