April 24, 2006

Green Buildings

Greening one neighbourhood at a time

Architect Peter Busby shares his worldview on building green

IAN HARVEY

correspondent

VANCOUVER

The successes of LEED buildings and the growing acceptance of sustainable design in the institutional, commercial and industrial sector is trickling down to residential construction, says noted Vancouver architect Peter Busby of Busby, Perkins Will.

Busby, whose firm’s White Rock Operations Centre project in British Columbia was the first in Canada to garner a LEED Gold rating, lectures tomorrow at the unveiling of entrants in the Archetype for the Living City design competition at the Design Exchange on Bay St. The exhibits will be on display as part of the city’s Festival of Architecture and Design until June 25 and the public can vote on their choice through May.

Winners will be announced June 21 and the design constructed as a model home at the Kortright Centre as a prototype for sustainable subdivisions across Southern Ontario.

Busby, who chairs the Sustainable Building Committee of the Royal Architectural Institute and co-founded the Canada Green Building Council, said the concept of sustainable design and construction is slowly crossing into other sectors.

“It’s been very much the efforts in the commercial and institutional sectors so far,” said Busby, a tireless evangelist for sustainable design. “Universities were first to get into sustainable design, but then city halls and green libraries followed. Unfortunately, we don’t spend enough money on our schools in Canada, so there aren’t that many examples there.”

He said residential developers are leery of new ideas and progress because it costs money and thins margins.

“They’ve shied away, though we are seeing some high rise residential on the west coast. But the single family residential market is virtually untouched. We’re hopeful that will change,” he said.

At issue is the relatively small amounts of energy consumed by residential homes which result in longer payback cycles for the investment in green materials.

“It’s easier in a bigger building such as a lab to get that kind of payback,” he said. “In our institutional projects, we can recommend a lighting scheme with a three-year payback and the owner instantly accepts it.”

However, the tireless evangelist for sustainable design notes the shifting demographics among the Canadian population and the headway made in ICI sustainable design are converging as a strong equation to change attitudes.

“There are two or three emerging demographics in the housing market, especially the aging boomers,” he said. “They’ve lived through the sick building syndrome and asbestos, and they’re concerned about a healthy environment in their workplace and their homes. The idea of 100 per cent fresh air and construction without toxins or pollutants is appealing to them.

“The other group are the 20 something kids who have grown up with this concept in the schools. These kids have the first opportunity to pick what kind of house and I think many of them will start picking the green ones. That’s going to attract developers.”

With LEED an accepted standard, there’s a movement to establish similar standards for the residential market, said Busby, who is a recipient of the Order of Canada.

It’s a community issue, he said, noting a holistic approach is needed to look at design, not just of the structures, but the surrounding civil infrastructure such as water treatment.

“We’re working on it, but it’s probably a year or a year and half away unless we can find a wealthy sponsor,” he laughed.

As to the policies of the new Conservative government in Ottawa and what seems to be a pullback from Kyoto, Busby is not concerned.

“I’m a-political,” he said. “But it seems Stephen Harper is more of a pragmatist. Paying the Russians for greenhouse gas credits seems like a ludicrous waste of money and really didn’t solve the problem in Canada. The stunning fact is the Americans have made more progress on Global Warming. We need a made-in-North America solution and that’s a community approach.”

Changes and directives at the provincial and municipal level, through building codes and bylaws, will make a difference in the ultimate acceptance and uptake of sustainable design, he said.

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