July 25, 2007

It started as just a novel idea

Sustainable building has become an industry

By Korky Koroluk

correspondent

As sustainable building has grown from a novel idea into an industry, new professional services have grown alongside.

Ten years ago, the concept of sustainability was little understood, and people working in the field were looked upon as ... well, odd.

“When I first started working on sustainability, people would ask me what I worked at,” said Sheila Brown, of consulting firm Jacques Whitford Limited.

“When I said green building, or sustainability they sort of got that faraway look in their eyes and went off someplace to talk to somebody else,” she recalled with a laugh. “They figured I was just a whacky tree-hugger.”

Now she is a LEED-certified sustainable design facilitator, and her job title at Jacques Whitford is smart and sustainable buildings practice director.

Sustainable building has become an industry, she said in a recent interview, and is firmly established in the mainstream.

“As a result, because the concept encompasses so many different areas, it requires employment of a lot of building disciplines.”

“Everybody’s got to be on the same page. And when you try to get (a lot of) people to agree on something, you have to have a facilitator. That’s my role.”

Brown comes from the contracting end (flooring and floor coverings) of the building business. So she brings to her task the first-hand knowledge gained as a subtrade, combines it with a good general knowledge of how projects are built, then mixes in her skill in working with people and her knowledge of all aspects of sustainability.

“I do have my own areas of expertise,” she said, “But I’m not a mechanical engineer, for example. I understand enough about it to guide the mechanical engineers through the sustainability processes, to ask the right questions, to make them think differently.”

The concept of sustainability has not always been well understood, and some people are still wary of it because they fear it will add to costs. To accept the idea they need to be sure of the quality of the advice they’re getting, of the case studies that have been done and the economic models that have been developed.

“When the concept first started there was a lot of individual interpretation,” which did little to help convince building owners to embrace the concept., said Brown. Then green building councils were formed, first in the United States and more recently in Canada.

They in turn developed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) documents covering a wide range of a subjects related to sustainable building in Canada.

“So now you have LEED-accredited professionals who have had to pass an examination to prove that they know the concept,” Brown said. “At the present, that’s the only piece of paper you’re going to get.”

Some schools touch on the subject, but there is no university program or certificate in sustainability “that I’m aware of.”

But as environmental concerns become embedded in the construction and development industries, other specialty courses are being developed.

In Toronto, Seneca College now offers a four-year bachelor’s degree in integrated environmental site remediation.

Wendy Meininger-Dyk is academic co-ordinator for the program, and she said site remediation has traditionally been done by civil and environmental engineering firms.

But, she added, as governments have become more aware of the issues surrounding brownfield sites, the remediation industry has begun to grow.

“It’s kind of like cresting a wave,” she said. “All of a sudden, people are realizing that the greenfield development that has traditionally been done isn’t sustainable.

“And other government movements, like the proposed greenbelt around Toronto is going to drive the development industry back into the city.”

Meininger-Dyk said the curriculum for the program was developed in consultation with leaders in the brownfield development community, and it turned out the industry wanted a lot.

“Over and over we were told that the industry wanted somebody who has technical knowledge and skills, who is computer-savvy, who can communicate well, who can take scientific and technical information and translate it for people in the community, and who can take community questions and translate them back to the scientists. They wanted somebody with an understanding of legal and urban planning as well. They wanted an integrated individual.”

The first group of students is now in second year, so it will be two more years before they enter the job market.

Classes are small — perhaps 10 students — and likely never will be large, considering the high degree of specialization. But there is some pent-up demand.

“For the first intake we had only 24 spots available, and we had 120 applications,” Meininger-Dyk said. But enrolments will increase, as will the number of applications, as the course becomes better known.

“A lot of people still don’t know about us,” she said. “We are the only post-secondary institution in Canada offering a full degree program in site remediation.”

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