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First Person: Guy Patterson

Whistler Green brings sustainable building standards to housing
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Building green Whistler builders were involved in developing Whistler Green.

In embracing the concept of sustainability through Whistler 2020, the Resort Municipality of Whistler has assembled information collected from literally hundreds of sources into a single framework intended to guide the municipality for the next 20 years. While the Whistler 2020 document is as comprehensive as can be, the exercise of collecting all that information revealed several gaps in the knowledge base — grey areas that the RMOW has had to fill in to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability.

One of those areas is sustainable design for detached residential building. While there is no shortage of green building standards for large-scale buildings, finding information applicable to single-family homes, duplexes, and other complexes was more difficult.

Given the number of large-scale housing projects slated for the next few years — the Rainbow project, the athletes’ village, Fitzsimmons Walk — the RMOW took matters into its own hands and initiated the Whistler Green program.

Whistler Green was developed by looking at the available information, and meeting with local contractors to determine what was possible for residential building in Whistler. Seven different areas of construction were identified — Site and Landscape, Energy, Water, Indoor Environment, Materials, Waste, Owner and Public Education — as well as a checklist for architects and contractors. The goal is to reduce waste in construction, use sustainable materials, and make homes more efficient. With hundreds of additional dwelling units proposed for development or redevelopment in the next 5-10 years, the impact of Whistler Green could be significant.

The program will be brought to council in August, where municipal staff will request permission to require all applicants for residential development to complete the Whistler Green checklist. Initially, compliance will be voluntary, but the municipality will research opportunities for mandatory green building measures to be introduced in the years ahead.

Pique Newsmagazine caught up with municipal planner Guy Patterson to talk about Whistler Green and how it can be used.

Pique: Where does Whistler Green currently stand, and when will it be available to contractors and the public? Guy Patterson: The formal public review period has officially ended and we’re refining the program based on feedback. We’ll provide it to council for formal endorsement in August, and once it’s approved it will be available to anyone on the website and at municipal hall.

Pique: Is Whistler Green in its current state being used for any specific projects now?

GP: I know (consultant) Brent Murdoch is building his own home using them as a guide. He’s not following them strictly, but he’s definitely referring to them and we’re going back and forth to see how it works in his projects. I know Fitzsimmons Walk has committed to using Whistler Green in building the resident housing and market housing components of the development, and of course Rainbow and the athletes’ village.

Pique: I know a lot of material has been drawn from other green building standards, but how much is Whistler-specific, given our climate, snow loads, that kind of thing?

GP: I wouldn’t say that a lot of it was Whistler specific, the idea was to make the criteria fairly general but sometimes when something requires calculations — like looking at daylight access, doing the insulation for energy performance, that’s where the local climate comes in. The general standards apply for the most part, but for Whistler we might require thicker insulation than the next place, so there is some implementation that will be Whistler-specific.

Pique: What standards did you use to produce Whistler Green?

GP: I’d say the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and Built Green B.C. are the closest, but also the REAP program (Residential Environmental Assessment Program) out of UBC, and a program in The U.K. called BREAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method). There are a host of different standards out there, but the one problem is that they don’t all apply to residential construction, which is why we started our own program with Whistler Green.

Pique: The Whistler Green standards have to comply with all provincial building standards. Did that create any difficulties? For example, I remember that city hall in Calgary had to remove waterless urinals because someone found that they weren’t approved yet in the provincial standards.

GP: There have been a few issues. One example is that we wanted to require points for composting toilets, but right now the provincial plumbing code doesn’t allow composting toilets unless you get special permission from the health inspector. But the provincial code is under review at the moment… and it will likely be a lot greener when the new version comes out in 2009. Having a provincial green building code would make it a lot easier for us to require these things, but as it stands now you can do everything in Whistler Green and you wouldn’t be breaking any rules. It’s compatible with the current building codes.

Pique: As you mentioned, Whistler Green will be applied to new developments like Rainbow and the athletes’ village. How do you encourage those developers, and others in Whistler, to use Whistler Green?

GP: What we’re doing with those projects is going back and forth in discussions with the developers, and when it comes to the stage of awarding development permits we will be asking them to submit their Whistler Green checklist prior to project approval.

Pique: Is that a lot of work, or a lot of extra expense?

GP: It can be a lot of work, it really depends on how ambitious the developer is in terms of how green they want to be. It can certainly add expense, but again that depends on the project. Installing a fairly large-scale photo-voltaic system for solar power would add cost and design to a project, but a lot of considerations are quite simple if you add them early on. Things like solar orientation and shading are pretty simple, so you have better placement of your windows, better windows, and thicker insulation. Dual flush toilets are easy, same as low flow faucets and showers, and low flow irrigation systems. These things are fairly simple to achieve, but we’re hoping that there are a lot of developers who really want to push the envelope and be more innovative.

Pique: Are there any projects that push that envelope in the current list?

GP: We hope so. The energy system for the athletes’ village that uses heat from the sewage treatment plant is a big one, and a significant one when it comes to meeting the green criteria. That’s not Whistler Green specifically, but in general it’s quite progressive.

Pique: Do you know what is going to be in the new provincial building code?

GP: We’re not sure how the province is going to roll out the updated code, but what we think they’re going to do is allow municipalities to set their own codes and go further than the existing regulations. For example, if you look at water conservation and plumbing regulations, it makes sense to allow certain municipalities in areas that have droughts to require different plumbing than in the provincial code. A municipality can say the building code says “X”, but we’re going to require better than “X”. Right now those exceptions only apply to water conservation, but if you look at the broader model for green provincial standards there is a lot of potential for municipalities to go beyond that.

Pique: How involved were contractors in developing the Whistler Green program? Do they view green construction as a selling point? GP: Builders played a significant role in creating the standards, they had a task force to help develop the plan, and have had an opportunity to review it and make comments and suggestions. It’s very much a plan that they’re telling us they can work with.

In terms of selling homes, there’s no question. There’s one project in Langley that’s a whole green community, and they’re using green as a marketing tool — healthier living, lower energy requirements, that kind of thing. A lot really depends on the buyers, but I think we’re starting to see educated buyers that are interested in owning green homes.

Pique: How easy is it to follow the Whistler Green standards?

GP: It’s quite user-friendly and many of the details are really easy to follow. Some things take a little more work, like getting Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, or tracking a construction waste management plan. Some things require extra effort, but most are really simple and won’t change your plans dramatically. And again, if you use the plans from the very beginning it won’t cost you much more, and will probably save money in the long run.

Pique: Can Whistler Green be applied to renovations? Say I wanted to do some renovations at home, could I follow the guide?

GP: Definitely. At the moment everyone is encouraged to access Whistler Green on the municipal website, and we’ve made a very simple checklist that is easy to use and read. When you get into the details there’s a little more depth and context, but everyone is welcome to use it, and municipal staff is here to provide guidance, feedback and clarification when you apply for a permit.

Pique: Are there other communities interested in the Whistler Green program?

GP: We’ve seen a lot of interest from outside the community, partly in the context that Whistler Green is similar to other standards, but more because local governments are taking the initiative in creating local standards. We’ve spoken with Revelstoke, we go back and forth with Vancouver, we’ve talked to Canmore and Banff. I’ll be promoting Whistler Green at the West Coast Green conference in San Francisco this September.

Pique: What are the benefits of building or renovating with Whistler Green? GP: One important one is occupant health and comfort, through better air quality and more comfortable environmental designs. Next would be financial savings through energy efficiency and reduced maintenance costs. The last would be the environmental benefits, like reducing waste, using sustainable materials, and having less of an impact.

Pique: Most of these green projects seem to cost more up front, but save you money in the long-run. Is that the case with Whistler Green?

GP: There’s a huge range of estimates as to what the green premium is, anywhere from two to 10 per cent of the cost depending on the project. There’s so many variables obviously, but over time the premium is less and less. I should stress that the earlier on that you consider it, the easier it is to incorporate at no extra cost.

For example, if you design a home with north facing windows, you may have to buy expensive new windows to get good energy performance. However, if you choose a different strategy for placing those windows at the beginning, you might not have to buy new windows to get better performance.

Pique: Can Whistler Green be applied to any size of building?

GP: It’s definitely a residential standard. There is a distinction between single detached duplexes and multi-unit developments, and you have to make some refinement to apply (Whistler Green) to a multi-unit project. Some things are equally applicable with large projects, like water conservation, but when you look at something like the heating system there are different calculations and different strategies you would take.



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