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Greening the grey areas

Municipal and provincial governments get ready to green building codes and bylaws
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This Toad Hollow Home was the first home registered as "Built Green" in Whistler by RDC Fine homes. The company hopes to finish another three "green homes" by the end of this year. Photo by Insight Photography International

There is no looking back — green is the way of the future.

And like a creeping jungle vine, one of the places it is winding its way into is home development.

After all, for most of us our home is the place we spend most of our time and it is the asset we spend most of our money on.

In part the push to build green is being driven by a desire to “do the right thing.” But it is also a reaction to homeowners, who are renovating or building from scratch, asking about energy efficient and sustainable homes in greater and greater numbers. The government is demanding it too.

“People want more energy efficient houses, they want better indoor air quality and now they are willing to pay for it,” said Bob Deeks, owner of RDC Fine Homes, which hopes to have four registered green homes completed by the end of the year in Whistler.

“I think when you talk about a green building or a sustainable building it is equated back to what does it give the homeowner, and it essentially comes down to a greater level of comfort, healthier home, and lower (energy) costs.”

Deeks recognizes that home building is getting more and more expensive but he believes that many green features can be built into a home at minimal cost.

Homeowners also have to tweak the way they think about their budgets.

“There is more creative ways of financing these things because if your energy costs are significantly reduced then you can increase your mortgage payments,” said Deeks, who is also past president of the Canadian Home Builders Association’s Sea to Sky chapter (CHBA).

“So your net costs are the same moving forward but you have a better house.

“People should recognize that it is achievable, that the cost is not as great as they think it is, and they won’t get it if they don’t ask for it.”

Finding a way through the green building maze can be daunting, with over 20 standards around the world to choose from.

And in the last five years or so there has been an explosion of guidelines on how to build green in Canada or recognition of the ones that have long existed. They include LEED, the first accreditation system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in 1998, the new changes being phased in by the province to the Building Code, Whistler’s own green guidelines, and Built Green B.C. — the standard now adopted by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B.C. — and this list is by no means exhaustive.

While it may seem that each group is re-inventing the wheel — and to some extent they are — the multiple versions of the guidelines are more a reflection of the fact that everyone started from ground zero within roughly the same time period. And Canada, and B.C. in particular, needed guidelines that were specific to its climate and geography.

At the heart of nearly all the guidelines is a quest to cut down energy use, control water use, consider recycled materials in building, and just generally think smart for the environment when building or even renovating.

Building green and building sustainably have become buzzwords, and nowhere do they seem to come up more than in Whistler.

This month the municipality held an open house to gather feedback on its Whistler Green program for detached dwellings. The guidelines grew out of the green building standards the developers of the Nita Lake Lodge came up with in 2004.

“At that time there wasn’t really any good green building program for detached dwellings residential construction,” said Guy Patterson, housing planner for the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

“We still think that for a number of reasons Whistler Green is a good standard for local builders and homeowners to turn to if they do want to build a green building in Whistler. But it is certainly one of an emerging group of different standards, which all try and get to the same thing.”

The guidelines give a list of actions to take which each have a point value which builders can use to guide development.

However, the process is voluntary — unless the homebuilder needs rezoning, then the municipality can demand that the green actions be taken.

“In the case of a re-zoning we could say we think this might be a good idea to grant this re-zoning but you would have to enter into an agreement to make sure all the buildings will meet LEED platinum for example,” said Patterson.

“What the policy says is that we know we are not allowed to outright regulate lots of this stuff, but we still want to set these goals, create these procedures, and let everyone know that this is where we are trying to go.

“So if you come in to do an application for something, we say: ‘by the way, here’s Whistler Green’s building goals and we are going to encourage you, or coax you, to work with us to meet those goals.’

“In case of a building permit if zoning permits everything they are proposing we can’t withhold their building permit.”

That’s where the provincial government comes in. The province’s Building Code can make it mandatory to meet green standards and the government is working its way toward that. Starting Sept. 5 water and energy saving measures will be mandatory in all new construction.

“This is the first time in B.C. that every building constructed in the province will meet energy and water efficiency targets,” said Housing Minister Rich Coleman in a statement.

“These new standards were developed after consultation with those who work with the Building Code every day — builders, designers, and local governments — as well as the general public.” On Feb. 13, 2007, the Throne Speech announced the development of a unified B.C. Green Building Code by early 2008 as a significant step in an ongoing commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to buildings and construction. It will mean things like low flush toilets and better insulation will be part of construction.

Other sustainability areas to be considered could include:

• Sustainable sites — land use, storm water management; servicing infrastructure;

• Water conservation — low-consumption fixtures, re-using wastewater.

• Energy — energy efficiency for buildings, on-site renewable energy; energy efficient devices; community energy planning;

• Materials and resources — re-using existing buildings; reducing construction waste; using sustainable building materials;

• Indoor environment — enhancing air quality; reducing air contaminants e.g., low-emitting adhesives and sealants;

• Innovation and design process — facilitating green building through administrative processes.

The B.C. Building Code will be updated on a regular basis with green standards to support the province's climate action goals. The province is also exploring further changes, including grey water recycling, the use of lighting sensors and the reuse of existing buildings. More public consultation will be held as these steps are developed.

New legislation will require municipalities in B.C. do their part to meet the province's ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020.

From Patterson’s point of view, if builders get on board with Whistler Green now they will be ahead of the game by the time the province hands down the changes.

“If you were to meet the Whistler Green building standards you would be doing a little bit better than what the province is going to tell you to do anyway,” he said.

While there are many examples of green building across the province one of the biggest examples is at Cheakamus Crossing, Whistler’s new affordable housing neighbourhood and home to 2,400 athletes and support staff during the 2010 Winter Olympic and Parlaympic Games.

It is piloting the LEED for Neighbourhood Development program. The LEED ND rating system integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building for neighbourhood design. In many ways it is a remarkable feat of green building as it is incorporating many green standards and staying within strict budgetary restrictions, making the argument that just about everyone can afford to go green when building.

The two largest green components in the development are the use of a district energy system, which draws waste heat from the nearby sewage and water treatment plant to heat homes, and the storm water system, which captures water and filters it before it naturally flows into the Cheakamus River. This system ensures that the garbage buried next to the neighbourhood does not contaminate the water.

The neighbourhood also incorporates a transit system, has a great network of pedestrian paths, will have a car share program, uses energy efficient appliances, and used green building supplies in construction and so on.

The athletes’ village was always to be constructed with green building standards in mind said Ann Duffy, the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) corporate sustainability officer. The organization decided early on it would strive for LEED Silver or its equivalent.

“That was something VANOC inherited once we were institutionalized in late 2003 and that drove the design of the new venue construction,” she said.

“So in each case there was a project team which looked at each venue or village and said, where are the real opportunities? And in consultation with VANOC and the asset owner, whether it was the RMOW or City of Richmond or Vancouver, which features did the project want to invest in to meet long term needs.”

There were costs associated with that decision said Duffy, and they were carefully considered.

“…Applying these guidelines for the building there is an incremental cost of construction of 2 to 7 per cent of total cost,” said Duffy.

But the return on investment is usually realized within the first five years, especially if there is a focus on energy efficiency, she added. And that’s something that has become very important for the long-term owner of the venue.

There is no doubt that more could have been done on the green front at Cheakamus Crossing said Eric Martin, chair of the Whistler Development Corporation, which was formed by the RMOW to carry out the project — but not within the budget available.

“Our overriding mandate is to provide affordable housing for Whistler residents and that is a huge challenge today with building costs and so on,” he said of the neighbourhood which will deliver 240 residences for sale and 110 apartments for rent.

“So while we have cast an eye toward various initiatives under Whistler 2020 and Whistler Green and made some allowances for that, we have to be very, very cognizant of our overall costing because we have to make this affordable for people.”

Martin said it is easy to get sidetracked on the green issue and forget that this is also about sustainability, which addresses not just the environmental impact but also economic and social issues, such as affordability.

He is also worried that policy makers are getting caught up in the politics of the green issue and mandating changes without really knowing the long-term impacts or cost.

“I always worry that in the big picture we get off on tangents where we don’t really know what we are talking about and that is the problem with the government taking the lead,” said Martin.

“There is very little research and we end up as an industry having to deal with these new requirements when we don’t really know what they cost.

“I worry three to five years from now someone will say, ‘Geez, that wasn’t a very good idea.’”

Joe Redmond, president of the WDC, also sits as a government appointed board member for the Home Owner Protection Office, and he is seeing that now with green roofs.

“I think everybody has different views on green roofs and mine is that in an area like B.C. and in particular in the rainforest, green roofs don’t really accomplish anything,” said Redmond.

“I think in the southwest of Arizona, where you have searing temperatures, if you can put something on the roof that insulates and retains water, but we don’t have to retain water round here, we are trying to get rid of it.”

For the most part homeowners can’t get insurance for green roofs in B.C.

But Redmond is convinced that green is here to stay.

“I think the public is going to demand more,” he said.

“If you would have asked me if (people wanted this) five years ago I would probably have said no. But I think what is happening is that people are becoming more aware of it and people are beginning to ask where is the carpet coming from, and are there recycled goods in the home.”

But like Martin he is worried about the long term.

“I think the fly in the ointment right now is that no one really has any empirical evidence of what the long term value is because it just hasn’t been around long enough,” said Redmond.

“The concern from my point of view is jumping ahead with initiatives that aren’t really thought out, and green roofs was one of those.”

Top of the list of concerns for Deeks are how to manage the enforcement of green building code changes when there are not enough energy consultants in the province to keep up with third party inspection criteria; and that by fixing the final green standard the government is taking away the incentive to do more.

“Right now there is a huge lack of resources to accommodate (third party verification),” said Deeks.

“So it is a bit of the cart before the horse.”

What needs to happen to keep the momentum going, said Deeks, is for builders to keep upgrading their skills, and for the government to make sure that it is not pushing green technology on a construction industry that isn’t ready for it.

“The government does not want to be mandating significant changes to building technology before the industry is educated in how to achieve it,” he said.

Education is a key component of the equation. Deeks said the CHBA is working with other stakeholders and the government to introduce licensing for builders and an educations program — run through a government mandated but independent facility to be known as the Builders Institute — as a way forward on this issue.

Overall though builders welcome the changes coming down from the government and those suggested by the municipality of Whistler.

“Any good builder and any good design will have all those sustainable initiatives built into it,” said Redmond.

Martin, who is also vice president of Bosa Development Corp, is currently involved in a project to build eight townhomes in Blueberry. Since the project involved a re-zoning Martin said it must meet Whistler Green.

“Whistler Green comes a lot closer from a pragmatic standpoint in the Pacific Northwest Mountain climate to addressing all the criteria it should,” he said.

“It is obviously hard to meet the higher point threshold but it is much more measurable. If we do something it is able to be analyzed and you can say, well, you got three points out of seven and that is very helpful from a developer’s point of view.”

The costs of meeting Whistler Green are just being worked out said Martin, but it’s likely to add at least 5 per cent, and that will likely be passed on to the buyer.

That uncertainty over cost may have a backlash as the market changes.

“I think in a lot of jurisdictions, especially if we see some cooling in the market, which I expect to see very quickly, there is going to be a lot of resistance without knowing what it is going to cost,” he said, adding that Whistler Green helps address this through its point system.

The WDC has decided to produce a case study on Cheakamus Crossing to look at some of these issues and outline clearly what has been done on the green front for stakeholders and potential buyers.

“We want to document for ourselves and everybody else exactly what we are doing because the questions have arisen from time to time about how much you are spending, where are you focusing, what are you doing, what are some of the choices that have been made,” said Martin.

The study should be out shortly.



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