Building green has its benefits

Robert Bateman, Canada`s foremost nature artist and a leading environmental advocate, likes to compare the planned $20-million gallery and learning centre bearing his name to a firefly.

It makes sense: When completed in 2010, the Robert Bateman Art and Environmental Centre at Victoria`s Royal Roads University will be one of Canada`s first "living buildings.`` It is designated as such because it will be self-sustaining, generate its own energy with renewable resources, have its own on-site water treatment, use toxin-free materials and rehabilitate the surrounding environment.

These and other features will make it an example of green innovation expected to attract up to 100,000 tourists annually, Bateman says from his eco- friendly home and studio on B.C.`s Salt Spring Island. "It`s the way to a more sustainable future. I hope the building will be the glimmer of a firefly to draw people from miles around to see. I`m hoping that when people approach it, there`ll be that feeling of deep inhaling,`` he says, pausing to do so, "and exhaling. Feeling it`s right.``

It`s a sentiment echoed by Jason McLennan, the Sudbury, Ont.-born CEO of the trans-border Cascadia Region Green Building Council, and the man behind the Living Building Challenge. Launched in 2006, this notoriously demanding set of guidelines for sustainable building has become a call-to-arms he says Canadian and American green builders are tackling with zeal.

"The interest in the challenge has exceeded my own expectations. So many projects are emerging so quickly. It`s great, because a `living building` is not meant to be easy.``

That`s an understatement. The guidelines stipulate a ban on standard building materials that commonly contain formaldehyde, mercury, polyurethane, lead and mercury. All water also must be captured and purified without chemicals on-site; wood must be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or salvaged; and energy must be generated on-site with renewable resources. The guidelines go well beyond the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation, which is the current green building benchmark.

The sheer cost of sourcing sustainable, non-polluting materials and building poses a real barrier to widespread acceptance of the guidelines, however. The economies of scale needed to keep projects cost-effective will for now, limit their size to larger buildings rather than a single dwelling, McLennan admits.

"It`s an elegant, simple system, but it`s hard to achieve under the paradigm of how we build now,`` he says. "We wanted people to have their eye on the ball, to understand where the finish line was for building. We also suspected that if we were to put out this lofty benchmark, there would be creative people out there to figure it out.``

So far, his gamble has paid off. In addition to the Bateman project, Canada boasts two others: Cambrian College`s Energy Centre of Excellence in Sudbury is now at the design stage; Laurentian University`s $12 million Living with Lakes Centre is slated for completion in late 2009.

Elsewhere, there are a host of projects that approach the living-building standard. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) has 12 national demonstration homes that significantly reduce energy use and environmental impact. In Okotoks, south of Calgary, the 52-home Drake Landing Solar Community will be capable of generating 90 per cent of its space-heating requirements within three years, by storing solar energy in an innovative underground facility.

"We were trying to demonstrate how a community could use a local energy source to provide almost all of its heating requirements,`` says Doug McClenahan, the Natural Resources Canada project leader who helped pioneered the concept in the `70s. "It`s been a long time in coming.``

Perhaps most impressive is Dockside Green, a 1,000-unit residential complex on 15 hectares next to Victoria`s Upper Harbour that, like living building principles, exceeds the LEED platinum criteria. The project uses recycled or renewable materials, captures, treats and reuses 65 million U.S. gallons of water on-site, and will generate enough waste-wood bio-gas heat to also supply a nearby hotel.

"We wanted to select clean, sustainable technologies that, over time, would continue to grow,`` says Dan Paris, Vancity Enterprises` director of development. "We`re demonstrating that on a commercial, neighbourhood-wide basis.``

Moving into that neighbourhood is Taylor Kennedy, 34, a writer and photographer for National Geographic. Concerned that he is "part of the problem,`` he says he purchased a Dockside Green unit in Phase 2 to help "minimize the impact of human activity. The construction costs to build green are less than one per cent more than to build traditionally. So why would I put myself into a new, already archaic building? The costs of green is coming down. I like that the project is green, but mainstream and economical for everyone.``

It`s a vision that is attracting an increasing number of believers, says Helen Goodland, executive director of Vancouver`s Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre. "If you build at the apex of possibility, there will be companies and individuals who feel that speaks to their values. The intention is to pull the rest of the market forward, to make decisions not based on financial criteria, but on setting a new standard.``