January 9, 2012

by Patricia Williams

Greening of existing “energy-hogging” buildings is expected to gain traction in coming years, says Windmill Development Group founder Jonathan Westeinde.

“The existing building stock is aging,” he told a seminar at the Construct Canada conference.

“It needs to be updated and renewed. I think retrofits are going to become more and more a part of all our businesses as we move forward.”

A study carried out in the United States in 2009 found the green retrofits market is growing more rapidly than the market for new green buildings. Green building currently comprises an estimated five to nine per cent of retrofit and renovation market activity. That is expected to grow rapidly in coming years.

Westeinde, also vice-president of Ledcor Renew, a venture focused on providing a one-stop solution for the greening and optimization of existing buildings, said constructing new green facilities is “a walk in the park” compared with retrofitting existing buildings.

His firm’s portfolio of new builds includes LEED platinum projects in Calgary, Victoria and Ottawa.

Green retrofits include the Oxfam Canada headquarters in Ottawa and the “One Planet” house renovation, also in Ottawa.

“When you do a new build, you are dealing with a piece of land and your risk is what is under the soil,” Westeinde said. “When you get into a retrofit, it’s what’s behind that wall, what’s up in that ceiling. There are a lot of unknowns.”

Westeinde said financing of green retrofits, however, is a challenge. Creative financing mechanisms need to be developed that factor sustainability into the value of a real estate asset.

A longer-term perspective also needs to be taken by building owners when it comes to return on investment in green retrofits, Westeinde said.

“The litmus test right now is a one and one-half or two-year payback period or (the attitude is) ‘we’re not going to do it.’ ”

Westeinde, also chair of the green building advisory council of the Centre for Environmental Cooperation, a NAFTA initiative, said building owners stand to reap “tangible benefits” in such areas as improved energy efficiency.

Green retrofits can restore the competitive edge of existing “energy-hogging” office buildings by reducing operating costs, he said.

“Every LEED Gold office tower that is going up in Toronto puts much more pressure on existing buildings to step up,” he said, noting that studies have indicated that buildings constructed to LEED standards have higher occupancy and rental rates than non-green facilties.

During the session, case studies of the two Ottawa green retrofit projects were presented by Rodney Wilts, a partner in Build Green Solutions, a Windmill Development Group company.

The Oxfam project converted a low-rise, 1950s building into modern, eco-friendly office space within a tight time frame and a limited budget. Operating costs were lowered and reliance on fossil fuels reduced as a result of the retrofit.

The project was one point shy of LEED Platinum.

“We had a great client who was willing to aim high, Wilts said. “We also had a team that understood sustainability.”

The single-family home renovation transformed an energy and water guzzling 1920s home into a showpiece of sustainability.

Cathedral Hill – this Windmill Development project is (very worthily) taking up a significant chunk of our time. The mixed-use development, targeting LEED Platinum, consists of a 21 story condominium tower, 10 townhomes and a 12 story office building. BuildGreen is providing a full suite of services including development management, sustainability and LEED consulting. You can find out more information on the residential part of the project at www.cathedralhill.ca (and while you’re there why don’t you buy a condo).

Oakwood Office Building – this project, in conjunction with our friends Barry J. Hobin and Associates, is an office building targeting LEED Platinum for the design-build firm Oakwood. BuildGreen is providing sustainability and LEED advisement.

Toronto Retrofit – this project is brand new, and still confidential at this stage, but we are offering strategic sustainability advisement and LEED EBOM facilitation for a Toronto highrise retrofit targeting LEED Gold.

2611 Queensview Drive – another Windmill project, this green office building is nearing completion and still looking for some tenants on the first and second floor. BuildGreen is providing development management and LEED consulting. You can find more information on the project here.

Dartmouth Cove – BuildGreen is providing financial and sustainability advisement to this project with our friends at The Planning Partnership. This project involves looking at the redevelopment opportunities for Dartmouth Cove, showcasing a high level of sustainability achievement.

Algonquin College – continuing our long-standing relationship with Algonquin College, BuildGreen is involved in a series of activities for this client, most notably doing sustainability and LEED compliance for the new Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley, and we look forward to making progress this year on the Campus Development Plan.

Green building education – as always we are enthusiastic proponents of the importance of sharing lessons learned and using education to raise the bar for green building. We have developed a number of course offerings in conjunction with the CaGBC including a webinar and in person course on the Economics of Green Building, a webinar introducing LEED for Neighbourhood Developments, and have been active delivering LEED training courses. Look for some new courses to be developed by the spring.

Optimizing Real Estate for Non-Profits – growing out of work with Cathedral Hill, BuildGreen has launched a program to help non-profits (particularly faith groups) leverage their real estate to further support their mission. We are now working at various stages with a number of churches and look forward to an exciting year with this program in 2012. For more information on Optimizing Real Estate for Non-Profits see here.

Policy work – we continue our advocacy work on a number of policy files. Our work on a national green loan fund continues, and we have some great partners on board to make a big push for 2012. We are also continuing our work in advocating for the increased use of FSC wood in green buildings, and hope to make an announcement on a new initiative shortly.

These are but a few of the things that BuildGreen has underway now. As always we continue to look for new partnerships interested in furthering the cause of sustainability.

BuildGreen and LEED for Neighbourhood Development (LEED-ND)

A new LEED rating system for community scale developments, LEED-ND, promotes community scale infrastructure, rewards mixed-use and walkable development, and provides an excellent guide for developers and municipalities. Rodney Wilts was an active member of the core committee of the CaGBC tasked with implementing LEED-ND in Canada. Katie Paris is now accredited as a LEED AP with a specialty in neighbourhood development — one of only seven so qualified in Ontario. BuildGreen also has been a key contributor to some of the very first LEED-ND projects in North America, including Pointe Nord in Montreal and Dockside Green in Victoria. We have also now partnered with the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) to develop an online course on LEED-ND which we expect to be released this fall.

BuildGreen and One Planet Communities

One Planet Communities is a highly ambitious and stringent endorsement program for large-scale carbon neutral communities. From the very inception of the One Planet Communities program in North America, BuildGreen consultants have played an active role. Our role has typically been as senior technical consultants, helping advise on strategies to achieve carbon neutrality, for instance, or the feasibility of on-site wastewater treatment. More recently our work has broadened to include financial and real estate considerations. Closest to home is the Petite Rivière project, the ultra-progressive redevelopment of an aging golf course into an exemplary green development. BuildGreen consultants have been involved from the beginning and continue to lend advisement to this important project.

BuildGreen and the Living Building Challenge

The Living Building Challenge is a holistic approach to restorative development – a cerfitication program scalable for buildings through neighbourhoods and campuses. Rodney Wilts is now certified as an Ambassador of the LBC, offering speaking engagements and workshops to organizations interested in learning about this cutting-edge program.

BuildGreen Services for Green Communities

BuildGreen has been involved in community scale developments at every stage of the development process. Examples of recent engagements include: helping a developer apply a creative financing approach to a community energy installation; assisting a non-profit organization optimize their excess land holdings through green development; analysis of a potential development proposal on a LEED-ND scorecard; green development training for municipal approvals staff; creating a sustainability plan for a proposed brownfield redevelopment and assisting the development team in making the case for higher density.

Give us a call or send an email to let us know how we can support your green development project.

DOCKSIDE GREEN: WHAT LEBRETON COULD HAVE BEEN

After publishing a blog post yesterday about the Dockside Green development in Victoria I read an article by Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) about the same project. He raised some interesting points that I didn’t cover in my post that showed its magnitude as well as the work of Windmill Developments.

Now let me say that my quoting and referring to this blog post doesn’t necessarily mean I share the views of NRDC and the author.

I must say that this blog post left me with a lot of respect for Ottawa’s Windmill Development Group. They demonstrated a lot of vision on this project. Kaid wrote:

“…when NRDC, the US Green Building Council and the Congress for the New Urbanism first announced the LEED for Neighbourhood Development pilot program to honor smart growth, the developers of Dockside Green [Windmill Development Group] made a point of being the program’s very first applicant…its two completed residential phases have also earned platinum ratings under the LEED green building programs, in one case setting a new world record for the highest LEED building score ever achieved and in the second case tying their own record.”

Windmill seems to be keen on being a forerunner in applying for new sustainability programs and breaking world records for LEED developments.

Kaid has given us more reasons to be impressed with Windmill.

“Dockside Green is being built by the financial institution Vancity, which launched the project with its partner, Windmill Developments, a firm committed to sustainability that persuaded the city of Victoria to approve a bold green concept for the site.  (All of Windmill’s projects have achieved LEED platinum certification.)“

Other impressive points about the projects raised by the writer are:

• Dockside Green is on its way to becoming a 26-building redevelopment of a 15-acre, former brownfield industrial site (cleanup alone reportedly cost $20 million), being built in phases as an eventual mixed-use community of 1.3 million square feet and some 2500 residents.
• The project is being developed in12 phases, comprising three neighborhoods, over seven years.
• Dockside Green is host to a biomass gasification plant that, along with additional renewable energy technology including on-building windmills and solar panels, enables the development to be carbon-neutral.

I have to say I’m impressed with Windmill so far and look forward to seeing more of their work in Ottawa (even though they’re using a different architect for Cathedral Hill).

After reading an Ottawa Citizen article called “Drafting a new blueprint” NCC CEO Marie Lemay stated that the Claridge development is only four hectares of a 37-hectare area slated for mixed use development in the Lebreton area. She is also sure that down the line Lebreton Flats will be something Ottawa will be proud of. They appear to have a plan for the area so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.

With a developer like Windmill in Ottawa I long to see such a beautiful and award-winning development in our city. This isn’t the case of Ottawa wanting to be like another city; it’s Ottawa leveraging award-winning expertise that’s already here.

To read the full article by Kaid Benfield visithttp://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/a_close_look_at_what_may_be_th.html. He has a number of pictures, renderings, videos and information about Dockside Green. Enjoy!

A visit to the 15-acre Canadian development that’s leading the way with green design, stormwater recycling, and more

As this post is published, I am on vacation in Victoria, British Columbia, a wonderful city that — among other good things — is home to Dockside Green, which some people are calling the greenest development in the world.

At least with respect to new, highly urban developments-in-progress, they may have a case to make. For starters, when NRDC, the US Green Building Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism first announced the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program to honor smart growth, the developers of Dockside Green made a point of being the program’s very first applicant. It has since earned a platinum rating under LEED-ND.

Moreover, its two completed residential phases have also earned platinum ratings under the LEED green building programs, in one case setting a new world record for the highest LEED building score ever achieved and in the second case tying their own record. Its completed commercial phase has also earned, you guessed it, a platinum rating.

For the most part, I am going to let the photos and videos tell this rich story, but allow me to set the table with some basics. Dockside Green is on its way to becoming a 26-building redevelopment of a 15-acre, former brownfield industrial site (cleanup alone reportedly cost $20 million), being built in phases as an eventual mixed-use community of 1.3 million square feet and some 2,500 residents.

Note the context in the heart of the region, not far from the central business district it is served by multiple transit lines.

Dockside Green is being built by the financial institution Vancity, which launched the project with its partner, Windmill Developments, a firm committed to sustainability that persuaded the city of Victoria to approve a bold green concept for the site. (All of Windmill’s projects have achieved LEED platinum certification.) Master planning was by the architecture firm of Perkins & Will (formerly Busby, Will & Perkins) Mechanical and electrical engineering as well as LEED consulting was provided by Stantec.

Shoreline restoration design (not yet undertaken) and other landscape design was provided by the landscape architecture firm Small and Rossell. (I’m sure I’m leaving many important contributors out. Feel free to supplement these credits in the comments.) The project is being developed in12 phases, comprising three neighborhoods, over seven years.

Dockside Green is host to a biomass gasification plant that, along with additional renewable energy technology including on-building windmills and solar panels, enables the development to be carbon-neutral. Each residential unit has a real-time meter showing energy and hot water usage along with associated carbon emissions, which can be easily compared with the development as a whole or the unit’s history.

The project also has advanced water and waste handling systems, including its own sewage treatment and graywater recycling facilities, along with sophisticated green infrastructure and landscaping for handling stormwater, all of which is captured on site. One of the most prominent and attractive parts of the water management design — and of the project as a whole — is a constructed stream running through the development.

Vancity worked with the city of Victoria to create and incorporate an affordable housing strategy to assist the project’s goal of mixed-income living. By all accounts, the developers have worked from the beginning to create not just a great development with a sustainability strategy but a development of great ambition that has been all about sustainability from the beginning. From the project’s website:

A model for holistic, closed-loop design, Dockside Green functions as a total environmental system in which form, structure, materials, mechanical and electrical systems interrelate and are interdependent – a largely self-sufficient, sustainable community where waste from one area will provide food for another. This is a dynamic environment where residents, employees, neighboring businesses and the broader community interact in a healthy and safe environment, reclaimed from disuse and contamination.

As a LEED® Platinum-targeted project, Dockside Green’s principles of New Urbanism, smart growth, green building and sustainable community design are all essential elements of the development plan…

An integrated approach to design has been adopted, tailoring it specifically to the Dockside lands and the Victoria West community, recognizing the need to apply integrated design principles to the whole site – not just individual components and characteristics. A holistic, closed-loop design approach is the only way to enhance synergies and achieve our sustainability goals.

We strive to move the concept of whole-system costing beyond building design to include site and community infrastructure costs. For example, a sound green building strategy like ecological stormwater management will reduce infrastructure costs, while reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and heat-island effects, creating natural habitat and improving human health. Our ability to exploit whole-system thinking will be critical to our success: ecologically, socially and financially…

For an excellent in-depth history and analysis of Dockside Green, see this highly informative articleTerrain by Portland-based architect Ken Pirie. Some readers may also be interested in the following:

• Dockside Green Design Guidelines
• Dockside Green Sustainability Report 2008
• Dockside Green Green Initiatives

So, how does this intensely green development work as a neighborhood? This may be where the “in progress” qualification comes into play. I think we are far from seeing it at its best.

For now, there is a fair amount of shopping right across the street, including a supermarket, so necessities are at hand. But my wife found the highly contemporary architecture a bit “austere,” and I think she has a point, especially with only a minority of the contemplated development constructed at this point. I found myself wishing for more warmth, which might come with more critical mass. In any event, whether one goes for the architecture or not is a matter of taste. We certainly didn’t dislike it. I also wished for at least a small park, which may eventually come if the waterfront is improved as contemplated in Small & Rossell’s site plan.

Dockside Green certainly isn’t yet the kind of complete, mature, multi-generational neighborhood highlighted by Scott Doyon’s “popsicle test” (can an eight-year-old go get a popsicle on her own and return home safely before it melts) and featured in my last post. Now, there is a sense of isolation, in that it feels much more walkable internally than externally. There is still a large industrial tract between the development’s buildings and the waterfront to the east, along with a wide arterial road between the project and the commercial and residential properties on the hillside to the west. The remaining Dockside Green tracts to the south are still undeveloped, the parcels currently unkempt and fenced off. The whole surrounding area is clearly under redevelopment, though, so perhaps the critical mass that comes with neighborhood build-out will make the project feel more connected. It will be interesting to check back in a decade or so.

In the meantime, the water features are spectacular, lending quite a bit of nature to the development. We enjoyed the bakery and coffee bar, and so did quite a few others on a Tuesday morning. There were pets and a few small children (pre-school) around. The Galloping Goose bike trail, which runs alongside Dockside Green, was definitely being enjoyed. I came away hopeful for the neighborhood’s evolution as well as majorly impressed by its green technology.

For additional perspective, watch these two videos. The first is a developer-sponsored, but informative, account of the neighborhood from the point of view of residents. The second presents the commentary of city officials and a founder of the environmental organization Smart Growth BC (now merged with the Canada Green Building Council):

Dockside Green Story: “Natural Growth”, Victoria BC from Aclara Promotions on Vimeo.

Review of International Aggregate Standards Finds “No Rival” for SERA

BuildGreen Solutions Finds Draft SERA Standards the most rigorous and comprehensive of all existing equivalents for the responsible extraction of aggregates

June 23, 2011, Ottawa, Ontario: A new study by BuildGreen Solutions, one of Canada’s leading sustainable development services companies, of international aggregate standards has found nothing that came close to rivaling the Draft SERA Standards in terms of rigour or comprehensiveness related to aggregate extraction.

Following a thorough online review by Ottawa’s BuildGreen Solutions, SERA (Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate) released the Draft SERA Standards on June 1, 2011, proposing that aggregate operators in Ontario adopt a voluntary, third-party audited, certification system for aggregate extraction.

“In conducting our online audit of existing aggregate standards it became clear that there existed no English language certification system for aggregate extraction that compares with the Draft SERA Standards,” says Rodney Wilts, JD, LEED AP, and Partner with BuildGreen Solutions. “We reviewed all international aggregate standards we could find across fifteen criteria and in all but two SERA was equal to or better than the rest.”

BuildGreen Solutions found SERA to be the only standard specific to aggregates that combines comprehensive best-practices with a proposed third-party auditing system. The arms-length assessment offered by third-party auditors provides an effective tool for companies to determine where they are doing well and where there is room for improvement. Third-party audited certification systems like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and RainForest Alliance have all successfully improved resource management through voluntary standards that recognize industry leaders.

“BuildGreen Solutions has recognized that third-party auditing is essential to the success of any resource management system,” says Lorne Johnson, Executive Director, SERA. “FSC discovered the value of third-party certification in 1993 when they developed a certification system for the forest sector. The aggregate sector is in a similar place to where the forestry sector was ten years ago and has a lot of to gain from a similar solution.”

SERA has already found support from a wide range of stakeholders including environmental groups, construction companies, municipalities, aggregate operators and governments who recognize that SERA offers a promising approach to more responsible aggregate extraction.

About BuildGreen Solutions (www.build-green.com)

BuildGreen Solutions is a sustainable development services company that provides advice on high-performance development choices as managers, educators, and facilitators.  Advice centres on green design, from materials to energy efficiency, from finance to operations, and from strategic policy to implementation.

With a focus on opportunities for deep green design, BuildGreen Solutions has been involved in some of the most socially, economically and environmentally advanced projects in North America.  With a portfolio of LEED Platinum buildings and climate-neutral community-scale developments BuildGreen Solutions has demonstrated a commitment to innovative, solutions-oriented approaches.

About SERA (www.seracanada.ca)

Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate (SERA) is a not-for-profit organization that aims to create, administer and promote widespread support for certification of responsibly sourced construction materials.  Its initial focus is on establishing a voluntary certification system to promote responsibly sourced aggregate materials in Ontario, offering operators an innovative way to demonstrate their efforts to recognize the social and environmental expectations of the local community.

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For further information, please Contact: Rodney Wilts, BuildGreen Solutions

Phone: 613-203-7365

Email: rodney@build-green.com

Some travel may be required, but the position will be based in Ottawa. Salary is commensurate with experience.Applicants please apply via email to rodney @ build-green.com* .