Magda Konieczna

Building green

appeared in The Record August 27, 2005

Worried about your growing energy bills? Dreading future blackouts and brownouts? Sweating through the summer with the air conditioner off?

Counsellors at the Kitchener-Waterloo YMCA's Camp Ki-Wa-Y at Paradise Lake west of Waterloo don't have those concerns.

A couple of times a month, when it's cloudy or when the wind dies down, they do have to flip on a gas-powered generator atop the residence building. But most days, the building is self-sufficient, getting the energy it needs from solar panels and a wind-powered generator.

The camp is one of a growing number of local "green buildings" and an example of how humans can have a smaller negative impact on the planet.

We've all seen solar panels and windmills, but green buildings also boast a range of uncommon structural features, such as skylights and windows situated to decrease the need for electric lighting. Outside, they are surrounded by low-maintenance vegetation.

And there are lots of these buildings around.

The roof of Waterloo City Hall is being planted with a hardy mix of sedums this month. They will absorb rainwater and improve insulation, reducing the cost of cooling the building in summer.

In June, Waterloo Region announced that all of its future municipal buildings will be designed to a sustainable building standard known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.

Decreasing each building's environmental impact will be part of the design process, which will emphasize things such as choosing sites accessible by public transit, increasing green space and reducing water and energy use.

Other recent construction projects at Grand River Hospital, the region's Emergency Medical Services headquarters in Cambridge, and the new Accelerator Centre building at the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park, where startup technology companies will be launched, have included a variety of features aimed at environmental protection.

TEACHING CHILDREN

But the YMCA camp, designed to teach children to respect the natural environment, is among the most innovative.

Its 350-square-metre residence, built into a hill for natural insulation, houses about 40 kids and uses less power on average than it takes to run an electric kettle.

The power it does use comes mostly from renewable resources, says Callum McKee, manager of outdoor services for the Kitchener-Waterloo YMCA.

That's not the only unusual thing about the facility, built in 1995.

Its composting toilets require no water and produce nutrient-rich soil. Solar panels heat the tap water and a filtration system sends bacteria out to clean what water goes down the drain so it can be used for the flush toilets in other camp buildings.

But simple innovations make the biggest difference, McKee says.

"Most people think we need photo-voltaics (solar panels) and a wind machine, but good design is still key."

The camp's biggest energy-saving feature is the orientation of the buildings. They're laid out to make optimal use of sunlight for natural lighting.

To be accepted, sustainable technologies need to provide the comforts and amenities we've grown to expect, McKee says. And that's the real strength of the camp buildings.

"(The kids) behave and do everything normally like in everyday life, and that's a big feat. They love the (residence) because it's comfortable."

TOUGH ON BIG SCALE

McKee admits, though, that getting most people in the community to use sustainable technologies will be a tougher go.

"I haven't seen it on a big scale," he says. "We need people to be motivated to do it for the right reasons, not the back pocket."

But he thinks that motivation might be coming.

"I think with your smog advisories and the cost of fuel, they're hearing that every day," McKee says.

When the Paradise Lake camp was built, the expression "green building" didn't mean much to most people. Now, it's almost a catch phrase.

But just how widespread are green buildings? Will they become the norm?

Despite decades of doomsday predictions by environmentalists, the federal government reports that the energy consumption of the average Canadian rose almost eight per cent between 1990 and 2003. Canada's total energy consumption grew about 23 per cent in that time.

Enermodal Engineering of Kitchener is a consulting firm working to battle those statistics. It designed an energy-efficient green home in a Waterloo subdivision as a demonstration project in 1992.

Construction of the home, now a private residence, was documented by Kingston writer Wayne Grady in his book Green Home: Planning and Building the Environmentally Advanced House.

In his book, Grady predicted that energy-efficient construction would be an easy sell because of rising energy costs.

"Energy efficiency in domestic construction is not only possible, not only desirable, but absolutely necessary given the rate at which our current sources of energy are being depleted," he wrote.

Twelve years later, Grady's words are just as relevant, but the move to energy-efficient designs still has a long way to go.

UP FRONT COSTS

The mind-set of building owners is one reason energy-efficient construction hasn't taken off, Enermodal Engineering president Stephen Carpenter says.

A building that uses 30- to 50-per- cent less energy pays back the extra cost of its energy saving features in less than five years. Even so, building owners are hesitant to pay that extra cost up front.

"If (a building) costs a nickel more than the other one, they want the cheaper one," Carpenter says.

So it's a matter of changing the mindset of an industry that for years has focused on upfront cost.

Green features that improve air quality or offer other non-financial benefits can be an even harder sell, Carpenter says.

Green roofs save money by cutting cooling costs, but they also battle pollution, improve stormwater management and decrease how much the city heats up from the sun striking all that tar and asphalt on rooftops.

But in an industry driven by the bottom line, it's difficult to put a value on those things, says Karen Moyer, a City of Waterloo environmental co-ordinator who has spearheaded the project of outfitting city hall with a "green" roof.

Moyer hopes, however, that this summer's hot weather will make those considerations more top-of-mind.

"One major incentive is how many smog days we've had already," she says.

It's also a matter of convincing a construction industry that is notoriously resistant to change, Carpenter said.

"They get used to a comfort zone. It's easier for them if they can just keep building the same thing they've always built," Carpenter said.

But he hopes Waterloo Region's commitment to building green will help drive change. Local contractors who deal with the region will have to be familiar with sustainability features, he said. And that means those builders will be more willing to put those features into other buildings.

Buying green can also be tough, Carpenter admits. The energy-saving front-loading washing machine wasn't available in North America when the demonstration green home in Waterloo was being built. Today, it can be found in most appliance stores.

That shows how green products can become more available if people insist on having them, Carpenter says. At the region's Emergency Medical Services headquarters, Enermodal planted native grasses from seed, because it's impossible to buy sod made from native grasses.

"That's the irony of the sick world we're in. You can buy the stuff that wasn't designed for this climate, but the native stuff you can't seem to buy," Carpenter observes.

THE NORM IN EUROPE

There are parts of the world where sustainable buildings are the norm.

"The Europeans are probably a good decade ahead of us," says University of Waterloo environmental studies professor Stephen Murphy.

In parts of Europe, building owners are required by law to put in various sustainability features. This has led to a proliferation of green roofs, especially in the German city of Stuttgart, where more than 10 per cent of flat roofs are green.

"(Europeans) have been forced to deal with issues of intercepting precipitation and not contributing to storm- water overload, so that's the reason they've done so much of it," Murphy says.

In Portland, Ore., property owners pay a premium for water treatment depending on how much paved surface they have on their site. Green roofs absorb water that would otherwise run into the storm sewer system, so owners with a green roof get a break.

There are some grown-in-Canada incentives aimed at pushing green features into the mainstream.

The federal government offers up to $60,000 for commercial, institutional and multi-residential buildings that use 25 per cent less energy.

According to Carpenter, 18 per cent of new buildings qualify for that incentive.

"It's amazing how much that small incentive gets people going," he says.

"We laugh sometimes. We're working on a $50-million construction project and the owner says, 'I really need to get that $60,000.' Incentives have a real place to overcome that inertia."

There's also the Waterloo-born Residential Energy Efficient Project, also known as REEP for short.

On request, it evaluates the energy consumption in homes in southern Ontario and makes recommendations on how the owners can improve efficiency.

In Waterloo Region, incentives cover more than half the cost of the evaluation and help to pay for renovations that are recommended by the program.

Locally, though, most proponents of green building design say they believe legislation, or simply the savings on energy costs, will be more important than up front incentives.

"There will be those people who will be interested (in green buildings) and move forward because it's the right thing to do. There will be some commercial people (who choose to do it for) economic reasons," says Ken Noonan, Waterloo Region's director of facilities management.

"And there will be people that will require legislation."

Those laws could be as simple as changes to the building code, Carpenter says.

"You should always be raising the code levels," he says. "I view the code as dealing with the late adopters, and programs like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) deal with the early adopters."

Carpenter said the release of the Canadian version of program guidelines has made it easier for people to request green buildings.

"Before, (the green building industry) was the wild west. You put in some recycling bins, maybe you put in a water-conserving toilet and all of a sudden you're a green building. There was no standard or guideline."

Back at UW, Murphy thinks the quick payback on green roofs means that feature will take off without incentives. Once word of the technology gets out, one of every three or four new buildings will have green roofs, he says. That should happen in 10 or 15 years.

Getting the word out, though, is the big challenge, Moyer says. That, coupled with policy, is what is required for sustainable building design to become widespread.

"In Germany, green roofs are policy-driven, from a government saying, 'We're going to do this.' In North America, we have to include a larger marketing component."

Moyer says she has seen people express a lot of interest in green technologies at events such as the Groundwater Festival at Doon Heritage Crossroads. That means change is on the way, but she thinks the government still needs to offer incentives or introduce legislation.

That could happen even at the municipal level, where Moyer says there's little room in the budget. The region could, for example, follow Portland's lead and offer building owners a break on fees for stormwater treatment if they install a green roof.

And of course the ever-present issue of rising energy costs will be an incentive of its own.

"It's all about the back pocket. If we continue to have energy costs go up it'll take off," the YMCA's McKee says.

BREAKING POINT?

In the end, there seems to be no clear answer on what it will take for green building design to become mainstream.

"When is the breaking point? Is it going to be rising cost of electricity or natural gas just to cool your homes?" Moyer asks.

For some building owners, it could just be a drive for innovation that inspires installing green features.

That's said to be the logic behind the sustainable features used for the new Accelerator Centre building at UW's Research and Technology Park. It has a green roof and is oriented to best make use of sunlight and shade. That means it takes less energy to heat and cool the building.

The design was selected simply because it was innovative and different, says Carol Stewart, manager of business development for the technology park.

Back at Paradise Lake, YMCA camp counsellors are working to help children develop a love for nature, with the hope that this will encourage them to tread softly on the planet.

Some of those kids will become engineers responsible for building design, McKee observes.

"People will say, 'Why don't we use solar power?' Others will say, 'It's not real.'

"And the kids will say, 'What do you mean? I went to a camp where it was real.'"

So McKee thinks the YMCA camp is planting the seeds of change, child by child. And what it comes down to is building an appreciation for nature.

"We don't preach," said Craig Brant, director of the camp's outdoor centre program. "We try to give them some sense of awe and wonderment.

"We get on that emotional side of empowering someone because they can hear the birds."