What is it?
Green
Building Challenge 2000 is a consortium of nineteen countries that is developing
and testing a new method of assessing the environmental performance of
buildings. The project consists of two stages: an initial two-year process,
already completed, which culminated in a major international conference in
Vancouver in October 1998 (GBC '98); and a new 18-month process of development,
the result of which was one of the main attractions at the International
Conference, Sustainable Buildings 2000 held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in
October 2000.
Why is it Important?
Building construction, operation and
demolition account for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada.
Improvements in all three areas are clearly of strategic importance in reducing
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and helping Canada meet it’s Kyoto commitments. The
Green Building Challenge project is a key piece of the national and
international effort to realise those improvements.
How will it Help?
The technology to design and build
buildings with radically better performance than the norm exists today (by a
least a factor of 2, without any increase in first costs), but there are a
number of barriers to their implementation. Two of the most significant are,
firstly, a lack of understanding by the market of what is possible and secondly,
mediocre practices on the part of the design and construction industry. This
project addresses the first of these directly, through the development and
testing of a building assessment system and the second indirectly, through the
assessment, comparison and publicising of real-world, best-practice buildings.
Outcomes
- GBC Framework and GB Tool
The project is not primarily
intended to have an major immediate effect on the way that buildings are
designed, but it will have a major long-term impact. The GBC project developed a
second-generation assessment framework; one that is designed from the outset to
reflect the very different priorities, technologies, building traditions and
even cultural values that exist in various regions and countries. The assessment
framework has been produced in the form of software (GBTool) which facilitates a
full description of the building and its performance, and also allows users to
carry out the assessments relative to regional benchmarks. Participating
national teams test the assessment system on case study buildings in each
country. In order to use the system, national teams must first adjust the values
and weightings embedded in the system, thereby assuring results that are
relevant to local conditions. The direct output of this four-year process is
primarily at the level of R & D; specifically, a thorough understanding of
issues involved in designing such a system, as well as a continuing exchange of
ideas on the subject by the best researchers in the field. Notwithstanding the
long-term nature of the project, the framework is nonetheless being used by some
organisations and designers to inform the design process as to sustainability
issues at the building level. Also, some countries that do not have an existing
national rating or labelling scheme for buildings are using or adapting the GBC
framework for their own countries.
Example of the type of projects
Office: Telus Headquarters, Vancouver
conversion/ refurbishment of 1940’s 12,000 m2 switchgear & office tower architect persuaded client to accept refurbishment rather than brand new
saved embodied energy by re-using existing structure and windows high-tech skin, operable windows
energy performance target 55% of ASHRAE 90.1
