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WCEL
> Issues > Urban Growth and
Development > Smart Bylaws Guide > Part
6 > High Performance Buildings
Smart Bylaws Guide – High Performance or Green Buildings
Over the past decade, the building industry has embraced making
buildings more healthy and pleasant to work and live in through the
use of high quality materials and design. High performance or
green buildings are built using more stringent construction
guidelines so that the building’s long-term impact on the
environment, both through waste generated and resources used, is
minimized. The buildings also create a healthier living and
working environment resulting in increased productivity and lower
lifecycle costs overall. Reducing energy use and increasing
productivity makes good economic sense. For a thorough
analysis of the benefits of high performance buildings, see The
Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings (2003).
Qualities of high performance buildings include:
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Energy efficiency;
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Water efficiency;
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Site location and design that minimizes the building’s impact
on the surrounding environment (addressing factors as diverse as
stormwater management and alternative transportation);
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Maximizing the re-use of materials, focusing on using local
materials and minimizing the use of resources in the building
itself;
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Superior indoor air quality; and
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Using natural lighting, heating and cooling.
The purpose is to approach the design of buildings from a systems
perspective, accounting for the impact the building will have on the
surrounding environment, transportation systems and industry, as
well as on the users. An integrated
project design approach is used for planning high performance
buildings.
The LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building
Rating System is the industry standard for evaluating how
sustainable a building is, taking into account site location and
design, energy and water efficiency, the source and content of
materials, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in the
design process.
The result is a high quality indoor environment that minimizes
the resource inputs into the building over the long term. A
significant benefit is that employee productivity increases in high
performance buildings, resulting in short payback times for building
retrofits or overall building costs.
The Canada Green Building Council
is currently working to finalize a LEED Canada standard for
certifying existing buildings, focusing on a life-cycle building
performance management system. (This new standard is expected
to be announced in Toronto in June 2008, at the first national green
building summit.)
Municipalities are also undertaking their own energy
efficiency audits and retrofits to create significant annual
cost savings.
Municipal Policies on High Performance Buildings
City
of North Vancouver (OCP, s. 5.12.5) provides:
5.12.5 Environmental Considerations
For the enhancement of the environment through
natural habitat enhancement/preservation or high efficiency (“green”)
building designs, Council may consider a density bonus, floor area
exclusion or density transfer.
See the City of North Vancouver's Hydronic
Heat Energy Service Area Bylaw and other related
information.
District of Maple Ridge Revitalization
Tax Exemption Bylaw No. 6412-2006 - provides financial incentive
for high rise residential development in downtown core
revitalization area; even greater tax exemption if development meets
"green" option of LEED Silver, Gold or Platinum (Community
Charter sections 226 and 227)
The City of Richmond's development
permit guidelines for multi-family buildings (Official Community
Plan, section 9.3.2) encourage sunlight access (a minimum 75% of
dwellings and private open spaces receive direct sunlight every day
of the year), minimum north-south spacing, encouragement of window
orientation to the south to maximize solar gain, and operable
windows.
The City
of Vancouver has adopted a policy requiring LEED Gold for all
civic buildings.
In 2007 Bowen Island Municipality established a Green
Buildings Policy whereby applicants for rezoning are strongly
encouraged to achieve the following standards: Built
Green "Gold" and EnerGuide
80. These are residential green building standards that
apply to single family residential homes.
The District of Saanich established a Green
Building Rebate Program effective September 1, 2007, whereby the
District offers rebates on building permit fees for new single
family homes, where the homes are built to energy efficient
standards. According to the Program
description, participants in Saanich's Program receive:
- A free one hour consultation with a Certified Energy Advisor
- Priority building permit processing (i.e.
"fast-tracking")
- Builder's promotional assistance (if desired)
- Eligibility for awards/recognition
- On completion and certification, rebates of up to 30% of the
building permit value
- Partial rebate on EnerGuide assessment.
Arroyo Grande, Californa (and several other California
municipalities ) have a Retrofit
Upon Change of Ownership Ordinance requiring residential owners
to retrofit their home's plumbing fixtures for low water use.
Berkeley, California has ordinances requiring both residential
and commercial
property owners to retrofit for energy conservation, on resale of
their property.
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