RC109 NovDec 2023 - Magazine - Page 20
SUSTAINABILITY
GOAL SETTING
We asked recent ReNew Canada Webinar attendees about the future of sustainable
construction. Here’s what they had to say:
What is the
biggest barrier
to sustainable
construction?
91%
9%
Lack of national
standards/
regulations
Which is the most important aspect
of constructing a net-zero building?
Construction materials
60%
Shortage of
skilled labour
Based on current conditions, do
you think Canada will meet its
goal of achieving net-zero GHG
emissions by 2050?
YES 20% NO 80%
20%
Energy efficient
systems
20%
Building
standards
awards but having that educational awareness I think raises
the bar as well. All these standards have very rigorous
performance veri昀椀cations that need to be done. In the case
of the Passive House renewal of the Ken Soble Tower we
did for the City of Hamilton, there was a lot that went into
understanding the performance and veri昀椀cation to achieve
certi昀椀cation.
ReNew Canada: What are the advantages and challenges
of including sustainable construction materials, such as
mass timber, in your projects?
NERYS RAU: I think the holistic advantages are obvious. We
can’t continue to rely on non-renewable resources. We
have to reduce the overall carbon footprint of production
of construction in general and we must reduce the amount
of waste that’s created during construction. Sustainable
construction has three pillars, social, economic, and environmental, whereas more traditional construction speaks
to economy, utility, durability. And that’s an important
distinction. To me, that means that through sustainable construction, socially, we’re trying to enhance people’s quality
of life. And from an environmental perspective, we’re trying to minimize the adverse e昀昀ects of construction because
we’re going to continue to build buildings, but how can we
do that in an e昀昀ective way? Upfront planning is essential
for success on these projects. You need to engage with local
authorities, so they understand what your vision for the
building is going to be. And don’t assume their knowledge.
Don’t assume that just because there’s the presence of some
champions within those authorities that that’s going to ease
your way. It’s still a challenge because with these materials,
we’re building outside the code. With Limberlost, it’s a
tremendous number of alternative solutions that have got
us to where we are and that’s still a lot of work.
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RENEW CANADA – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023
MARK HENDERSON: One of the advantages when it comes to
using mass-timber is that you can generally fabricate lighter buildings, which means smaller footings and smaller
foundations. And with that comes less embodied carbon,
which I think is the ultimate goal. There is a learning
curve certainly with how these buildings get put together,
but with proper collaboration and communication those
challenges can be overcome. Availability is also a challenge when it comes to mass timber, so mapping out the
supply chain is key. Who’s got capacity, who doesn’t? I
think mass timber will have longevity, but there’s not a lot
of producers in Canada and North America that have the
capacity to meet the demand. Similarly, on the labour side,
there’s not a lot of trades that understand how to assemble
these wood buildings.
ANDREW ARIFUZZAMAN: The supply chain is a huge issue for us,
not only for mass-timber. For our Passive House project,
we brought in triple glaze thermal windows and there
were no local suppliers. Some windows came in from
Germany, and some windows came in from Colorado that
could meet the kind of standard that we needed for that
project. Part of the hope in doing these projects is that as
industry evolves, as developers begin to come into spaces
like Passive House, it creates demand. We also had to
work with our partners to train our local workforce on
how to install the windows. Often we’re working with
consultancies, engineers, architects who are new to this
space and they’re 昀椀guring this out as we go. You really
need to assemble a solid team that can take products and
install them correctly.
With such a tight supply chain in the mass timber market, sometimes the right thing to do is to not do the thing
that you thought you were going to do, so that others can
step up and achieve what their objectives are. We had a
450,000 square foot mass-timber parking garage that we
were looking at building, that ultimately would have tied
up a mass timber producer and put them out of circulation for everybody else. To re昀氀ect that market reality, they
priced themselves accordingly. And so, the project value
wasn’t there any longer for us.
RYAN GOING: When you’re using sustainable materials on
any project and you’re at the forefront of the cutting edge
of these technologies, one of the biggest advantages is the
opportunity to be at the front of that learning curve. But
it’s also a challenge, because we’re 昀椀nding out what all the
problems are as you go. I think one of the biggest barriers
to sustainable construction is that lack of knowledge in the
industry. The fact is 99 per cent of the industry are still not
familiar with these types of projects and these materials
and systems. That’s a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity because from our perspective, if we want to be leading
the industry and be the contractor of choice for these types
of projects as they become more common, we need to be
leading the industry now and taking on these challenges.
But with that opportunity I think also comes a responsibility, which is to take those lessons learned and collaborate
and share them and help educate the industry.
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