Bioclimatic Response
The idea of buildings "going with the flow" and leveraging natural phenomena to provide healthful and comfortable environments is ages old. It is being reinterpreted within the context of contemporary building uses and available technologies. Orchestrating buildings to take advantage of the sun and wind contrasts sharply with conventional practice, where these phenomena are not acknowledge, or worse, rejected (for example, why is the same type of glazing used on all building orientations when the solar exposure and light quality differ dramatically?). Respecting hydrology and ecology, while harmonizing building operation with renewable energy sources, represents a major step towards awareness of many related opportunities.

Energy Efficiency
We have the technology to substantially decrease non-renewable energy demand in buildings, and it is sometimes possible to construct buildings which are completely passive and do not rely on any active systems for environmental control. Improvements to energy efficiency involve decisions regarding the building envelope and services (electrical/mechanical). Currently, insulation levels in practically all buildings are below optimum levels, and fall further behind as the cost of energy, and its associated environmental impacts, continue to escalate. Glazing technologies offer us ample opportunity to significantly exceed the performance of conventional windows and the incremental cost of improvement is insignificant compared to future replacement necessitated by soaring energy costs. The selection of efficient equipment, appliances and lighting represent further opportunities to reduce life cycle energy consumption.

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Daylighting & Natural Ventilation
Through the intelligent orchestration of fenestration, the fundamental rights of occupants to light and air may be respected in architecture. In Canada, we lack the standards and legislation existing in some European jurisdictions needed to mandate healthful indoor environments which promote occupant well being. This should not discourage leadership in architectural design, and there are sufficient precedents and typologies available to deflect a better part of the higher design fees. Savings in energy more than offset these higher fees, and numerous studies now confirm that improved exposure to daylight and fresh air significantly increase productivity, dwarfing the increased construction costs associated with larger glazing areas and operable windows.

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Adaptability & Flexibility
Many buildings are demolished because they become outdated and cannot economically accommodate new uses. A large proportion of retrofit and renovation budgets is consumed by factors relating to maladaptive and inflexible building forms. Clear spans with minimal structural intrusions, accessible building services, and accommodating access/egress paths are among the strategies which enable buildings to affordably respond to changing occupancy. Adaptability and flexibility considerations in building design require an examination of universal typologies that express the fundamentals of form and function while respecting the idiosyncrasies of temporal occupancy and cultural purpose. An examination of those building types which have lent themselves to several cycles of re-invention provides an interesting contrast to many modern experiments.

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Multifunctionality
Using one assembly or component to perform more than one function (e.g., structural component is also the thermal insulation, sound/fire separation, and interior/exterior finish) can realize dramatic reductions in embodied energy. It affords more sophisticated design and development if it is also durable and delivers superior performance. The idea of multi-functionality has its modern roots in Buckminister Fuller's concept of "ephemeralization" which borrowed from nature's technologies so that our designs could accomplish more with less human and resource expenditures. (Anecdotally, Buckminster Fuller described ephemeralization as how one little Telstar satellite weighing a few hundred pounds replaced 750,000 tons of transatlantic cable.)

Durability
The counterpoint to multi-functionality is durability. Improving durability reduces recurring embodied energy and expenditures associate with maintenance, repair and replacement. Achieving envelope durability in cold climates translates into high levels of thermal insulation placed outboard of the structure, and sufficient levels of airtightness to prevent moisture migration by air leakage. Rugged, durable finishes, furnishings, appliances and equipment should be selected to complement the service life of the building structure and envelope. Otherwise, the 'building as a system' will experience problems associated with differential durability.

Differential durability is a term used to describe how the useful service life of major building components, such as structure, envelope, finishes and services, differs -both between these components, and within the materials, assemblies and systems comprising the components. Research indicates that with exception to structural components, all of the other components require varying levels of maintenance, repair and replacement during the life cycle of the building. The extent and intensity of these recurring embodied energy demands vary significantly, depending on how appropriately the durability of materials, assemblies and systems are harmonized, and how accessible they are for periodic maintenance, repair and replacement.

Appropriate Material Selection
Material selection involves numerous considerations, and applies equally to components, equipment, appliances and fixtures. These may be either local or imported, standard or special, abundant or rare. Similar criteria also apply to labour and expertise. It makes little sense to specify materials and techniques that strain the environment and the available work force.

Additional considerations include renewability, recyclability, and reusability. The term renewable is applied to material which can be replenished within its useful service life. Recyclable material can be recycled for less real cost than was originally incurred to produce it. Reusable material may be used in more than one configuration or assembly over time (i.e., stone, brick, concrete block, etc.).

Further, the materials should not involve processes that are harmful to the ecology or environment. For example, the harvesting of wood is known to cause many harmful impacts, and it is important to distinguish between sustainable resource management practices and purely opportunistic depletions causing damage. As importantly, materials should not adversely affect indoor air quality by chemical emissions, or the harbouring of moulds and bacteria.

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Community Facilities & Resources
Reduction in multiplicity of facilities and equipment within communities is a major facet of sustainability. In Berkeley, California a tool library was established to enable citizens to borrow tools free of charge, much as they borrow books. The founders saw no distinction between knowledge tools (books) and work tools (saws, hammers, ladders, etc.), and successfully argued that these should be viewed as a community resource to avoid the economic burden individual tool ownership would place on most households.

In 1997, the Survey of Household Spending replaced Statistics Canada's Household Facilities and Equipment Survey as a source of information about Canadian dwelling characteristics and household equipment. The latest surveys now also collect data about the complete range of household spending on consumer goods and services. Current data reveal that many household possessions (especially tools) remain underutilized within the average Canadian household. Analyses of the costs associated with our individualistic emphasis on the consumption of goods and services strongly suggest that the implications for resource depletion, and the economic impacts on disposable household income, are staggering.

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On-Site Sewage Treatment
The centralization of sewage treatment in major urban centres has caused many environmental and economic problems. The cost of municipal sewage treatment, when externalities are considered, is rapidly escalating. A number of ecological decentralized wastewater management system (EDWMS) alternatives have been developed to serve various applications. Where land is available for EDWMS, the potential to re-use water and avoid serious environmental problems is now accessible through proven technologies.

Stormwater Management
Water is vital to our existence and the modern trend to dispose of it quickly and efficiently has caused many problems, both environmental and economic. To the greatest extent possible, stormwater is a valuable resource to be conserved on our building sites for use in irrigation, non-potable applications, and as a heat sink for space cooling.

New approaches to stormwater management have been advocated for several decades, and a growing number of alternatives are available. A major trend is towards the concept of landscape as infrastructure. Conventional approaches to landscape serving buildings tend to avoid any interaction with municipal infrastructure, and the natural role of landscape as ecological infrastructure is largely lost and forgotten. It is now possible to design landscape elements which take advantage of zero-runoff and groundwater recharge strategies. This approach fosters landscape elements designed to create a rich livable environment with simple materials that produce a long-lasting, self-sustaining urban landscape and infrastructure.

Landscape should be viewed as an active participant in storm water management while also fulfilling its more traditional function of microclimate modification through the control of sun and wind exposures. In addition to fulfilling its aesthetic role, landscape can echo the sense of community by actively reducing potable water demand for plant irrigation, minimizing storm water management costs, and improving the rate and quality of groundwater recharge.

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Renewable Energy
Investments in renewable energy technologies have the potential to improve environmental quality and represent an opportunity to generate future revenues. Renewable energy which adheres to environmentally responsible standards is often referred to as 'Green Power' to distinguish it from renewable sources such as hydroelectricity that involve large scale social and environmental interventions (e.g., James Bay project by Hydro Quebec). The following insights on Green Power have been excerpted from The Pembina Institute Green Power Guidelines for Canada (http://www.pembina.org).

Definitions of Green Power usually have two primary characteristics:

· The electricity is generated from renewable resources that   do not compromise the opportunity of future generations to   gain access to reliable, efficient, and affordable electricity supplies.

· The definitions promote the protection of human health and   environmental quality.

Green Power is electricity, generated from renewable sources, that mitigates climate change by producing few or no greenhouse gas emissions. It is generally further defined as having minimal effect on:

· local and regional air quality (hazardous air pollutants,  particulate matter, and precursors to the production of ground level ozone/smog, and acid rain);

· water quality;

· watersheds, river systems, and fisheries;

· flora and fauna;

· geophysical features;

· noise;

· visual esthetics; and

· any additional build-up of hazardous or toxic waste.

Most definitions of Green Power identify generation technologies that minimize these impacts relative to conventional electricity supply systems. Examples of specific technologies and resources include:

· Solar - photovoltaics, and thermal electric generators;

· Wind - individual turbines and wind farms;

· Environmentally-desirable and/or small-scale   hydroelectricity;

· Wave and freestream tidal power stations and water   velocity turbines;

· Biomass-fired generators;

· Geothermal heat and power; and

· Other technologies that use media such as hydrogen,   compressed air or fuel cells to control, store and/or convert   renewable energy sources.

The opportunities for Green Power are continually gaining ground in terms of technical and economic feasibility, and will make it possible in the future to have energy positive buildings that harvest power and revenue.

Education
Often overlooked, or taken for granted, education in architecture and its allied disciplines represents a significant opportunity to advance sustainable design. Research into areas such as architectural science and the transfer of emerging technologies is critical to the survival of the professions and the achievement of sustainability. As a minimum, the education of architects should routinely evaluate the following environmental effects associated with the design, construction and operation of buildings:

· embodied energy in the building's materials and construction;

· operating energy over the building's life time;

· use of renewable and non-renewable resources for construction and operation;

· creation of waste and emissions in construction and operation;

· use of water in construction and operation;

· impact of the building construction and operation on biodiversity and ecosystems;

· the comfort and health of occupants;

· impact of the building on the local community; and

· impact on the wider systems serving the building (e.g., transportion, water supply, etc.)

As we go beyond technological fixes to the sustainability problem, and explore the need for appropriate cultural response through buildings which encourage environmentally responsible owner choices and occupant behaviour, the opportunities appear to far outweigh the barriers. It remains to be seen if Canadian architecture and its allied disciplines will be adequately positioned to deliver sustainable solutions locally and globally. There is compelling and growing evidence it will not be for a lack of opportunities.


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