BuildGreen Atlantic: Keynote + Retrofit to the Max

BuildGreen Atlantic 2019 is a conference, trade show and networking event created to advance the design, construction, and operation of green buildings in Atlantic Canada. This year’s conference theme is Retrofits, Energy Benchmarking and Accelerating to Zero. BuildGreen will take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Monday, September 30, 2019.

Our team is excited to be presenting two sessions at this year’s conference!

Registration and more information can be found here.

Keynote – Building as a Conscious Act: Finding Opportunity in Health, Resiliency and Community

100,000 years ago, humans had a near extinction. From those 2000 people came the billions we have today. Now we are facing a new threat of extinction.

In the next decade, more than 6,000 cities, states, and provinces around the world will try to do something that has eluded humanity for 50 years: reduce their carbon emissions. But at our rate of urbanization, we’re building the equivalent of a city the size of New York every five weeks.

Ideas that seem crazy today will seem sane in 10 years. In a world where we will “do anything” to end homelessness (except build homes); will “do anything” to end hunger (except provide food); and will “do anything” to cut emissions (except use less coal), we need new, bold solutions to our address our built environment.

In this talk, we’ll journey through an inspirational look at the global crises facing the world and a variety of ways to transform your business to adapt to a warmer, wetter world. Learn from our work with hundreds of municipalities, agencies, and companies to reduce their carbon, boost their performance, slash their operational expenses, and provide healthy spaces for everyone. Learn how to link design to outcome and uncover new ways to expand your business.

Design affects everything. The typeface in your child’s textbook affects their ability to comprehend the information. The ceiling height of your office affects the productivity of your employees. Imagine how you can use design to transform your business to improve outcomes in health, energy, carbon, and more. If you plan cities for cars & traffic, you get cars & traffic. If you plan for people & places, you get people & places.

Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor, will present the event’s Keynote Address during the conference Welcome session at 8 a.m.

Session Overview – Retrofit to the Max: Elite Performance is not just for New Builds

Achieving certification to Zero Carbon Building Standard or Passive House can seem like a daunting task, particularly on a retrofit project. The relative impact of thermal bridging and envelope transitions is amplified in low energy buildings and particularly challenging to resolve in retrofit conditions. Humber College’s Deep Energy Retrofit Project for the Nx Building surmounted these challenges through careful integration across architectural design, energy modelling, envelope design, and mechanical design. Construction phase challenges were also met by implementing a robust testing protocol to facilitate EnerPhit and Zero Carbon Building submissions.

This session will be co-presented by Steve Murray, Senior Building Science Consultant, it will begin at 10:20 a.m.