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Green Building Archives - Morrison Hershfield

Nov 06

2019 BUILDEX Alberta: The Resilience Factor and the Future of Green Buildings

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This two-day BUILDEX event is Alberta’s largest Conference and Tradeshow! BUILDEX brings together professional communities to learn, network and explore the latest industry trends and innovations. This year’s conference will take place on November 6 and 7, 2019 at the BMO Centre in Calgary.

More information and registration here.

 

Session Overview: CaGBC Green Leaders Breakfast: The Resilience Factor and the Future of Green Buildings

Our building systems are increasingly impacted by weather events, changing markets, escalating costs, and social and political will – prompting the need to revaluate how we design, construct, and use buildings to endure and meet our needs. Our panelists will present varied perspectives on resiliency in the built environment and discuss how we need to rethink our approach to the built environment. They represent a range of building systems, from the energy we are trying to reduce to the materials we are trying to improve; from the policy developed to spur action to technology applied to make every building greener.

The panel, along with audience participation, will dig into the varied approaches to addressing resiliency and look at how we can bring these perspectives together and start moving towards solutions for the future.

We’re excited that Susan Kapetanovic-Marr, Sustainability Specialist, will be joining this exciting panel! It will take place on Day 2, Thursday, November 7 at 8 am.

More info on this session can be found here.

Oct 17

Passive House Canada Conference: 2 Presentations

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The second annual Passive House Canada Conference will take place at Highland Hall at the University of Toronto, Scarborough on October 17-18, 2019. We’re excited to join this year’s program!

More information can be found here.

Session Overview: Leading by Example – Humber College Building Nx Retrofit

Building Nx is undergoing a deep energy retrofit at Humber College’s North Campus. The retrofitted 1980’s building, a 5-storey office space for faculty, is registered for both Passive House EnerPHit and Net Zero Carbon Building – Design certifications. The scope of the project included a complete upgrade of the existing glass block and insulated metal panel system and replacement of existing mechanical and electrical systems for an ultrahigh-performance envelope and energy efficient BAS. Project representatives (architect, building envelope specialist, and owner) will discuss design, technical performance, and owner experience to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Passive House EnerPHit achievement.

This session will be co-presented by Steve Murray, Senior Building Science Consultant, on Thursday, October 17 at 10:15 am.

Session Overview: 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.

This session will be presented by Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor, on Friday, October 18 at 3:45 pm.

Oct 11

Facades+ Toronto: Building Envelope Design on the Path to Net Zero

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The Facades+ conference series is crossing the border! The first Facades+ conference in Canada will be held on Ocotber 11 in Toronto, and we’re excited for our local team to join the program! This full-day symposium will showcase presentations and panels focused on the evolution of facade technology and innovative, sustainable design practices.

More information and registration here.

Workshop Overview: Implications for Building Envelope Design on the path toward Net Zero Performance

The building envelope (cladding, glazing and roofing assemblies) is an integral part of the architectural expression of any buildings. In recent years the advent of computer simulations to assist in the structural design and manufacturing of building envelope assemblies has allowed for increasingly complex designs. However, in the past ten years, energy codes have significantly increased the energy performance as part of a trend towards high performance buildings. This has put increased emphasis on the role building envelope design plays in minimizing the energy required to operate buildings while still achieving the desired architectural design. At the same time, research and progress in the ability of computer simulations to analyze the performance of envelope assemblies have led to significant breakthroughs in the understanding of how these assemblies perform especially how thermal bringing affect their effectiveness. On the path towards net zero performance, the implications of the envelope performance is increasingly harder to ignore as the traditional trade off of efficiencies from the MEP systems can no longer account for the poor performance of the building envelope. Early design considerations of the effective performance of the building envelope is becoming crucial to the success of projects. This has led to the development of new design guides, tools and metrics to inform designers and assist them in making educated decisions on the design of the building envelope early in the design process to ensure performance expectations can be met while still achieving the desired architectural design.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review current Building Codes and the trend towards Net Zero Energy as they relate to building envelope design including new requirements to address thermal bridges.
2. Learn how the performance of the building envelope in terms of massing, orientation, glazing ratio, shading, air leakage and thermal bridging can impact performance.
3. Explore how new design guides, tools and metrics can assist with the design of envelope assemblies for high performance buildings
4. Apply the Building Envelope Thermal Bridging Guide methodology to account for the impact of the design envelope for a high performance commercial building.

This session will be presented by Anik Teasdale-St. Hilaire, Facade Specialist, and Neel Bavishi, Building Energy Consultant. This session is part of the afternoon in-depth workshops that will take place at 1:15 p.m.

Oct 03

OAW Festival: Blueprints to our eco-footprints

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Ottawa Architecture Week (OAW) is an annual week-long festival that welcomes everyone to explore architecture, urbanism, art and design in Ottawa. This year’s theme is “Under Water: Weathering the New Normal” exploring the changing climate impacts on the Ottawa region and the urgent need for new solutions. OAW takes place September 28 to October 8, 2019.

We’re excited to be part of this year’s OAW! More info here.

Mark Lucuik, Director of Sustainability, will participate in this panel on Thursday, October 3. More information on the panel, including registration, can be found here.

Panel Overview: Blueprints to our eco-footprints

The increasingly inclement and extreme weather have cities around the world speaking about resiliency and disaster preparedness. There is urgency to this message but also uncertainty of any clear path forward. The problems feel insurmountable, while the solutions frequently feel disconnected from each other and from reality. Critical challenges have a way of inspiring both technological and social innovation. Individual actions can have a system-wide impact. Strategic structural and policy changes are also needed to keep the momentum going. As we look around the world for creative solutions, we must also remember the importance of working on solutions together in Ottawa for Ottawa.

This year OAW asks us: “How do we weather this new normal, together?”

For decades, the environmental movement has asked us to consider our ecological impact and has challenged us all to take action. How can we reduce, reuse, and recycle? Can we stop clear-cutting and save the rainforest? What causes acid rain? Can we close the hole in the ozone? Are our energy sources renewable? How do we reduce our dependency on fossil fuels? How do we “green” our homes and our cities to make them more sustainable? Can we ban single-use plastics? Is our water safe? The “environmental movement” is itself an ever-shifting landscape. Different issues and different strategies gain popularity. Some persist while others go out of fashion and fade from our memories. It can be hard to keep up and to know what the right thing to do is.

Architecture and the construction industry are major players in the city but are also major contributors to the global carbon footprint. Architecture can help us imagine new ways of living and ways to restore a balanced relationship with the environment. We can find inspiration in the many ecologically-driven international design competitions and projects from around the world. The architectural industry is also in need of reform. The industry continues its work to advance new building and design technologies; sophisticated building modeling; and sustainable building certification programs, such as LEED. External pressure from government regulations and incentive programs, as well as consumer-led choices and changing consumer habits can also help push architecture to identify and transform its own unsustainable practices.

Innovation is not our only resource for change. Inspiration and hope also come from looking to the past. Old buildings hold a wealth of old ideas and a wealth of materials we can call upon for creative solutions to reconcile built and natural environments. Historically, building techniques and traditions evolved to respond to local climate, making use of surrounding renewable natural resources and local knowledge. Building conservation is not just about protecting heritage. It can also be about protecting the environment. Many old buildings can be retrofitted to find new life with new purpose, while others can be rehabilitated to reduce emissions and operating costs. This can happen at the scale of minor renovations to your home, to significant heritage buildings, to entire de-industrialized districts.

Following the discussion, the audience will be invited to join the conversation by asking questions and sharing ideas.

Oct 02

NZ19: Building as a Conscious Act

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NZ19, the Net Zero Conference, is the largest Net Zero Building Conference and Expo. The conference brings together design professionals from across the world for three days of education sessions, tours, and professional networking. This year’s conference will take place October 2-4, 2019 in Los Angeles.

More information here.

Session Overview: 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.

This session will be presented by Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor, on Thursday, October 3 at 3:15 pm in room 150 B.

Sep 30

BuildGreen Atlantic: Keynote + Retrofit to the Max

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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.

Jun 10

NeoCon: Zero Carbon Buildings by Carbon Based Lifeforms

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NeoCon is celebrating it’s 50th year! Every year design professionals gather at The Mart in Chicago to share and discuss industry innovations, ideas, and introductions that shape the built environment. This year’s event will take place June 10-12.

More information and registration here.

Session Overview – Zero Carbon Buildings by Carbon Based Lifeforms

In the last decade, carbon levels accelerated, the population swelled, global temperature rose and our urban population grew. All these factors mean the world will be a very different place by 2030. In this seminar, we’ll explore dozens of disparate trends in technology, sustainability and the construction industry, connecting the dots to get a glimpse into how we can save both the world and our businesses. Participants will learn how to stack emerging trends to forecast opportunities in the green building space. Climate change is redefining the design parameters and project demands for building design. During this energetic and entertaining session, we’ll acknowledge the challenges and complexities facing project teams pursuing net zero / zero carbon projects, as well as how to identify the risks amplified over and above.

This session will be presented by Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor, and will take place at 9:30 am on Monday, June 10.

 

May 28

CaGBC Building Lasting Change 2019: 4 Presentations

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CaGBC’s annual conference brings together three days of opportunities, education and networking with the leaders, change makers and innovators of Canada’s green building industry – and our team is presenting three sessions!  This year’s conference will take place May 28-30 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

More information and registration here.

Session #1: Healthy Buildings for Everyone

The way buildings are built today has remained relatively unchanged for nearly 200 years. The $9 trillion a year global construction industry is responsible for nearly 60% of climate change emissions, a third of landfill waste and a shocking array of negative health effects. In 2016, the XPRIZE Foundation set out to establish a “moonshot” for construction by creating the XPRIZE for Healthy Buildings.  Learn how one team approached this unique opportunity to develop a way to (literally) grow buildings by fusing synthetic biology, genomics, parametric modeling and 3D printing to create a disruption and paradigm shift that could switch us from a PETRO-chemical world, to a BIO-chemical one.

This session will be presented by Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor, and will take place on Wednesday, May 29 at 9:45 am.

Session #2: Walking the Walk – A roadmap for low carbon neutrality in existing buildings 

In response to The Greening Government Strategy and their commitment to achieving a carbon neutral portfolio by 2050, with a stretch goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, Public Service and Procurement Canada (PSPC) have developed guidelines for the evaluation and recommendation of projects which have an impact on the GHG emissions associated with their real-estate portfolio. Through this guideline, PSPC have established that carbon neutrality will be measured and reported at the portfolio level. The intention of this engaging panel discussion is to capture the broad process laid out by BGIS on behalf of PSPC and the challenges and risks inherent to an aggressive carbon reduction target. Furthermore, the aim of this panel is to lay out the competing priorities faced by Morrison Hershfield’s consulting team such as energy/GHG reduction targets, capital and maintenance cost plans, operations and replacement cycles, technical feasibility, impact on schedule as well as short/long-term federal priorities. With the input from various stakeholders in the Carbon Neutral Study (CNS) process, the panel intends to dissect the integrated design process (IDP) implemented by the multi-disciplinary consultant team of specialists in the areas of building envelope design, mechanical, electrical, controls, calibration energy simulation, broader sustainability and resiliency, lifecycle cost assessment (LCCA), and a broad stakeholder engagement process via workshop facilitation. The panel will introduce specific project examples from various geographical regions to facilitation discussion and engage the audience in analyzing various energy efficiency and carbon mitigation measures already implemented through this CNS process.

This session will be co-presented by Kalum Galle, Sustainability Specialist, and will take place on Wednesday, May 29 at 9:45 am.

Session #3: 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 certification.

This session will be co-presented by Steve Murray, Senior Building Science Consultant, and will take place on Thursday, May 30 at 9 am.

Session #4: TEDI

TEDI is a new metric that is gaining traction throughout codes and standards across Canada.  However, some argue that a low TEDI design can be in conflict with low-carbon energy supply solutions and/or cost-effective zero-carbon buildings. This presentation will challenge participants to rethink building design in a low-TEDI world using case studies.  The notion that high load buildings are justified by of the availability of large quantities of waste heat or low carbon energy supply is contrary to the foundational principles of low-energy design.  Transformational design opportunities emerge when buildings are designed for low TEDI, which can support and enhance cost-effective and resilient low carbon supply solutions.

This session will be co-presented by Alex Blue, Building Energy Practice Lead, and MH-alum Christian Cianfrone, current Executive Director of Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Building Exchange (ZEBx). The time for this session has not yet been determined.

Mar 01

2°C Symposium: Keynote + Panel

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Organized by COTE AIA|LA, the 2°C Symposium is an opportunity to learn essential technologies, strategies and tools that address climate change at a critical time for our collective future. We’re excited that our very own Sustainability Disruptor, Eric Cory Freed, will be presenting a keynote and participating in a panel at this year’s event!

The 2°C Symposium will take place on Friday, March 1, 2019 in Los Angeles. More information here.

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

An inspirational look at the global crises facing the world and lessons from 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.

This session will take place at 8:45 a.m.

Panel Overview – The Carbon Panel: The Pathway to a Carbon-Negative World

We need new models that inspire the everyday hero and provide unprecedented prosperity based on sustainable strategies. This panel will explore the way forward to a carbon negative planet, reversing global warming and healing the planet’s ecosystems.

This session will take place at 9:20 a.m.

 

About our Presenter:

Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor
With over 25 years licensed architect experience, Eric has helped architects, builders and homeowners use sustainability to improve the design and operational savings for thousands of buildings around the country. He has been a regular contributor for Greener Buildings, KBB Home, Sustainable Industries Journal, Luxe, Natural Home, Metropolitan Home and dozens of other publications, and lectures around the country at over 50 events a year.

Eric has served on the boards of the Human Health Initiative, the Inland Empire Chapter of the USGBC, Architects/Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of over a dozen other organizations. He was a founding board member and Chair of the Coachella Valley branch of the US Green Building Council, and served on the Sustainability Commission for the City of Palm Desert where he drafted visionary sustainability policies. He has received awards from several Mayors and worked with dozens of municipalities around the country to help implement sustainable policies.

Feb 21

Regional Resiliency: Planning for a Successful Future

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Eric Corey Freed, Sustainability Disruptor, will join a panel of local Central Oregon leaders for this special session, Regional Resiliency: Planning for a Successful Future.

Attendees will be introduced to new processes and approaches to strategic planning that will focus on opportunities to build a collaborative stakeholder community resiliency plan to prepare for projected population growth.

This session will take place on Thursday, February 21, from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Bend, Oregon.

Can’t make it over the mountains to Bend? You can still listen in! Audio from this session will be broadcast live on KPOV radio (88.9 FM).