Even the best-built buildings can have a negative impact on the environment. Yet reducing this impact doesn’t always mean a major financial blow.

A study of 33 buildings in California put the “green premium” – the extra cost of building an environmentally sensitive building – at an average of 1.84 per cent, a sustainable building conference heard earlier this month.

U.S. architect Bob Berkebile of BNIM Architects in Kansas City, Mo., was the keynote speaker at the seventh annual sustainable building symposia held in Calgary and Edmonton.

“About a year ago I gave a presentation to the U.S. Senate panel on the green-building movement,” he said.

Image courtesy BNIM Architecture
The Kansas City Zoo’s Deramus Education Pavilion, designed by BNIM Architecture, sports a roof of recycled copper.

At the time, he added, he asked himself, “What would Jefferson say?”

Despite this age of computers and personal communication devices, the early U.S. statesman Thomas Jefferson designed a building 200 years ago that was more efficient than the Senate office building where the panel met, Berkebile said.

Today, he added, North Americans are setting records for consumption, waste and pollution.

But there is hope. Berkebile pointed to new techniques such as constructed wetlands acting as water purifiers, hybrid roof units producing solar heat and electricity, the use of recycled construction materials and non-cement concrete.

“By 2020, the year of perfect vision,” he said, “it will be very clear what is the result of our present decisions.”

In a later interview, Berkebile said buildings, communities and infrastructure should be included in sustainability goals. It isn’t necessary to buy into the myth that the environment has an economic cost or that all economic growth means taking a small environmental hit. “There doesn’t have to be a tradeoff,” he said.

Ian Jarvis, chairman of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), agreed that green buildings are now the norm and they make an important contribution to sustainable communities.

“There is a real fascination with doing things better in the built environment and there is a pent-up demand,” said Jarvis.

The CaGBC, a coalition of representatives from different segments of the design and building industry, was formed 18 months ago to accelerate the design and construction of green buildings across Canada.

In the U.S., the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.

The system has caught on in both the U.S and Canada because it works – including in Calgary, where the city has adopted a sustainable building policy. It defines a high-quality building without adding complexity to delay the process, Jarvis said.

LEED assesses buildings under the categories of sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, and indoor environmental quality. A project is certified at 26 points, silver-rated at 33, gold-rated at 38 points and platinum-rated for 52 or more points.

“We are in a very important industry,” noted Jarvis, “and it matters that we get it right.”


The Kansas City Zoo’s Deramus Education Pavilion, designed by BNIM Architecture, sports a roof of recycled copper.