Personal hygiene has never been a priority for hippos and warthogs. With all that grunting, yawning, splashing and sleeping to do, there never seem to be enough hours in the day.

To the relief of Calgary Zoo regulars, however, a dozen professionals from Keen Engineering Co. Ltd. have taken the slackers in hand.

The Consulting Engineers of Alberta were impressed enough to present a Showcase Award of Excellence to the Keen team last month. The company was cited for the brilliant mechanical engineering systems it produced for the zoo’s spectacular Destination Africa Pavilion.

With experts from Keen’s Calgary office taking the lead, the Vancouver-based company set up an elaborate sequence of efficient and environmentally sensitive systems to assist BKDI Architects with the simulation of tropical rainforests and the African savannah within a complex of 6,000 square metres.

Shannon Oatway photo, Business Edge
Keen Engineering’s Jim Sawers amid the firm’s award-winning work in the Calgary Zoo’s Destination Africa Pavilion.

Among other things, that meant using cold water from nearby ground wells for interior waterfalls and streams, as well as maintaining mist and humidity levels within the realistic TransAlta Rainforest.

By relying on the same water source to condition and cool the air, Keen engineers were able to eliminate any need to install an energy-gobbling mechanical “chiller.” It also meant:

* Designing a unique system for surface collection of rainwater, recycled for irrigation purposes.

* Installation of radiant floor heating (which uses recoverable energy) to warm the toes of sensitive giraffes, plus conveniently efficient washdown areas for warthogs.

* Extensive and creative use of natural lighting, open-air ventilation and passive solar heating.

It also meant coming up with a lean, green, sewage-treatment machine to continually reprocess the water of the world’s largest hippo pool.

“That was a major challenge. We don’t do these things every day,” understated Jim Sawers, Calgary-based principal of Keen Engineering, which has worked hard to become one of the most aggressively clean/green innovators in its field.

According to Sawers, you start with a basic engineering concept suitable for backyard swimming pools.

Then, as he put it, you ramp things up a notch. Sawers and his Calgary crew did most of the work, while importing a couple of specialists from Keen’s Victoria office to assist with design details.

They came up with an ingenious filtration plant. It utilizes traditional sand-and-carbon filters to clean the water that circulates through the 360,000-litre pool every half hour or so.

The award-winning systems designed for Destination Africa represent one of the more appealing examples of the pace-setting work being done by progressive Canadian companies.

Keen president Kevin Hydes was bitten by the green bug while working on systems for the C. K. Choi Building on the University of B.C. campus, in the late 1990s.

Built from an estimated 50-per-cent recycled materials, this atrium-filled structure raised the bar for sustainable construction standards in Western Canada.

It was widely admired for its energy-saving natural lighting and natural ventilation features. And the architects really raised eyebrows when they unveiled the sewerless toilets, which rely on the composting zeal of red wigglers to turn waste into atrium plant food.

“Projects like that served as an introduction to more sustainable methods of doing buildings from a mechanical perspective,” Sawers said.

It’s an affirmative trend that has attracted architectural and engineering converts across North America.

Designers are really getting serious about emulating the green building practices that initially broke ground in the energy-challenged cities of Europe.

Keen Engineering has been among the first in North American to embrace the process as company policy.

“We’re always trying to get away from mechanical refrigeration techniques of air-conditioning, which had been our business for years,” explained Sawers, relishing the implicit irony.

“In one way, it’s like shooting yourself in the foot. Traditionally in our business it’s been, ‘the more equipment you put into a building, the more you get paid.’ ” For years, mechanical engineers have warned architects – and the stifled occupants of their office buildings – not to open windows, for fear of throwing the air-conditioning out of whack.

“Now we’re saying: ‘Turn off the air, open a window and create a little natural circulation,’ ” Sawers continued.

Fresh air? A revolutionary concept. Anyway, bring it on. At the moment, the Calgary office of Keen Engineering is buzzed about its contributions to the ultra-green Canmore Civic Centre, which opened last Monday.

Solar shades and natural ventilation. Underflow air systems and waterless urinals.

And no refrigerant-generated chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Centre air will be conditioned by well-chilled (4°C) water from Canmore wells.

Pretty darn cool.