eco-strata

NEW ECO-STRATA GUIDE AND WEBSITE
MAKE IT EASY FOR MULTI-FAMILY DWELLINGS TO GO GREEN

One Earth Initiative and the Condominium Home Owners Association launched the “Eco-Strata Guide: A Green Guide for Multi-Family Dwellings in Metro Vancouver” on Wednesday 8 April at The Salient Group’s renovated heritage strata building, The Terminus. The action ideas outlined in the guide offer win-win solutions for existing apartments, townhouses and condos. They help conserve natural resources as well as provide significant economic savings. A 32-page guidebook is available free online at www.eco-strata.com. The website is an interactive space for sharing further insights, lessons and resources across the owners, renters, property managers and service providers interested in greening their building.

Vancouver, BC – 15 April 2009 - In Metro Vancouver, an increasing number of us live in ‘vertical villages:’ multi-family dwellings which include apartments, townhouses and condos. For owners, renters or property managers seeking to green their properties, most information supports the design and construction of new green buildings. In contrast, The Eco-Strata Guide: a Green Guide for Multi-Family Dwellings in Metro Vancouver focuses on existing multi-family dwellings and the opportunities for change in this significant housing stock in the region. Launched by the One Earth Initiative and the Condominium Home Owners Association on Wednesday 8 April, this guide provides the most useful, relevant and up-to-date information for those seeking to implement eco-friendly and healthy initiatives. The guide uniquely targets strata councils, with sections on how to tackle by-laws and input to the council. It is also of interest to building management companies, real estate experts, renters, owners and concerned citizens looking to reduce the Ecological Footprint of their multi-family properties or their individual units.

Features

The 32-page Eco-Strata Guide is available free online as a PDF (www.eco-strata.com). The accompanying website is an interactive space for sharing further insights, lessons and resources. The guide makes it clear that much can be done in a building to minimize material and energy use. Proposed actions range from easy projects, such as using low-energy lighting fixtures and insulating hot water pipes, to larger investments such as replacing an old water boiler or furnace with a high-efficiency one. Because exit signs are always on, replacing them is a great action item to reduce energy consumption. Old-style exit signs are lit with incandescent bulbs; you’ll know them because they feel hot to the touch. One option is to retrofit the sign with CFL bulbs. Other options include installing LED lights using a retrofit kit, or replacing the sign altogether with an LED one, which can save 90% in operating costs. BC Hydro estimates that each changed sign can save over $25 of electricity per year.

The guide and website help residents, managers or owners put together a plan of action for greening their buildings. These tools include advice about selecting areas to focus on (electricity, waste, natural gas, etc.) creating a timeline of anticipated work to be done in coming years (e.g., building envelope maintenance); and identifying projects to address these (having an energy audit and retrofit, adding recycling bins, replacing boilers, etc.); as well as ideas for developing a support network across strata council, residents and service providers to implement the work. This guide helps strata councils and others select sustainable products and building materials, energy efficient equipment and appliances, and the right contractors to do the work here in Metro Vancouver. It also offers tips that apply to both individual units and to a building’s common areas such as lobbies, landings, elevators and laundry rooms.

The Eco-Strata Guide makes the case that the first step in greening a multi-family dwelling is finding out how the building is performing now. The Light House Sustainable Building Centre in Vancouver offers a Green Building 101 Workshop for Stratas and Co-operatives, delivered onsite at the building (info@sustainablebuildingcentre.com). To start or improve a waste recycling program in a multi-residential complex, a Sustainable Business Advisor at Metro Vancouver can provide a no-cost assessment (business_services@metrovancouver.org). These are two of the services offered locally by numerous green building and retrofit specialists, including architects, planners, experts in various city departments, non-profit organizations, energy-providing companies, and housing associations.

Benefits

Why is this guide important? Greening buildings is a big part of the solution to challenges such as rising energy and food prices, climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty. Some readers will want to do their part in tackling climate change and wasteful consumption. Others will recognize health benefits from greening homes. North Americans spend 90% of their time indoors. Improper ventilation, poor lighting, off-gassing of toxic chemicals from paints, glues, and carpets, contact with harmful cleaning products, and exposure to high or low temperatures can have a profound and detrimental effect on an individual’s health and well-being. Some residents are literally sick and tired of the toxic chemicals in their paint, carpets and walls. Energy efficiency also has economic benefits: many owners will be interested in the financial savings that come from greening their building. Most energy retrofits pay for themselves in three years or less! Using low-energy bulbs and installing low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators, for example, have a payback time of less than a year. Larger investments like photovoltaic solar panels often start producing “free” electricity within 10 years’ time. The prices of natural resources, especially fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, are expected to rise steadily, so the payback time for green projects should decrease. Subsidies, tax breaks and renovation loans are also available to make purchasing certain equipment more affordable. “Green” retrofits can be seen as investments rather than costs. The changes outlined in the Eco-Strata Guide offer win-win solutions: the conservation of natural resources and the protection of ecosystems, as well as economic savings, which can be quite significant over the longer term, especially in the face of rising resource prices such as natural gas.

The guide was launched on 8 April at The Salient Group’s renovated heritage strata building, The Terminus. At the event, Professor William Rees, Director of One Earth, emphasized that reducing the impact of multi-family dwellings is critical in the context of climate change, where these buildings offer unique opportunities for advancing sustainability, particularly as a result of economies of scale: “The only way to reach the CO2 reductions that we need is to focus on existing buildings, which is exactly what this guide is about.” Dominica Babicki, Energy Manager for the District of North Vancouver, lauded the guide for its reach and comprehensive nature: “Our District is very excited about using and distributing the Eco-Strata Guide.” Cheryl Kathler, member of the Real Estate Foundation of BC’s Board of Governors, noted in her speech that “The Eco-Strata Guide is a great tool, as it contains practical and clearly laid-out information. The Real Estate Foundation is proud to support this project.”

About the Partners

The Eco-Strata Guide was produced by the One Earth Initiative Society (www.OneEarthWeb.org, with Director and Founding Fellow, William E. Rees, inventor of the “Ecological Footprint” approach) in partnership with the Condominium Home Owners Association (www.CHOA.bc.ca). Financial support for the guide was provided by the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia (www.RealEstateFoundation.com). This green guide was developed with advice and guidance from numerous experts, including the Light House Sustainable Building Centre, the Society Serving Ourselves Sustainably, BC Hydro, the City of Vancouver and Octopus Strategies.

About the Launch at The Terminus Building

The April 8 launch took place in the rooftop common area of The Terminus building and was hosted by One Earth Initiative and the Salient Group (www.TheSalientGroup.com). There were 40 people present, representing a cross-section of target groups for the Eco-Strata Guide. These included representatives from The City of Vancouver, The Light House Sustainable Building Centre, Vancity Credit Union (Green Business Manager), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada, Terasen Gas, Metro Vancouver and residents of Chilco Towers. Guests arrived for the reception at 5:30pm. There were speeches at 6pm, including opening remarks by Emmanuel Prinet, Executive Director of One Earth Initiative and a welcome from Robert Fung, President of The Salient Group. Guests celebrated the launch until 7:30pm and were taken on tours of the newly-opened Terminus building (www.TheTerminus.ca).

The Terminus is in the heart of Gastown. The building is designed with sustainability in mind, retrofitting an existing heritage building. For example, the architect, Acton Ostry, and developer, The Salient Group, have maintained the hundred-year old bay windows, while adding a geo-thermal heating and cooling system. 46 households are currently moving in and will reside in spaces ranging in size from 623 square feet to 1,624 square feet. A select few homes are still available.

Contact

Emmanuel Prinet, Executive Director, One Earth Initiative, 604-669-5143, Emmanuel@OneEarthWeb.org.
Alternate: Vanessa Timmer, Director, One Earth Initiative, 604-813-3361 (cell), Vanessa@OneEarthWeb.org.

For more information on the Eco-Strata Guide, to download the PDF, or to subscribe to the RSS feed, visit www.eco-strata.com. Digital images of multi-family dwellings are available from Vanessa@OneEarthWeb.org.

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