Payback: Energy retrofits provide return on investment

Summit, Mar 2004 by Lougheed, Tim

DISCUSSIONS SURROUNDING ENERGY have shifted dramatically over the past generation. The word moved abruptly to the front-and-centre of the public agenda in the mid-1970s, when it was gauged almost exclusively through cost criteria, such as the fuel economy of one's car or the size of heating bills.

Today, talk of energy tends to be embedded in broader reviews of environmental issues. For example, consumption of fossil fuels is frequently discussed in the context of much more subtle effects, such as greenhouse gas emissions and the potentially sweeping effect of global climate change.

Still, too often, investments in alternative energy sources with fewer negative environmental implications are turned down, largely because they are deemed too expensive.

But something beyond money is slowly being included on the benefit side of equations - public perception and an interest in not only doing what is economical, but what is right for future generations. Even hard-nosed corporations have come to appreciate the value of public perception when they talk about energy. For public sector agencies, which are often directly or indirectly tied to protecting such common goods as clean water and clean air, this value is even more pronounced.

And sometimes, as the City of White Rock, BC, discovered, you hit the jackpot. In 2001 the municipality of 18,250, located in the southwest corner of the Lower Mainland, asked for bids on a contract to reinvent the facility housing its engineering and operations staff. Located in the city works yard, the structure consisted of an old wooden-frame building accompanied by a collection of trailer-offices. The new Operations Centre, completed last fall, has attained international prestige for its energy efficiency and other environmental virtues.

The $1.34-million project - which included almost $900,000 in funding from the Canada/British Columbia Infrastructure Program - was far more than a typical retrofit or simple new construction. For one thing, the two-pavilion structure used buried tank walls from an abandoned sanitary treatment plant for one foundation and the existing basement of the old sewage treatment plant control building for the other. Almost all of the original building was incorporated into the new one, diverting several hundred thousand tonnes of potential waste from landfill.

Other innovations abound. Solar power heat has been in use for more than half a year. Storm water - rather than treated drinking water - is used for toilets, washing vehicles, and for watering the grounds. "Daylighting," the strategic use of windows to bring in ambient light, minimizes the need for electric lighting and contributes to heating. The roof of one pavilion has been insulated with soil and planted with vegetation.

All of this effort and imagination has paid off. The White Rock Operations Centre earned Canada's first new construction gold rating under the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Like the R-2000 program initiated by the Canadian government in the wake of the energy crisis of the 1970s, LEED represents a certification standard that offers developers something to aspire to. Points are awarded based on location, materials, indoor environmental quality, and water and energy efficiency. A wide variety of details are brought to bear on the design, from access to public transit or bicycle trails, to the use of recycled wood or paint that emits fewer chemicals into the atmosphere. The points contribute to a basic certification, as well as more outstanding silver, gold and platinum ratings.

It was another BC project that earned the first Canadian LEED ranking, the transformation of a Victoria hospital into an office complex for high technology firms. Such distinctions reflect the province's emphasis on doing well while doing good, seeking to link principles such as energy efficiency with the more general goal of installing infrastructure that is more environmentally benign. Municipalities and developers have responded to the call, which is generally accompanied with special funding.

Without such incentives, says White Rock's Acting Director, Engineering and Operations, Ted Haight, the city might have opted for a much more customary building on the city works site.

"When an opportunity came along to get some grant money involved, that's when we did the big shift and went very'green,'" he says, adding that the municipal sector is especially well placed to take advantage of the slow and steady financial return that comes from such investments. "Cities are in a building for the long term. So you really do get the payback."

The rationale for a great deal of 'green' funding relies on such payback. Even under the most optimal circumstances, municipalities are generally not in a position to put their resources into environmentally innovative design. Most have a hard time justifying new construction. Retrofitting existing buildings is the more customary course, trying to squeeze a few more years out of a facility that may be well past its prime.