Our approach to greening our buildings is driven by the following realities:
- a high proportion of our work is with low-rise residential buildings, for which no LEED™ certification system yet exists.
- There are not as yet definitive Canadian LEED standards, and many US standards in the LEED system have imperfect translations into the Canadian experience.
- Many clients still believe that green buildings must be more expensive
On the broader national canvas we are working to green buildings by:
- Being active members of the Canadian Green Building Council
- worjking on the development of a Candian residential LEED™ standard through volunteer work with the Canadian Green Building Council.
Our approach to green architecture builds upon our experience, trying to move forward with each project in these ways:
- We indicate from the proposal stage whether we believe a project could achieve LEED certification, and to what level, and are prepared to assist in certification processes.
- We track our buildings in relation to the LEED™ systems, making allowances where possible for US/Canadian nonconformances and residential/non-residential anomalies.
- We include in our projects as many green materials, components and systems as possible. We have developed specifications and details for a wide variety of more environmentally appropriate materials and products, which we include to an increasing extent in our work.
- We continue to develop green details integrating green architectural, building science and building code principles in practical combinations which our clients frequently execute unaware (until we congratulate them) that they are greener solutions.
