Assessing the current green building juncture

On October 1, Sustainable Buildings Canada (SBC) hosted its Green Building Festival in Toronto, ON at Daniels Spectrum. The theme this year was Building Resilient Communities with a focus on creating a greener building society.

In the Planning, Programs, Codes portion of the program, Alex Lukachko, senior associate at Building Science Consulting Inc. said that, “the initial wave of green buildings has gone through, but now people are asking questions – what other expectations do we have of green buildings?”

He called the current green building juncture, “the beginning of the end of the beginning,” noting that newly found skepticism is good because green buildings need to be refined by updated building codes.

“Building code-driven changes are slow to happen, but have the potential to be profound,” Lukachko said.

SBC also recognized three individuals with lifetime achievement awards at the festival. Bob Bach, SBC treasurer, presented the awards, however only Jiri Skopek, architect and founder of SBC, was present to accept. Dr. Louise Comeau, environmentalist and Gord Miller, current green party candidate in Guelph, ON, were the two recipients not present.

As in previous years, SBC gave a cheque to Habitat for Humanity Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that accounts for 10 per cent of attendee revenue. The cheque this year, presented by Mike Singleton, SBC executive director, was for $2000. Angela Solomos, senior director of corporate partnerships, Habitat for Humanity GTA, was present to accept it.

Toronto has joined 20 cities around the world to host a 2016 Sustainable Built Environment regional conference on September 19-20. This conference will lead up to the worldwide conference to be held in Hong Kong in 2017.