Sustainability

The BCIT Rivers Institute is focused on the protection and restoration of rivers, streams, estuaries, lakes and wetlands in British Columbia.

The Centre for Architectural Ecology – Collaborations in Living Architecture, Acoustics and Building Science supports the academic, design, and construction communities to understand architectural and building acoustics and advance living architecture technologies in this region.

The Factor Four initiative aims for a four-fold (75%) reduction in energy and materials consumption in six buildings in order to achieve ecological sustainability.

The BCIT Zero Energy Building (ZEB) Learning Centre was created to help the construction industry transition to the latest energy efficient building codes.

The Maplewood Marine Restoration Project is located on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, approximately two kilometres east of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, in a marine site that was identified as a restoration priority by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. The site lies within a large marine tidal area immediately south of a wildlife conservation area. The project has restored ~4.5 hectares of habitat within this basin by creating a tidal flat, an eelgrass bed and a rock reef.

Charlotte Olson, Geo, PMP, Manager, Habitat Development, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Charlotte Olson is the Manager, Habitat Development at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Canada’s largest port. Working within the port authority’s Ecosystems Management & Environmental Programs Department, Charlotte is responsible for overseeing a project portfolio. This includes providing leadership and project management to a multi-disciplinary team in the delivery of large-scale habitat enhancement projects across the port’s jurisdiction.

Vanessa Koo, Senior Project Coordinator, Habitat Development, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Vanessa Koo is a Senior Project Coordinator for Habitat Development at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority with over 10 years of public and private sector experience in the environmental field. Vanessa oversees annual monitoring, maintenance and adaptive management of the port authority’s 13 habitat bank sites, helping to administer the largest fish habitat bank in Canada under agreement with DFO.

The Maplewood Marine Restoration Project is located on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, approximately two kilometres east of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, in a marine site that was identified as a restoration priority by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. The site lies within a large marine tidal area immediately south of a wildlife conservation area. The project has restored ~4.5 hectares of habitat within this basin by creating a tidal flat, an eelgrass bed and a rock reef.

Speaker: Charlotte Olson, Geo, PMP, Manager, Habitat Development, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

Charlotte Olson is the Manager, Habitat Development at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Canada’s largest port. Working within the port authority’s Ecosystems Management & Environmental Programs Department, Charlotte is responsible for overseeing a project portfolio. This includes providing leadership and project management to a multi-disciplinary team in the delivery of large-scale habitat enhancement projects across the port’s jurisdiction.

Speaker: Vanessa Koo, Senior Project Coordinator, Habitat Development, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

Vanessa Koo is a Senior Project Coordinator for Habitat Development at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority with over 10 years of public and private sector experience in the environmental field. Vanessa oversees annual monitoring, maintenance and adaptive management of the port authority’s 13 habitat bank sites, helping to administer the largest fish habitat bank in Canada under agreement with DFO.

DIRTT Environmental Solutions (Doing It Right This Time) uses its proprietary 3D software to design, manufacture and install fully customized prefabricated interiors. The company’s customers in the corporate, government, education and healthcare sectors benefit from DIRTT’s precise design and costing; rapid lead times with the highest levels of customization and flexibility; and faster, cleaner construction.

Jessie Stenftenagel, DIRTT Sustainable Design and Construction

Jessie Stenftenagel is a Sustainability Specialist with DIRTT (Doing it Right This Time) Environmental Solutions. Based in Chicago, she focuses on sustainability education for both clients and DIRTT Sales Teams, demonstrating how the company’s commitment to true sustainability underpins technology-driven manufactured construction to create exciting, practical and environmentally responsible interior spaces. Jessie holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Environmental Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and she is committed to supporting the environment through the implementation of sustainability strategies across all industries with a focus on future-proof environments. From marine biology to the built environment, she works to connect the dots between business and science, people, and the planet.

The Maplewood Marine Restoration Project is located on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, approximately two kilometres east of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, in a marine site that was identified as a restoration priority by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. The site lies within a large marine tidal area immediately south of a wildlife conservation area. The project has restored ~4.5 hectares of habitat within this basin by creating a tidal flat, an eelgrass bed and a rock reef.

Charlotte Olson, Geo, PMP, Manager, Habitat Development, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Charlotte Olson is the Manager, Habitat Development at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Canada’s largest port. Working within the port authority’s Ecosystems Management & Environmental Programs Department, Charlotte is responsible for overseeing a project portfolio. This includes providing leadership and project management to a multi-disciplinary team in the delivery of large-scale habitat enhancement projects across the port’s jurisdiction.

Vanessa Koo, Senior Project Coordinator, Habitat Development, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Vanessa Koo is a Senior Project Coordinator for Habitat Development at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority with over 10 years of public and private sector experience in the environmental field. Vanessa oversees annual monitoring, maintenance and adaptive management of the port authority’s 13 habitat bank sites, helping to administer the largest fish habitat bank in Canada under agreement with DFO.

The Sustainability Framework recognizes that production starts with ecosystems from which we derive natural resources. Natural resources are turned into the commodities used to construct and operate built environments with the help of engineered systems. The wastes from these activities are absorbed by ecosystems to re-produce natural resources.

Six themes have been established to guide the School in its implementation of the Sustainability Framework. These themes reflect the inter-relatedness of ecological, social and economic interests needed to meet the challenge of sustainability:

• Protect and strengthen assets
• Balance use and renewal of resources
• Account for all costs and benefits
• Reduce waste and eliminate toxicants
• Ensure safety and access to services
• Support opportunities for improvement and enjoyment

Protect and strengthen assets:
Assets include: the natural environment, such as rivers, forests, species (e.g. salmon); social values and relationships expressed through cultural heritage, youth as contributors to society, aboriginal or ethnic knowledge; and economic capital, such as equipment and infrastructure.

Balance use and renewal of resources:
This means don’t take more than nature can produce on a sustained basis year after year. An example is the use of certified wood products that are harvested on a sustained yield basis.

Account for all costs and benefits:
This means going beyond the bottom line to include full life-cycle costs and costs that may not be financial but still have an impact (e.g. social and environmental costs). Although it is sometimes hard to do, the intention is to be more holistic in our approach. The cheapest price doesn’t always mean it is the best choice–especially when long-term operating costs are considered, or if the product has externalized costs associated with it that either someone else or something else pays for (e.g. pollution, unethical treatment of workers).

Reduce waste and eliminate toxicants:
This means that any product that creates a persistent or hazardous pollution condition in its manufacture, use or decomposition should be avoided. Choose products that can be reused or recycled over ones that cannot.

Ensure safety and access to services:
Safety should be inherent in everything we do and should be a factor in the choices of products we purchase and use. Risk management decisions include not only immediate impacts to the interests of the Institute, its faculty, staff and students, but also to the environment and to other communities that are affected either immediately or cumulatively over a longer-term as a result of decisions and actions. Access to services implies locality and availability of products and support services for their maintenance (there are social implications that may be harder to map: e.g. services that support training and upgrading of skills).

Support opportunities for improvement and enjoyment:
The learning environment should be enjoyable to the degree that we can support opportunities for continuous improvement of skills and learning opportunities, empower people through the learning process, and provide fun and stimulating opportunities to innovate and improve.

The School of Construction and the Environment is the lead Academic Sponsor of the International Ecocity Standards (IES). This initiative forwards the School’s goals of advancing applied research and the industry state of practice. The IES has 18 standards pertaining to sustainable urban living grouped under urban design, bio-geophysical conditions, socio-cultural features, and ecological imperatives. Learn more about the ways BCIT is creating ecocities at the Centre for Ecocities, or check out Building the Ecocity [PDF] and Education in Sustainable Built Environments [PDF] course offerings.

The Factor Four initiative is a project on the North end of campus aimed at creating an ecologically sustainable microcosm or “Ecocity Fractal”. Working as a living lab project we demonstrated sustainable practices on campus, providing opportunities to engage students in the transformation of the built environment as an ecologically sustainable learning space.

In 2009, BCIT School of Construction and the Environment hosted a charrette to look at the Science of Ecocity Building [PDF] on campus and undertook background research [PDF] on what it would mean to create an Ecocity Fractal. In 2012 we hosted follow up sessions with Ecocity Builders including a workshop exploring how the International Ecocity Standards could be applied to a Vancouver context [PDF], and a session focusing on the BCIT campus [PDF]. As an outcome of the BCIT workshop we launched the Eco-Streets [PDF] project, part of the Factor Four initiative. In 2016, a focus lab on the Headline Indicators for International Ecocity Standards was held at the BCIT Downtown Campus.