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UBC building will be world’s ‘greenest’
February 27, 2010
Gerry Bellett, Vancouver SunFebruary 26, 2010
VANCOUVER — When it opens next year the $37-million UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability will be the “greenest” building in North America.
How green?
Well, according to its advanced billing, it will:
- use solar and other energy and be net positive in energy production;
- all waste water and sewage will be treated on site and used for irrigation;
- rainwater will be treated to provide safe drinking water;
- it will be greenhouse gas positive;
- and there will be more carbon sequestered in the building’s wooden structure than emitted during its building or demolition.
According to John Robinson, project director of the UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) building, the structure will also be its own laboratory for research and development and practice in the art of sustainability.
Construction began last September and it is due to open in the summer of 2011 on Sustainability Street at the UBC campus.
“In terms of sustainability, we can’t find anything being built anywhere in the world right now to match it. But these things are a bit of a moving target and we will have to wait and see when it opens,” said Robinson when asked to rank his building with other green buildings in the world.
