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demolition

Deconstructing Vancouver’s Green Demolition Bylaw

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Home owners and property developers in the city of Vancouver will follow new demolition waste recycling requirements for houses built before 1940 thanks to the Green Demolition Bylaw which went into effect on September 1, 2014. From now on, a minimum of 75% of the demolition waste from these older homes will be recycled; and that number increases to 90% for character houses from the same era.

We had the opportunity to interview Senior Sustainability Specialist Hugo Haley from the City of Vancouver to find out more about the Green Demolition Bylaw and what it means for home owners and developers. Here’s what he was able to share with us:

Q:  What led the City of Vancouver to establish these new recycling requirements for pre-1940’s houses?

demolition

Traditional demolition sends tonnes of waste to our landfills.

A: Metro Vancouver’s regional solid waste plan requires all municipalities to do more to encourage recycling of construction and demolition waste. Also, the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan’s Zero Waste goal is to reduce the amount of solid waste disposed to landfill by 50% by 2020. To achieve this goal, the City intends to improve demolition waste recycling performance, and put in place policies to achieve 50,000 tonnes additional recycling from the demolition and construction waste sector.

Q: What is the difference between a pre-1940’s home to one that was built later that prompted this policy? Will newer home demolitions become subject to similar recycling requirements in the future?

A: Homes built before 1940 often have valuable architectural features … built with old growth timber and other valuable materials. The City would like to discourage older character homes from being demolished … if they are going to be demolished, the City wants to ensure that a high percentage of demolition materials are reused or recycled. In the future, the City would like to include recycling requirements for all ages classes of homes to make sure valuable and usable materials are kept out of the landfill.

Q: What is “deconstruction” and why is it being used to demolish these older homes?

A: Deconstruction is an alternative to traditional demolition. Deconstruction is a more systematic and careful approach to taking apart the house where more of the materials are kept intact and can then be separated for reuse and recycling.

deconstruction

Deconstruction techniques allow higher recycling rates.

Q: Is this new bylaw unique in Metro Vancouver, perhaps even in North America?

A: These requirements are not unique in North America. There are numerous municipalities in the United States that require demolition waste recycling, with California’s requirements applying state wide. Cities with similar policies include Chicago, Seattle, San Fransicso and Boulder. In Metro Vancouver, the city of Port Moody has such a policy.

Q: Do you have any relevant statistics you can share including how many demolitions and how much material you think will be diverted from the landfill each year?

A: There are about 1,000 homes demolished in the city of Vancouver every year. About 350 of those are from the pre-1940 era and subject to the new requirements. We expect about 12,000 tonnes of additional reuse and recycling to be achieved in the first year … This amount will increase as the requirements extend to more homes.

Green Coast Rubbish President & CEO Eamonn Duignan wrote a letter to Council in support of the new bylaw saying “we whole heartily support this policy initiative … far too often we see reusable or recyclable material landfilled, simply because there is no regulatory framework in place.”

Green Coast Rubbish specializes in demolition and deconstruction services.

If you are considering the deconstruction of a pre-1940’s home, here are some helpful links for more information:

Organic Recycling

Disposal Ban of Organics in Metro Vancouver

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Vancouver continues to move toward its goal of becoming the Greenest City by 2020. By imagining solutions and opportunities that can help residents and businesses to more effectively deal with household waste, they get closer every year. It’s estimated that nearly 35-40% of everything that we throw away is food waste; if diverted into a composting system, this adds up to a substantial amount kept out of our landfills. Which is why, starting in 2015, Metro Vancouver will be instating a ban on disposing organics and food waste into regular garbage bins.

There are huge community and environmental benefits to composting. As the food waste breaks down through natural processes, it can create valuable fertilizers that can help to enrich the soil with potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. It reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions and lengthens the life of our existing landfills, saving valuable space and local resources.

For some eye-opening stats on the amount of organic waste produced every day, as well for solutions on how to responsibly dispose of compastable waste visit our past blog Getting Serious About Organic Waste Reduction.  If you are interested  to learn more about the process that your organic waste goes through when it is processed you can check-out Part 2 of our Organic Waste Reduction blog.

Some things that can go into the compost bin:

  • Fruit & vegetable scraps
  • Eggshells, dairy
  • Meat & fish bones
  • Teabags
  • Coffee filters & grounds
  • Breads, pasta, rice
  • Food soiled paper products (pizza boxes, napkins, cardboard egg cartons)
  • Grass, leaves, weeds, plants
  • Cooked food & grease

Some prohibited items:

  • Any type of plastic (including compostable/biodegradable plastic bags)
  • Rocks, soil
  • Diapers
  • Animal waste
  • Wood products & lumber
  • Branches bigger than 10 cm (4″)  in diameter, and more than 0.5m (1.6ft) in length

These developments are very much in-line with the ideology of Green Coast Rubbish. We’ve seen the evidence firsthand of how much these compostable items can add up – in 2013 alone, we diverted 30.39 tonnes of organic material! By actively working together toward creating composting solutions with Metro Vancouver, we can all contribute to the success of this important program in our communities.

For more information about composting and the upcoming ban on organics, check out the Metro Vancouver website, and the City of Vancouver’s Green Bin Program.

Green Building App

Green Building Apps

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Besides our business commitment at Green Coast Rubbish to preserve and clean up our environment, we are also personally excited about new technologies that help people become more aware of their urban surroundings, and ways we can help its preservation. Recently a lot of smart phone apps have popped up that do just this.

Some of our favorites combine fascinating environmental info and architectural facts together. Two awesome examples we’ve found are the ‘Green Building App’, which enables people to discover Green Buildings throughout Vancouver (in proximity to where they are). As well as the ‘Green Building Audio Tours’, which are short podcasts recorded by a member of the design team explaining specific features of that building. You can listen to them at any time by simply calling a phone number. It’s a great way to discover more about each building, and learn more about the neighborhoods they belong to. This tour includes several buildings constructed for the 2010 Winter Olympics — such as the Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre, and the Trout Lake Rink — to name just a few. If you have a bit of time to explore, check out one of these free apps while you’re out. Whether you’re a tourist or a local, you’re sure to gain a deeper understanding about the city, and the innovative ways we’re working to improve it.

Vancouver aims to become the Greenest City in the world by 2020, and it’s taking big steps toward that goal. By constructing buildings that mimic natural processes to help produce/conserve energy and water, and incorporating state-of-the-art technology in the design, we encourage environmental innovation for the future. And thankfully, conserving resources doesn’t have to sacrifice style, as evidenced by the unique beauty and functionality of many of these new sustainable developments.

 

Constructing Greener Buildings – LEED

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In the grand scheme of things, Vancouver is a comparatively new city—particularly when it comes to architecture. But what we lack in history, we make up in stride in the design and development of Green Building technologies.

Building projects contribute to a huge amount of waste and pollution in Canada, and generate a large percentage of total greenhouse gas emissions in North America. The accumulation of construction and demolition of buildings can add up to nearly 35% of total landfill waste. They also consume a significant amount of our water and energy resources. But good news! It doesn’t need to be this way. By designing buildings in more sustainable ways, these numbers can be greatly reduced across the board. That’s why the LEED rating system was introduced.

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Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a reputable and internationally recognized ‘green’ rating system for both new and existing building development projects. Here is the breakdown of the different levels of certification, which are ranked based on 110 points, over 7 areas of criteria:

  1. Water Efficiency: Reduce water consumption, treat or minimize wastewater, eliminate site irrigation.
  2. Energy Efficiency: Use renewable energy resources, reduce energy consumption, eliminate ozone-depleting chemicals.
  3. Regional Priority: Keeping in mind geographical factors, designing architecture & targeting environmental issues based on that region.
  4. Innovation in Design: Vastly exceed the environmental requirements and incorporate innovative features and technologies not covered in other areas.
  5. Material Selection: Re-use existing building facades, utilize locally salvaged or recycled construction materials, minimize waste during construction, use of renewable materials.
  6. Site Development: Increase urban density, maximize green space, minimize storm water run-off, access and encouragement of transportation modes such a bicycling, easy access to transit, car-pooling.
  7. Indoor Environmental Quality: Providing operational windows, improving ventilation systems, incorporating natural lighting sources.

Ratings:
40-49 points = Certified
50-59 points = Silver
60-79 points = Gold
80+ points = Platinum

By using these guidelines, architects can effectively design smarter, greener buildings. By establishing an international and industry recognized standard, it can also help convey information to interested individuals and clients. The Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC) has adapted the system initially developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), to address environmental concerns and issues specifically within the Canadian market.

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A good example of a LEED Platinum Certified building project in Vancouver is the Olympic Village — which incorporates technology such as solar energy, rainwater irrigation and conservation systems, and green rooftops.

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By changing the way buildings are constructed and utilizing the latest advancements in technology, we can conserve our precious energy and environmental resources — while making our neighborhoods more livable, walkable, and sustainable.