ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: March 20, 2002
Author/Local:P. Bremner/6720

RTS NO. 02622

CC File No. 5106

Council: April 9, 2002

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT:	New Chess Street Works Yard - LEEDTM Silver/Gold

RECOMMENDATION

THAT Council receive the following report for information.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Engineering Services submits the following report for information.

COUNCIL POLICY

The City of Vancouver has many policies which encourage sustainable practices such as energy efficiencies and improved building performance.

PURPOSE

On November 20, 2001, Council approved designing two of the New Works Yard buildings to LEED^TM (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver rating. At that time, Council discussed and requested a report back on achieving LEED^TM Gold for the Works Yard (considering the difference in cost and savings between Silver and Gold), and the possibility of implementing a LEED^TM Silver standard on all civic buildings. This report outlines the differences between LEED^TM Silver and Gold rating for the New Works Yard. The Director of Current Planning is anticipated to report back in April on the application of LEED^TM to South East False Creek including a work program to assess the potential use of LEED^TM on all new City projects.

BACKGROUND

LEED^TM is a building rating system developed by the US Green Building Council as a means to help improve the performance of buildings and to provide a measure of the sustainability of a project. The LEED^TM assessment is designed for commercial, institutional, and high riseresidential buildings and is not specifically designed to apply to industrial sites; however, the majority of the principles still apply.

Under the LEED^TM program, buildings are evaluated and awarded points in six categories (Sustainable Site, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation & Design ). A building is assessed based on the total points earned from a maximum of 69 and is then rated as:
· Certified 26 to 32 points;
· Silver 33 to 38 points;
· Gold 39 to 51 points; or
· Platinum 52 to 69 points.

Currently, there are 19 LEED^TM accredited buildings in the world; 1 Platinum, 5 Gold, 4 Silver, 6 Certified and 3 Bronze (Bronze was a rating category under the LEED^TM pilot program). Currently more than 300 projects in the works of which only ten are industrial.

On November 20, 2001, Council approved proceeding with the development of two buildings in the New Works Yard to LEED^TM Silver. Some of the significant sustainable features planned as part of achieving Silver are:
· use of all drought tolerant planting - no permanent irrigation required
· potable water use reduction target of 30%
· stormwater management plan with on site detention
· energy star rated roof to reduce heat island (green roof being explored)
· 40 % reduction in energy consumption
· use 5% renewable energy
· implement a construction waste management plan to achieve a 75 % reduction
· specify recycled content in appropriate materials
· implement an indoor air quality management plan
· special attention to thermal comfort and daylighting

DISCUSSION

A detailed breakdown and description of the 69 available credits under LEED^TM is attached as Appendix A and a detailed description of LEED^TM is available through the World Wide Web at www.leedbuilding.org. Within each of the six LEED^TM categories, there are mandatory requirements or prerequisites to be met and a number of possible initiatives which earn credits. The design team, including City staff and design consultants, then determine which credits to focus on for the project. In choosing which credits to pursue and which level of certification, the New Works Yard project design team considered the following questions and issues:

Feasibility
Is the credit applicable to the Works Yard project? The Works Yard is an industrial campus type project and there are a number of credits available under LEED^TM that do not apply because of the project location, lack of available space and industrial project constraints,product availability and the general nature of the project. For example, the majority of credits under sustainable sites and the building re-use credits under materials and resources cannot be achieved because of location and space constraints. Credits for green power, eliminating HCFC refrigerants (note all CFC's are eliminated), rapidly renewable materials and use of certified wood promote products that are not readily available in BC. Areas of focus for LEED^TM Silver are reduction in energy use, potable water use reduction, construction waste reduction and indoor air quality.

Environmental and Financial payback
Does the credit provide good environmental and/or financial payback? In choosing which credits to pursue, the design team must consider the capital cost of achieving the credit compared with the financial and environmental benefits. For example, reduction in energy consumption has a high capital cost but is beneficial to the environment and also has a financial payback of approximately seven years. A 40% target for energy reduction is planned through efficient heating and lighting systems. Production of 5% of the total building energy through renewable sources is currently planned. Although this has a payback in excess of 50 years, it is planned on the basis of demonstrating and furthering development of a sustainable strategy. Increasing the alternate energy use percentage to 20% to obtain the additional two LEED^TM credits has a high capital cost, no financial payback and limited environmental benefit.

Uncertainty
What is the probability of achieving the credit once submitted? The design team is constantly updating and refining the project credit summary to reduce uncertainty. However, there are a number of LEED^TM credits with a high degree of uncertainty. For example, the design team is aiming for a 40% reduction in energy consumption over applicable standards. This is an aggressive design goal and involves a higher degree of uncertainty. Additional credits with a high degree of uncertainty include light pollution, and measurement and verification. While the Yard design will address light pollution, getting the point requires extensive modelling and calculation. To date, no facilities have received this point. The same is true for measurement and verification.

The New Works Yard will include green building design features in each of the six categories of the LEED^TM rating system. Based on research and design completed to date, the design team is confident in obtaining a LEED^TM Silver rating. To obtain the LEED^TM Silver rating, the design team is pursuing the most appropriate credits for the project based on the criteria described above. LEED^TM Silver is an aggressive target for the New Works Yard project considering the industrial nature of this project and the number of credits that are not available because of location and space constraints. The result will be an energy efficient building that practices a number of sustainable features that can act as a demonstration and catalyst to future projects.

Example
A recent project that just received a Gold rating is the Vancouver Island Technology Park (VITP). As an example, the following table shows the points for the VITP project in the firstof the six categories, Sustainable Sites. Also, listed are the projected points for the Works Yard.

Credits For Sustainable Sites

	Credit Area	Maximum Credit Points	Vanc Is Tech Park	City Works Yard
	Sustainable Sites
Prereq 1	Erosion & Sediment Control	Prereq.	Y	Y
Credit 1	Site Selection	1	1
Credit 2	Urban Redevelopment	1
Credit 3	Brownfield Redevelopment	1	1
Credit 4.1	Alternative Transportation, Public Transportation Access	1	1
Credit 4.2	Alternative Transportation, Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms	1	1	1
Credit 4.3	Alternative Transportation, Alternative Fuel Refueling Station	1
Credit 4.4	Alternative Transportation, Parking Capacity	1	1
Credit 5.1	Reduced Site Disturbance, Protect or Restore Open Space	1	1
Credit 5.2	Reduced Site Disturbance, Development Footprint	1	1
Credit 6.1	Stormwater Management, Rate & Quantity	1	1
Credit 6.2	Stormwater Management, Treatment	1	1
Credit 7.1	Landscape & Exterior Design to Reduce Heat Islands, Non-Roof	1	1	1
Credit 7.2	Landscape & Exterior Design to Reduce Heat Islands, Roof	1		1
Credit 8	Light Pollution Reduction	1
	Total Points Available under Sustainable Sites	14	10	3

Sustainable sites represent 14 of the maximum 69 points under LEED^TM. The above example shows the variability between sites and projects. The difference between the two sites in the first category is in fact the difference between Silver and Gold. In this case, the Works Yard cannot reasonably get credit in a number of areas as follows:

Credit 1 Site Selection -not available as site is less than 5 feet above flood plain;
Credit 2 Urban Redevelopment - not available as not increasing density;
Credit 3 Brownfield - not available as site is not a contaminated brownfield site;
Credit 4.1 Alternate Transportation, Public Transportation Access - not available as site not within ½ mile of skytrain, not within 1/4 mile of two bus routes;
Credit 4.3 Alternate Transportation, Alternative Fuel Refueling Station - while alternate refueling will be in the Works Yard at the fuel station, it is not within the LEED^TM boundary;
Credit 4.4 Alternate Transportation, Parking Capacity - not available given the number of employees and vehicles. Parking will be more than minimum bylaw requirement, even after a reduction for car pooling;
Credit 5.1 Reduced Site Disturbance, Protect or Restore Open Space - not feasible to restore 50% open space as the Yard is fully utilized;
Credit 5.2 Reduce Site Disturbance, Development footprint - as above for 5.1;
Credit 6.1 Stormwater Management, Rate and Quality - while a stormwater managementplan will be put into place to control the rate of discharge and to reduce the quantity, it is not practical to reduce the quantity of stormwater runoff by 50% given the nature of the Yard and the underlying soil's low permeability;
Credit 6.2 Stormwater Management, Treatment - site will have stormwater sumps, oil water interceptors and emergency spill containment, the next step beyond that is full treatment which can be expensive; and
Credit 8 Light Pollution Reduction - the Works Yard will address light pollution; however, to get the credit requires extensive modelling and calculations. To date, no projects have received this credit.

A number of the credits under sustainable sites come at no cost. When these can't be achieved, credits need to be made up in other areas which tend to be more expensive, have less payback, or have more uncertainty.

To obtain a Gold rating, the design team would need to pursue credits with a higher degree of uncertainty, reduced environmental and financial benefit, and increased capital cost. Likely areas to pursue are alternate fuel refueling station, measurement and verification, increased use of reusable material and renewable energy. The capital cost for Gold over and above the cost of Silver is anticipated to be in the order of $200,000 to $250,000 with no direct cash payback. While the credits would be part of an overall sustainable practice, payback would be non-direct such as reducing hydro demand, reduced landfilling, and encouraging alternative fuel vehicles. For the reasons discussed, a Gold rating is not recommended for this project. As can be seen credits can vary widely from site to site and therefore Gold may well be appropriate for another project. The team approach will be to continue to maximize opportunities to practice and demonstrate sustainable practices.

CONCLUSION

Two of the Works Yard buildings are being designed to achieve LEED^TM Silver rating. For an industrial project, this will be a significant milestone. To achieve a 40% energy reduction, use recycled materials, reduce water use and stormwater runoff, and improve indoor environmental quality will all be a lasting achievement. For the City, this will be yet another step in demonstrating Vancouver's commitment to sustainability and will be a stepping stone for future projects and initiatives.

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