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The University of British Columbia (UBC) has a strong foundation in building sustainable, energy-conserving, modern structures. The Brock Commons residence is on its way to opening an 18-story wood building. According to UBC, the new residence will save 2,432 metric tonnes of C02 compared to traditional structural materials, making it the tallest modern wood structure in the world.
The Brock Commons residence is known as one of the green buildings and communities on the UBC campus.
The building was built using sustainably harvested Canadian wood products.
UBC has more than 400 buildings on campus and the Green Innovation Project started in order to conserve energy on campus.
"When it comes to carbon storage, wood is surprisingly effective," said a spokesperson for UBC.
The Brock Commons residence will house 404 students. The structure was built on a concrete base, with a mass timber structure built up from there. Construction is expected to finish during the summer of 2017.
Also on site at UBC is the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), which is said to be one of North America's most sustainable buildings. It opened in November of 2011 and includes green features like waste heat recovery from a nearby building, solar energy, ground-source heating and an on-site wastewater treatment system.
UBC Okanagan has been able to create a sustainable building site by the use of its underground secret weapon. Because UBCO is situated above an underground body of water, the aquifer has been put to use as a geothermal system. It was implemented at the Okanagan campus in 2008 and operates by using the cool, 10-degree-Celsius water to cool the campus's buildings during the summer. It also works to heat the buildings in the winter.
UBC and UBC Okanagan are both on their way to practicing sustainable development through creating more green building projects.
The U.N.'s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has placed an added pressure for more building projects to go green, worldwide.
In fact the percentage of global builders with at least 60 per cent of their projects certified green is expected to double between 2015 and 2018.
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