Nov 29 2012
BASF Canada held a sustainable building seminar today at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto, ON, in which attendees had the opportunity to learn more about the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating system and a lifecycle approach to green building.
Architects, engineers, building owners, and managers received presentations from guest speakers Wayne Ward, Technical Director, BRE Canada, and Andrew Bowerbank, Chief Sustainability Officer, DCL Group of Companies. Ward and Bowerbank introduced the BREEAM international bespoke for green building rating systems, presenting the DCL Stouffville Medical Centre as a case study.
“The DCL Stouffville Medical Centre will apply sustainable design methods to a state-of-the-art medical facility,” said Bowerbank. “This will be the first BREEAM certified project in North America and set a standard for additional medical centres to be built in municipalities across Canada. Our efforts are being followed very closely by international market leaders.”
He added, “Our goal is to provide quality buildings to support our public healthcare professionals. By using BASF’s leading products, we will be able to improve the life cycle performance of the building and ensure these facilities will be in service for many years to come.”
Bruce Uhlman, Sustainability Specialist, BASF, provided an overview of BASF’s Eco-Efficiency Analysis tool as a holistic method for analyzing the environmental impact of construction materials in proportion to cost effectiveness. Uhlman explained how the tool incorporates a lifecycle approach to help customers and end users understand ecological and economic performance to help decide which products are best for their specific application.
BREEAM is among the world’s foremost environmental assessment methods and rating systems for buildings. More than 200,000 buildings have been certified with BREEAM assessment ratings and more than one million have been registered for assessment since it was first launched in 1990.