May 16, 2007

Green Building

Talks off, standard bodies say

SAUL CHERNOS

correspondent

TORONTO

Collaboration between Canada’s two leading green building certification bodies is on the back burner for now, group representatives say.

The Canada Green Building Council and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada (BOMA) negotiated for nearly 18 months, according to Ian Theaker, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program manager with the CaGBC.

“We opened discussions with BOMA for a memorandum of understanding (MOU),” Theaker said.

Topics included “sorting out where we should be positioning different building rating systems.”

Deb Cross, executive vice-president of BOMA Canada, confirms that BOMA was talking with the CaGBC about an MOU to recognize each other’s programs.

“Unfortunately it didn’t come to pass,” she says.

Cross and Theaker say their respective organizations are thriving and a full, formal merger was never on the table.

As of April 30, the CaGBC counted 450 LEED registrations and 29 certifications under LEED for New Construction and LEED for Commercial Interiors, the two programs the body operates here. Take into account certifications issued by the U.S. Green Building Council for projects registered before the CaGBC came into being two years ago, and the certification total reaches 64.

“LEED as a brand has real mileage across North America and it’s growing globally,” Theaker says. “Our growth over the last year (April 1 to March 31) was 96 per cent in registrations. And, as of Dec 31, 2006, we had almost 1,600 members.”

BOMA Canada, meanwhile, has 276 buildings certified and 42 new applications pending through Go Green and Go Green Plus. The organization counts more than 2,800 members, and Cross says BOMA also has strong brand awareness.

“BOMA has been around for a long time,” Cross says. “Right off the bat, there’s recognition.”

There are key distinctions. LEED Canada programs address construction, while BOMA Canada focuses on maintenance. Theaker says the CaGBC currently recommends building owners seeking operational certification consider either LEED for Existing Buildings in the U.S. or Go Green Plus.

However, there might soon be some blurring of the lines. Theaker says there’s demand to introduce LEED-EB into Canada.

“We’re opening efforts to expand LEED, recrafting the entire framework so that it addresses all sectors, from development to building operations. We’re calling this LEED Complete.”

Theaker says discussions with the USGBC and modifications to existing programs could take up to three years.

Cross says talk of importing LEED-EB might generate public discussion about the difference between the two systems and whether both are needed, yet she sees the BOMA programs continuing to thrive.

“The reality is there are two different types of systems, and ours is much more focused towards the ongoing management and the lifecycle of the building, using the survey, assessment and benchmarking as tools to manage and improve and enhance the building as well as just taking a point-in-time measure of how it’s performing.”

Theaker says market forces will determine if a merger should be pursued.

“It will be up to what the world thinks as to whether or not it should be one program or whether there should be several programs that have different advantages in different areas.”

Both Cross and Theaker say the door is open for further discussions regarding forms of cooperation, including education delivery.

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