Enermodal Engineering has opened its seventh Canadian location with an office in Vancouver.
“Vancouver has such a long-standing dedication to green design, it only made sense to bring Enermodal’s unique set of integrated services to this market,” says Iain MacFadyen, project principal, Enermodal Vancouver. “Enermodal’s focus on helping building owners and architects realize actual energy savings in their buildings fits well with Vacouver’s progressive building code and ambitious carbon neutral goals.”
Vancouver’s 2012 building code is the first step towards the City’s goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. Its action plan, “Vancouver 2020: A Bright Green Future,” outlines how buildings will be made more energy efficient and sustainable with the goal of creating net-zero buildings.
To help cities (like Vancouver) and private developers meet their net-zero and building challenge goals, Enermodal created a Net-Zero Ready m/e design service for high performance buildings.
Net Zero Ready buildings have very low energy demands-so low that all of their energy use can be supplied by renewable energy supplied at either the building or at the community level. Net Zero Ready buildings are compliant with the 2030 Challenge. This Challenge means that a building meets/will meet the following:
- 60% measured energy savings today
- 70% measured energy savings by 2015 and
- net zero energy (no additional energy required) by 2030
For existing Canadian office buildings, Net Zero Ready means monitored energy use of under 150 kWh/m2. And for new Canadian office buildings, a design target of under 115 kWh/m2.
Only a handful of buildings in Canada meet the 2030 Challenge targets – and Enermodal engineers were the M/E designers for many of these buildings.
“The technology already exists for Net-Zero Ready buildings,” Mr. MacFadyen says. “It is about assembling engaged, experienced design teams that can create intelligent solutions that make the most environmental and economic sense.”
Beyond M/E building design, Enermodal also offers the full spectrum of green building services, which it calls Delivered Performance as these services combine to ensure a building that actually performs up to its design expectations. This full spectrum of green building services includes LEED consulting, energy efficiency consulting, building commissioning, and building performance monitoring. Additionally, Enermodal offers sustainable design for green communities and existing building services, such as recommissioning and Building Optimization.
Enermodal is already working on several green building projects in Vancouver, including Langara College’s new Student Union and Building C, Surrey Memorial Hospital, and Richmond Centre.