Professor sees red over ‘green building’ claims

By Anna Mehler Paperny

Don’t get Dan Harvey started on Toronto’s eco-friendly initiatives. Renewable energy? Wind turbines? “A joke,” the University of Toronto environmental studies professor says – at least, until we can start reducing our energy footprint in a significant way.

A lot has been made of the city’s attempts to green its buildings, which suck up the lion’s share of Toronto’s energy consumption. But they don’t go nearly far enough, he insists. And the problem isn’t the city’s huge supply of old, crumbling towers: It’s the shiny new buildings going up we should be worried about.

To a degree, Toronto’s hands are tied when it comes to messing with Ontario’s building code. But the key to greener buildings, Prof. Harvey insists, is bringing in laws with teeth.

What should we be doing?

We suffer from brain-dead building design. We’re building all-glass condominiums, all-glass office buildings. The office buildings are hermetically sealed – they have entire glazing sections facing west with no external shading devices. These buildings are uninhabitable without massive air-conditioning systems. … It’s really pointless to do anything else until you address this issue. I say you’ve got it all backwards. And the problem is, these buildings we’re stuck with for 50, 100, I don’t know how many years. I mean, even a coal power plant is only going to last 40 years. A brain-dead building – and that’s almost all we’re building – is going to last 100 years. READ MORE >>

via www.theglobeandmail.com