In 2008 three organizations received Green Building Grants totaling $118,800.

• Friends of Radha Foundation, Radha Yoga and Eatery: Toward Environmental and Community Sustainability - $50,000
• Community Energy Association: Green Buildings, Accelerating to Zero - $40,000
• Sustainability Solutions Group Workers' Cooperative: Carbon Neutral Buildings - $28,800

Project Descriptions

Friends of Radha Foundation

The Friends of Radha Foundation was awarded a $50,000 grant to renovate a two-storey, 6000 sq ft heritage building in Vancouver's Chinatown. FRF owns the building where they operate a yoga studio and restaurant on the second floor. The renovations will focus on improving energy and water efficiency through better insulation, light tubes, a roof garden, and an air source heat pump for each floor, and will ensure the preservation of this heritage building. The proposed renovations will use green building technologies and FRF will apply their sustainable purchasing policy in selecting materials for the building, so they will be using salvaged and/or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood.

The grant will also support several educational opportunities that will share the learnings from this project:

• Lectures - FRF will organize four public lectures featuring green building experts who will talk about the green technologies used in the building including roof top gardens, water efficiency, and heat pumps.
• Brochure case study - FRF will produce a brochure describing the project and its outcomes for distribution to all visitors. FRF will also post signage for easy viewing and include details on their restaurant menu cover.
• Webpage - FRF will add a webpage featuring the brochure case study.
• Supplier education - FRF will communicate with all suppliers regarding their green building goals and achievements.

For more information on Radha Yoga & Eatery, please visit their website.

Community Energy Association

While there has been significant innovation in green building bylaws and policies at the local level across the province, barriers still exist which prevent local governments from accelerating these policies to move forward with the goal of reducing emissions in buildings by 33% by 2020. To help work towards this goal, the Community Energy Association received a $40,000 grant to work collaboratively with key urban planners, elected officials and green buildings NGOs, to pilot a regional approach to local government climate action on buildings.

CEA will deliver a lower mainland regional workshop to educate lower mainland planners and elected officials about green building innovations and to identify high-impact policy and regulation measures for both new and existing buildings which promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. The workshop will be the launching pad for a 'regional working group' whose members will work collectively to implement these policies and regulations in each of the participating lower mainland municipalities.

For more information on the Community Energy Association, please visit their website.

Sustainability Solutions Group

The Sustainability Solutions Group Workers' Cooperative received a $28,800 grant to develop curriculum for a half-day carbon neutral building course for building owners and managers, project managers, architects, policy makers, engineers, and relevant provincial government staff. Despite many current initiatives to address and reduce building GHG emissions, a common definition and approach to carbon neutrality is needed to ensure that the most effective measures are being applied in building construction and renovation.

The course curriculum will consider theoretical topics including the scope of carbon neutrality. For example, carbon neutrality can measure a building's energy consumption or can also consider the GHG emissions produced during construction, or even the embedded energy of construction materials. The course will also consider the costs and benefits of various building materials and methods, various design processes and strategies, and the costs and benefits of carbon offset options. SSG will use a consultative approach to developing the course curriculum drawing on input from developers, researchers, and policy-makers who are leaders on climate change in their field. Specifically they will invite BC Hydro, Cascadia Region Green Building Council, Canada Green Building Council, Metro Vancouver, CMHC, City of Vancouver, Natural Resources Canada and Simon Fraser University, among others.

For more information on the Sustainability Solutions Group Workers' Cooperative, please visit their website.