Bridging Academia and Industry to Tackle Building Sustainability

Melanie Ross has worked in Sustainability for over 16 years. She started her career consulting on third-party certification of buildings, such as LEED and BOMA Best. Today, she is the Research Chair for the Green Building Technology Access Centre (GBTAC) at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). 

Melanie speaks to her work in applied research, how sustainability in the buildings industry has evolved, and how academics and industry can work together to move the needle. 

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The Evolution of Sustainability 

I like to use LEED as an example because that’s where I got my start. I was deep diving into building certification programs because that’s what we had at the time. 
 
With today’s base building and energy codes, we build better than the first iterations of LEED, which gives you a sense of how things have evolved. 
 
It’s interesting to see, and I think sometimes you have to look over the years to see the big picture of how things have changed. 
 
With my work at GBTAC, we’re innovating and taking on the riskier things that are harder to evaluate. Applied research is different as the intent is solutions that can be adopted right away. Our mandate is quite literally industry transformation. Everything we do needs to be shared, whether it’s a success or a failure.

Deep Energy Retrofits 

The biggest piece that we’re looking at right now is deep energy retrofits. We are focusing on how we shift builders, owners, and the whole industry to think about what they’re doing with their existing building stock. Understanding that once you build a building, you don’t just leave it. 

Industry is doing really well on the new construction side because we have the codes pushing us, but we haven’t addressed retrofits in a meaningful way. There’s still a big question around how we make that shift and how can the building code impact renovations and retrofits in a way that makes it fair across the board? 
 
The uniqueness of buildings makes retrofits challenging. Some things are standard like switching to LED lighting. However, when we start to talk about mechanical systems, or the envelope, the size of the building, age, etc., it becomes an individualized approach. 
 
I say new construction is easier because we have building codes to define what can and can’t be done, whereas retrofits are still finding the ideal approach. However, new construction has its own complexity because of the number of options, the increasing stringency of the energy code, and the increasing number of GHG emissions emerging in that analysis and how to deal with them, and so on.

Climate Resiliency and Smart Technologies

Resiliency is another important focus area. I think there’s a general acceptance that climate events are here to stay. So, how do we mitigate those impacts? Otherwise, we’re going to be stuck constantly rebuilding. Today, we have a much stronger understanding of how buildings come together, how materials work, and how things function in different climates and conditions. Additionally, we’ve seen a rise in durable materials that will withstand all sorts of climate events. 
 
Smart energy management and smart building management uses technology to our advantage to understand what’s going on and alert / analyze performance issues before they become a bigger problem. We can also use them to create functions where something might shut off or change midday depending on the climate conditions, time of year, etc. 

Education

We’ve come a long way, but education is ongoing. As part of the Access Centre, we work with industry to help advocate. We sit on quite a few industry boards and committees (local, provincial, and national). We help share knowledge and usher in things like updated building code and resiliency policies. 
 
Many people think that, as a post-secondary institution, we only run courses. But that is a misconception. We offer various forms of information sharing including presentations, webinars, workshops, and publishing papers. Additionally, we develop shorter training programs to meet specific needs.

How Can Industry Educate? How Do we Work Together?

I’m of the perspective that even if a company is making small steps, that’s better than nothing. I do think that there’s room for everyone to be at their own pace. 
 
The challenge is that we’re working against a timeline, and the closer we get to that timeline, the more rushed it feels. The signs of that clock ticking in our industry are increasing climate events and the impacts on infrastructure and buildings. 
 
Continuing to share knowledge and resources is important. There’s still lots to do. I’m personally a very big fan of collaboration.  
 
The academic world is quite separated from most industries, so the more we collaborate, the bigger the impact we can have. We’ve worked with lots of startups where we helped them figure some things out, and now they’re doing really well on their own. 

We are seeing more and more collaboration between industry, academics, and governments. I’m very proud of the shift in how we work together. There are fewer silos and more collaborations, and that’s important. That’s how we move the needle faster. 
 
For anyone interested, they can contact us at SAIT’s Applied Research and Innovation Centre (ARIS). We would have a conversation about goals, and what challenge they’re trying to solve, and then go from there. If the problem is more unique and has an innovative element, that’s something we typically take on.

The Next Generation of Sustainability

What really excites me is the passion young people have coming up and seeing how many environmental-based jobs are being developed. We have a whole ecosystem now of opportunities mapped, and so many people are learning how to apply sustainable principles from the get-go. 
 
That means a lot because I hope to be retired by 2050 (laughs), but we have all sorts of up-and-coming young people. 
 
I call on all those folks as the technical resources now, and that is a really good thing. That means that we’re learning and we’re moving forward. This is the group that’s going to continue the work, and that’s what makes me passionate.