“Watching our Waste” Report

Light House would like to thank the National Zero Waste Council, Lafarge Canada Inc., Metro Vancouver, the Canada Green Building Council, Recollective Consulting, and Ledcor for their contributions to the Watching our Waste Report: A National Construction Waste Analysis In Canada Using LEED™ Certified Project Data.

“When we look at the analysis from Watching Our Waste, it becomes very clear that current construction practices are not sustainable. If we are to meet our carbon targets, now and in the future, we need to abandon some of our twentieth-century building practices such as constructing the majority of our buildings on-site, and demolishing our existing buildings without regard for the materials embedded in them. Regulators should be aware that much higher diversion rates than are currently being achieved are possible, and should consider setting targets and creating bylaws accordingly. Beyond diversion, we should be embracing prefabrication, modular construction, purpose-built components (such as 3D printing), and the design of buildings for durability, adaptability and disassembly at end-of-life. Although these efforts may not be rewarded for many, many decades, given our industry’s contribution to climate change, and if we believe that “a society grows great when we plant trees in whose shade we know we will never sit”, then shouldn’t we seek to provide future generations with that shade? Or at the very least, ensure that we don’t cause the temperature to rise even further?”

– Watching Our Waste, Executive Summary

Read the report here.

IWBI Health Equity Advisory

Sarah Radi, Light House Project Manager, has been selected to join the International WELL Building Institute – IWBI Health Equity Advisory. She joins a diverse group of 230 thought leaders and industry experts from around the world who have united to address health equity in the places and spaces we live, work, and play.

Read more about the Health Equity Advisory.

Coming soon: Zero Waste Construction Certification and Accreditation

In Canada, construction and demolition (C&D) is responsible for approximately 30% of waste to landfills (Government

In Canada, construction and demolition (C&D) is responsible for approximately 30% of waste to landfills (Government of Canada). Efforts to divert waste to recycling or reuse are increasingly popular, but do not address upstream waste management. The concept of Zero Waste (ZW) prioritizes upstream prevention of waste generation, reducing and even eliminating the need to sort and divert waste at the end of a project.

Light House, HSR Zero Waste, and Zero Waste Canada will work together with Ledcor Construction and the City of Vancouver to develop a Zero Waste Certification for Construction, the first of its kind in Canada. The goal of this project is to create a program that will reduce waste across the industry through the creation of an education curriculum, and a Zero Waste certification program that has been tailored to construction that provides both accountability and recognition.

Projects achieve LEED Gold certification

Two of our projects were recently certified LEED Gold!Congratulations to the teams who we worked with on Hawthorne and the Grayson, including Pennyfarthing, Cristina Oberti Interior Design, Shift Architecture (Hawthorne), Raymond Letkeman Architects Inc. (Grayson), Performance Construction, and E3 Eco Group.

Hawthorne, 4988 Cambie Street

The Grayson, 4162 Cambie Street

Brenda Martens Interview with James Glave on Vienna House

Light House’s work on Design for Disassembly construction techniques and construction waste prevention is highlighted in an interview with Brenda Martens, our Director of Research and Collaboration, on the Vienna House project website.
Vienna House will be an innovative, six storey, zero-emissions rental building in East Vancouver, with knowledge sharing taking place with it’s ‘counterpart’, the Vancouver House project in Vienna.
Read the full interview here.

NISP® Spotlight

Light House contributes to Washington State becoming the first region in North America to legislate industrial symbiosis practices

Industrial symbiosis (IS) recently became law in Washington State, the first North American region to take such action.
This program intends to:

• Find ways of turning waste and by-products into valued resource inputs;
• reduce waste management costs; generate new business opportunities;
• increase the size and diversity of business networks;
• identify means of improving environmental performance;
• expand the regional circular economy; and
• drive innovation.

Light House is proud to have played a role in highlighting the benefits of IS in Washington state, along with our partner – and creator of the NISP® approach to IS – International Synergies Ltd. of the UK (ISL). Jointly, Light House and ISL hosted the first NISP^®-based IS workshop in Washington State. The outcomes of this successful resource matching workshop were included as part of the report to the Washington State Department of Commerce that helped inform the crafting of SB 5345. The full report can be found here:http://www.commerce.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Industrial-Waste-Coordination-Industrial-Symbiosis-Report.pdf
We hope that with this latest initiative and its successful IS pilot in Metro Vancouver that the seeds have been sown for a broader, Pacific Northwest-wide circular economy initiative, with industrial symbiosis as its cornerstone.

Industrial Circular Economy Conference

NISP® Canada is pleased to have been an exhibitor and participant at this year’s Industrial Circular Economy Conference (June 9th-11th), run by NISP® Canada network member Metal Tech Alley, based in the West Kootenay region of BC.ICE2021 was a conference for industrial manufacturing leaders who want to shrink their environmental footprint, create more value, and stay competitive by leveraging the benefits of the industrial circular economy.