The following has been taken from a lecture delivered by Professor K.D. Pressnail on January 24, 2007 to a class of 200 engineering students. Its appeal may go beyond the bounds of the classroom, and so it has been excerpted here.

Sustainable Buildings: A Time for Engineers to Step Up, Speak Up and Lead

Good morning… It is my privilege to have the opportunity to influence your engineering lives a little, and as I begin, I am well aware of the famous Socrates quotation, “The only thing I know, is that I know nothing”. Well, unfortunately, I know a little about energy-efficient buildings. Although today’s lecture is about buildings, buildings are only the context for discussing the future role that you, as engineers, will need to fulfill.

Two years ago, a large tract Ontario homebuilder approached me.   They were interested in building low-energy, more sustainable R2000 homes, yet the market was limited.  They were having difficulties selling low-energy homes. It was their view that most consumers just assumed that homes built to the Ontario Building Code (OBC) must be all right! Consequently, they had to compete with other builders who merely met the building code. Their low-energy “R2000 homes” only cost 4% more than OBC homes and yet, based on static energy prices in 2005; the annual rate of return on this incremental cost was more than 14%! Despite such returns, in order to compete, the tract builder was faced with having to build homes that just met the energy provisions of the OBC.  Their submission: help us change the building code.

It was clear from data provided by this builder, that, in Ontario, we were building yesterday’s buildings today.  Subsequently, I met with senior building code officials and I attempted to convince them to mandate improved standards of energy-efficiency for residential homes that went beyond the contemplated incremental changes. I was armed with the environmental imperatives of energy use and global climate change, as well as cost figures that showed that it makes economic sense to build to the well-established lower-energy R2000 standard now.  I was dismayed when I was told by one official, “Look, this isn’t about economics”. The government of Ontario eventually adopted “new” energy standards for residential buildings, and should be praised. Unfortunately, these standards fall below the R2000 standard, a standard that was envisioned in the early 1980’s. 

Undaunted, in July 2006, I turned toward the Federal government and carried the same message.  I met with a senior aide to the Minister of the Environment. I was part of a group that carried a very simple message: low energy homes are better homes. They are more economical to operate, more comfortable, and less burdensome on the environment.  While the Federal government does not have jurisdiction over provincial building codes, we reminded the government that they could nurture more sustainable behaviour by using economic incentives such as mortgage deductibility.  So far, no changes have occurred, yet.

Given the environmental and economic imperatives, it is troubling that we are not building tomorrow’s buildings today.  Building a low-energy building now, is better for future generations, and it better meets the needs of the present generation as well.
It is often presumed that the marketplace will determine the appropriate level of energy-efficient measures.  Yet if building owners are not informed, or if they only consider initial capital costs and ignore operating costs, then poor design decisions will continue to be made. Since buildings designed today will often be in service for a hundred years or more, such design decisions will unnecessarily and senselessly burden future generations.  Although some will argue that such buildings can be subsequently retrofitted, this is a troublesome strategy knowing that effective energy-retrofit measures are expensive; it is far more cost effective to build a building well, the first time. 

So how can we build a better tomorrow?  Informing consumers, improving building codes or waiting for political courage to emerge are possible strategies. Yet in these times of global warming and climate change, engineers need look no further than their own desk. As designers and constructors of the built-environment we have the power to lead and the power to influence and shape the future.

Engineers who embrace the principles of sustainability as defined by the Bruntland Commission back in 1987 are bound to consider the needs of the present society without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This articulation of “sustainability” should be seen as a beginning. Although, I’m not sure that the profession or even society is ready for the notion that I’m about to propose, we could go further.  Presently, it is well recognized that all engineers owe a paramount duty to society.  Why not interpret “society” to include future generations?  If such a duty, known in law as a fiduciary duty, were owed to future generations, then engineers would be duty-bound to produce farsighted designs- designs that would protect the interests of future generations too. Of course, this notion is only one path of many that could lead to more sustainable practices.

Perhaps it’s time that we realized that we are all like the old English riparian – someone who “owns” property adjacent to a stream.  Riparian rights protected the rights of all “owners” along a stream. A riparian had the right to use water from the stream, but not to significantly degrade it in quantity or quality.  Well, it is my personal belief that the “stream” flows not just through space, but through time as well. 

While I’ve been speaking, 50 energy-inefficient homes have been built in Canada- homes that will needlessly contribute 5 tonnes more carbon dioxide per year than their R2000 counterparts. The sun is slowly setting on such needlessly wasteful practices.  Today, another sun is rising- a sun that offers hope. As engineers, it is time for us to step up, speak up, and lead.  Although the problems facing society today are world-scale and appear insurmountable, we, as engineers, can make a difference.  If we all strive to make the part of the world that we can influence better, better for us, and better for our children and our grandchildren and our…then collectively, we can lead the way to a far brighter future.   Thank you; Onward and Upward.

posted with the permission of:Department of Civil Engineering University of Toronto