Light House Sustainable Building Centre: Leading the Way
Publish Date: October 2009
Light House Sustainable Building Centre had connected local developers with information about green buildings before, but working with the team designing the community that will be used as the Athlete’s Village for the 2010 Winter Games raised the non-profit society to a higher level.
The organization, which provides information and technical assistance on sustainable building practices to the province’s construction industry, was hired by the City of Vancouver to bring together the design team for the Millennium Water project to ensure everyone was working toward the same goal.
"For us, this was a unique project in terms of scale - normally we work with just one building at a time," said Helen Goodland, executive director of the Granville Island-based organization.
"We were hired to bring everybody together so there was a common understanding of the project. At one point, we had 94 people in the room."
Light House directed a two-day integrated design workshop with representatives from the City of Vancouver, VANOC, the development team, designers, planners, social housing advocates, engineers and experts on a wide range of sustainable building techniques.
"With a project of this scale and with such a short time frame, we needed everyone to have a common vision," said Goodland. "We helped set up the project in a meaningful way so everyone would know exactly what to do, understand the process and the sustainability requirements."
Light House facilitated the workshop, offering an objective perspective on the development during the process, she said.
"We’re good at bringing people together."
The organization was founded in 2005 to address the needs of B.C.’s building industry, which needed a place to learn about sustainable practices and how to put them to use. Goodland and her staff of 12 provide consulting, research and analysis and other services to increase green building in the province. The society, which is funded by government and industry, also operates a resource centre on Granville Island for industry and the public to learn about green building.
Organizing the workshop for the Millennium Water design team gave Light House the opportunity to work on a large project and the experience to tackle more big projects in future, Goodland said.
"It has been a valuable stepping stone for us - the opportunity was really great," she said. "Working on a project of this magnitude makes it easier to talk to other developers and cities about sustainability.
"It is very far reaching for our organization, but it’s also a huge boost for the sustainability movement."
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