Buildings consume land, energy and material resources, and create emissions, effluent and contribute to landfills; locating them determines other infrastructure needs, which comes with its own impacts; and in developed nations we spend 90% of our time in them. For these reasons, buildings are both a determinant and barometer of sustainability.

In order for buildings to contribute to sustainability, they must be designed, constructed and used in a manner that reduces ecological impacts. However, one of the strongest barriers to ‘greening’ buildings is economic. “There is a widespread belief that green buildings cost much more to build than traditional buildings” (Cole, 2000, p. 317).

The purpose of this e-Dialogue research is to confirm or confute this belief. On October 7, 2004 expert panelists from Canada’s green building community will engage in an online dialogue, with Dr. Ann Dale and with Rodney C. McDonald, currently leading this research at Royal Roads University, as co-moderators. The dialogue focuses on three main questions:

1. How do you define a green building?
2. What are the economic barriers to green building?
3. Is the design process integral to the success of a green building project?

Leading into this e-dialogue, Mr. McDonald recently delivered a presentation titled Green Building and the Need for Ecological Engineers to faculty and students of the University of Manitoba Faculty of Engineering. Critical questions from the audience included:

1. Capital budgets are often separate from operation & maintenance budgets, which thus restricts someone from spending more on a building up front even when operating costs savings can be demonstrated. What is the solution?
2. One green building strategy is to eliminate or downsize mechanical components. If professional fees for engineers are a percentage of the capital cost of mechanical equipment, isn’t green building a disincentive to professionals?

Royal Roads University
Science, Technology & Environment Division
edialogues@royalroads.ca