The main objectives of sustainable, building envelope first design are to avoid resource depletion of raw materials, energy, and water, to prevent environmental degradation caused by operation demands of buildings and their infrastructure throughout their life cycle. The sustainable envelope design is ever-changing, but there are six principles that nearly all professionals agree with.
RJC helps clients optimize the performance, maintenance, and repair of their new and existing building enclosures. The team of experts has experience in structural, building envelope, building auditing, mechanical engineering and more!
Resilient Design
The local climatic conditions influence the materials of construction of the building envelope and the energy performance strategies for the building. Resilience requires that the building envelope be designed for changing conditions on our planet, which likely requires resistance to increasingly extreme weather events, as well as efficient performance in a warming climate.
Optimize Energy Use
A sustainable building envelope should rely on efficiency and passive design measures for its operation and includes features such as spectrally selective glazing, thermal insulation, building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and passive ventilation in order to meet applicable energy performance standards.
Use Sustainable Materials
Sustainable building envelopes should be constructed of materials that optimize service life and minimize life-cycle environmental impacts. Considerations include length of service life, global warming potential of materials, resource depletion, human toxicity, and more!
RJC is committed to sustainable design, and this goal is implemented into the day to day engineering practices used by the company.
Enhance Indoor Environmental Quality
The indoor environmental quality of a building has a significant impact on occupant health and comfort. Increased air tightness and better thermally broken systems better control energy losses, but must be met with corresponding improvements in ventilation and indoor quality.
Optimize Operational and Maintenance Practices
Incorporating operations and maintenance considerations into the design of a building envelope contributes to operational efficiency over its lifetime. Building occupants and operators should be appropriately trained in a comprehensive preventative maintenance program to keep all building systems associated with the building envelope functioning as designed.
According to RJC, all different types of buildings can incorporate high performance and sustainable building envelope strategies and systems.
Sustainable design, construction and operations are universally beneficial and contribute to an envelope-first approach to building design.
Retrofit Existing Buildings
Canada needs to retrofit many of its existing buildings to achieve our GHG emissions commitments. Retrofit strategies are an important part of the construction industry, since nearly all inefficient buildings in Canada have already been built.
Retrofitting of building envelope systems to existing buildings reduces the environmental footprint of construction by re-using structure rather than sending them to landfill.
Improvements to building envelope systems reduce concerns related to air infiltration and leakage, moisture diffusion, surface condensation, and rainwater entry – issues that can negatively impact the building’s energy performance and indoor environmental quality. Improvements to building envelope systems reduce concerns related to air infiltration and leakage, moisture diffusion, surface condensation, and rainwater entry – issues that can negatively impact the building’s energy performance and indoor environmental quality.
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Website: https://www.rjc.ca/