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Q&A John Robinson
John Robinson directs the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), a hub for sustainability research that opens for business this month in an ultra-green building at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Robinson explains the practical challenges involved in turning a campus into a 'living lab'.
What makes the CIRS building stand out in terms of sustainability?
The old agenda of designing buildings that do less damage is not good enough. We have to move on to the net positive agenda: can we construct buildings that actually improve the biophysical and human environment? By adding this 5,600 m2 building we will actually reduce the university's total energy use.
How will it do that?
We take waste heat from the Earth and Ocean Sciences building next door, use one-third of it for our heat, and give two-thirds of it back to them. All of the water we get will be from the sky, and it will be treated so that the water leaving the building will be better quality than the rain water. And it's a wooden building, so we sequester more carbon in it (around 600 tonnes) than the amount emitted in its construction and decommissioning (525 tonnes).
What does the building look like?
When you stand in the atrium you see a big screen that displays...