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Site Selection & Design 

Creating a sustainable building begins with selecting an appropriate site and adopting environmentally responsible site development practices. Properly assessing a site's drainage patterns, topography, vegetation, ecosystems, soil conditions, microclimate, solar paths and wind patterns will significantly affect a building's performance and its impact on the surrounding environment.

Locating green buildings
Green developments should be located in dense urban areas, on previously developed land with access to alternative transportation choices. Minimizing building footprints and habitat disturbance, reducing impervious surfaces and controlling erosion are also important considerations in developing any building site.

Green site design
The most common site design strategies include:
Brownfield and Urban Redevelopment
Contaminated or brownfield sites are abandoned, idle, or underused industrial and commercial sites where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.

Mitigation measures:
  • Removing, containing and/or remediating contaminated soil and groundwater through physical, chemical or biological means


Erosion and sedimentation control
Erosion results from the impact of precipitation and wind on vulnerable or unstable soils, leading to soil loss and sedimentation of local water bodies. This affects soil and water quality as well as fisheries and recreational activities. Site clearing and earth moving during construction can result in significant erosion problems if adequate erosion control strategies are not used.

Mitigation measures:
  • Ensuring setbacks from, and silt fencing around out-of-bounds areas, streams and waterways
  • Stabilizing surfaces exposed to wind and run-off using hydro-seeding, mulching, etc.,
  • Using filtering media in run-off channels, for example straw and filter cloth dams, etc.,
  • Installing filters at/under municipal storm drain catch basin covers,
  • Controlling dust and wind erosion during site preparation,
  • Setting up three-stage settlement basins for de-watering,
  • Conducting wheel washes and load covers on trucks during excavation, and
  • Cleaning concrete trucks prior to leaving the site, or ensuring all concrete is supplied in trucks with onboard self-cleaning systems.


Stormwater management
Land development alters the natural water balance by increasing surface water runoff. When natural vegetation and soils are replaced with roads and buildings, less rainfall soaks into the ground and less gets taken up by vegetation. The purpose of stormwater source control is to control the amount and quality of runoff to preserve the water quality of the receiving bodies and minimize the amount of municipal infrastructure needed to convey the stormwater.

Mitigation measures:
  • Maintaining appropriate buffers
    Preserving/remediating critical or sensitive riparian areas
  • Designing landscaping to provide riparian ecological services (such as shade, nutrients, runoff filtering, flow control, ponding, etc.)
  • Providing designated crossing areas or footbridges in high traffic areas;
  • Designing riparian wetland crossings to protect the system’s functional condition
  • Restoring and maintaining the proper functioning condition of riparian wetland areas to the highest capability possible.


Streamside protection
BC's fish bearing streams are extremely sensitive to contamination from construction activity, significant damage can be done to these ecosystems with seemingly small quantities of sediment and pollutants. To prevent this type of damage, adequate safeguards need to be installed to protect freshwater riparian systems.
  Riparian Areas Regulation (Fish Protection Act, S.B.C. 1997, c. 21, ss. 12, 13 (1) and 37 (2)) defines permissible streamside protection and enhancement areas
Mitigation measures:
  • Providing shade to constructed surfaces on the site with landscape features,
  • Minimizing the overall building footprint,
  • Reducing surface parking and locating parking underground,
  • Replacing constructed surfaces (i.e. roof, roads, sidewalks, etc.) with vegetated surfaces such as green roofs and open grid paving, and
  • Specifying high albredo materials on the ground as well in roofing materials.


Reducing heat island effect
Heat islands develop in cities as naturally vegetated surfaces are replaced with asphalt, concrete, and other non-reflective materials. Instead of cooling provided by vegetation through evapotranspiration and shading, these materials absorb heat from the sun and radiate it back into surrounding areas, This produces elevated temperatures over a city that are significantly higher than air temperatures over adjacent rural or suburban areas.

Mitigation measures:
  • Sustainable building site and landscape designs such as green roofs, absorbent landscaping, infiltration devices, or rainwater harvesting can help manage stormwater onsite, rather than discharging the runoff directly to municipal stormwater systems. 
  • Design strategies, such as permeable surfaces and infiltration basins allow rainwater to naturally percolate into the ground and recharge water tables. 
  • Collection systems can capture rainwater for reuse in on-site irrigation systems or for flushing toilets.
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Resources

Fast Facts

Country Lanes
One of three pilot sites for an environmentally benign alternative to asphalt lanes. The "country lane" allows rainwater to infiltrate into the ground while providing a durable surface for vehicles to drive on. The project is a joint initiative from the City of Vancouver's Streets Design Branch and Greenways.