Sustainability Street at UBC Vancouver introduces a new kind of street smart to the world. The formerly non-descript thoroughfare of Stores Road, on the UBC Vancouver campus, has been transformed into a visually appealing pedestrian-oriented promenade. It is also a practical demonstration of new approaches to managing waste, energy and water in an urban environment.
Key Features
Closing the Loop to Eliminate Waste
When completed, Sustainability Street will be the world’s first closed-loop system of water recycling and re-use that integrates storm water management, wastewater treatment and ground source geo-exchange for heating and cooling of adjacent academic buildings.
Managing Stormwater
Sustainability Street’s storm water system will collect and treat water in a small space, naturally filtering out water bourne contaminants before the storm water enters the groundwater table and surrounding streams.
Using the Earth as a Heat Source
Geo-exchange heat pumps and cooling technology use the treated wastewater and storm water to generate energy, replacing one of the adjacent building’s natural-gas-fuelled heating and cooling units. The water is discharged from the geo-exchange heat pump equipment to the constructed rain garden and allowed to infiltrate back into the ground, closing the loop.
Re-using Materials in Construction
Recycled and re-used materials are integrated throughout Sustainability Street. The granite used in paving, water bars and weirs was retrieved from demolished portions of the Vancouver College of Theology. All concrete contains between 30 and 40 percent fly ash, which diverts this waste material from landfills and reduces the significant CO2 emissions associated with traditional concrete production. And all wood used on site was taken from trees felled on campus and milled locally.
Innovative Solutions to Urban Challenges
Sustainability Street responds to the need for practical solutions to urban environmental challenges here in Vancouver and elsewhere. This demonstration project uses technologies that are affordable and easily replicated.
- Wastewater in the nearby Centre for Interactive Research in Sustainability (CIRS), a new academic building, will be fully treated with an in-facility tertiary stage equivalent processing system. After processing, the clean reusable water is stored in the ground.
- As an alternative to burning carbon fuels, the geo-exchange technology can reduce energy costs by 20 to 60 percent over conventional heating and cooling systems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- A storm water system collects rainfall and naturally filters contaminants before the water enters the groundwater table and surrounding streams.
- The closed-loop water recycling and re-use system is a definite benefit to communities in drier climates where fresh water is scarce. In wetter climates like Vancouver, the closed loop system prevents the erosion and ecosystem damage that happens when municipal storm water is discharged directly into waterways.
Phases of UBC Sustainability Street
Both the sustainable features and the conceptual vision for the pedestrian corridor of UBC Sustainability Street will be implemented over two phases. Phase One is complete. Only the storm water re-use component of the closed loop system is operational at this point, with the completion of the remaining components in future phases.
The next phase begins in May 2009 with the development of a new academic facility located at the corner of West Mall and Sustainability Street (Stores Road). The Centre for Interactive Research in Sustainability (CIRS) will be dedicated to research, collaboration and outreach in developing urban sustainability solutions.
A key goal for CIRS is to live within the building footprint as much as possible: most of the building’s electricity and lighting, and all of the water supply, liquid waste treatment, ventilation, and heating and cooling will come from the sun, wind and ground that shines on, blows through, or lies underneath the site. Being located next to Sustainability Street means the facility can more fully explore and implement sustainable practices to reduce its emissions and use of water, energy and resources.
Learn More
Sustainability Street is an educational resource that will evolve and grow over time, encouraging us all to become more aware of the interdependencies between people, the built environment and the
natural world – as well as the practical possibilities of sustainable design, both close to home and further afield.
