Background
Many of our campus buildings were built at a time when insulation, air sealing, and thermal bridging were not major concerns. As a consequence, these buildings waste a lot of energy through the building envelope, and buildings are the single largest source of campus greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, natural gas, used primarily for space conditioning, accounts for 92% of Scope 1 and 2 emissions. The University of Waterloo’s Shift Neutral Climate Action Plan provides a roadmap for how to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and includes an initiative for “Recladding of buildings with high-performance envelopes should be considered whenever undertaking large building retrofits”. The University is therefore looking to identify strategies for improving the building envelope performance of some of its worst buildings. This project also relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13, for affordable and clean energy and climate action.
Scope of Work Could Include
- Consult with Plant Operations to identify a building that has a poorly performing building envelope and assemble any available information on building design and performance.
- Research recladding options for buildings, with a particular focus on cost-effectiveness, ease of application, thermal performance, durability/ maintenance requirements, and other environmental considerations (e.g. embodied carbon). The goal should be to work toward NetZero Energy Ready or EnerPhit standards.
- Prepare design drawings, installation instructions and/or schematics for the recommended approach.
- • Use RetScreen or similar software to model the existing and proposed building envelope performance for energy and emissions.
- Research how occupants might be impacted by the recladding process: can they continue to use the building, only parts of the building, would some uses be affected more than others?
- Identify other considerations that should be included in a feasibility study (e.g. asbestos abatement).
- Conduct a high level cost analysis including upfront costs and operational cost savings at current energy prices.
- Research any best practices from other major institutions that have performed recladding work on similar buildings.
The Sustainability Office can facilitate engagement with Plant Operations to access information on buildings, and to access RetScreen software.
Stakeholders
- Sustainability Office
- Plant Operations
Proposed Deliverables
The details of the deliverables are flexible but must meet the requirements set out by the course instructor. Some proposed deliverables include:
- A work plan early in the term outlining key milestones and responsibilities. • Updates on progress at least once during the term.
- A final report outlining the outcomes of the feasibility study, including cost estimates from local sources.