Sustainable Building Practices

Higher Standards for New Green Buildings

UniverCity collaborated with the City of Burnaby in developing environmental standards and rewards developers for exceptional features and practices.

The bylaw is the most stringent in North America in its demand for high green standards. Every building has been built to a performance standard that, for the past decade, exceeded the Model National building code requirements by 30% for energy efficiency and 40% for water efficiency.

SFU Community Trust also offers a 10 per cent density bonus for projects that achieve advanced energy goals (reaching an efficiency level that is 45 per cent higher than code) or that include upgraded stormwater management.

A Living Building

The UniverCity Childcare project is anticipated to become the first in Canada to meet the Living Building Challenge—an attempt to raise the bar in sustainability. Only this type of building can claim to be the ‘greenest in North America and as close to true sustainability as possible.’ Learn more here

First LEED® Gold renovated school in BC

University Highlands Elementary School is situated centrally and conveniently in an unused university building that was refurbished to meet LEED® Gold standards, and to include an array of energy and water efficiency upgrades that are tied into smart meters and public terminals, allowing students and teachers to learn about and monitor the building’s performance.