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BCAdvantage 2008; Business and investment across British Columbia B.C. expertise changes landscape – at home and abroad Companies are securing contracts and kudos in far-flung markets By Peter Mitham A growing acceptance that good management of the environment also makes good business sense is placing B.C. firms at the helm of projects developing at home and around the world, from urban design to education. Whether in Abu Dhabi, the Don Valley in Toronto or the Lower Mainland, the expertise local firms are providing is impacting how others understand the world and approach the business of creating communities. Investment in B.C. innovators is paying dividends – as companies secure contracts and kudos that garner international attention. B.C.’s leadership role is undeniable. Just take former Vancouver planning director Larry Beasley. His firm, Beasley and Associates Planning Inc., headed an international team that put the brakes on a desert freeway project in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, in the name of a more livable urban fabric. Meanwhile, just up the coast in Dubai, Don Kasian, principal of Vancouver-based Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning, has been wrestling with similar issues of urban scale. While the emirates’ sky-scraping towers grab headlines, Kasian said a lot of his work has been at the base of the projects he’s working on because of the need to develop pedestrian-friendly streetscapes if the urban environments are to support any sort of true urban life. “Part of leadership is showing the way,” he said, noting that what may seem obvious to residents of Vancouver is exactly what can make a difference to the projects overseas clients commission. “Sustainability is such an inherent part of our practice now that, in a lot of ways, whether a client is really, really keen on practising sustainability or not, we basically go forwards anyways because that’s the way we’re doing things.” Dubai isn’t the only place Kasian is applying its expertise. It’s drafting plans for a major retail development in Mumbai, India, and recently completed a major technology business park in Hangzhou, China. Closer to home, it has also worked on the Fipke Centre for Innovative Research at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna as well as the University of Calgary’s Child Development Centre. The reputation B.C. firms are garnering elsewhere in the world reflects the investment being made in their own backyards. B.C.’s Climate Action Charter, signed by the province and the Union of B.C. Municipalities last September, is one way of ensuring it maintains a leadership role. The charter commits municipalities in the province to reduce net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2012, something planning consultant Mark Holland, principal of Vancouver’s Holland Barrs Planning Group Inc., believes will stimulate the development of businesses delivering net benefits to the environment. “Very few of [the municipalities] will have time to do much in the way of reducing emissions. In fact, because of growth patterns most likely all of them will increase their emissions over that time,” Holland said. “So they’re going to end up having to buy a lot of carbon offsets.” Those offsets will most likely come from some of the many so-called “clean power” initiatives such as run-of-river hydro developments that are designed to make B.C. energy self-sufficient over the next decade (and largely as a result of green power sources). One of the largest such projects is a network of run-of-river power stations that Plutonic Power Corp. of Vancouver is developing in the Toba Valley, north of Powell River, at a cost of approximately $600 million. Rising awareness of environmental issues is a boon for B.C. firms that have invested in talent and expertise to help communities in North America reduce their environmental footprint Vancouver’s Aldrich Pears Associates spent nine years developing a master plan for the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, a US$500 million project that aims to help Nevada residents identify and implement practices that reduce their impact on the environment. The centrepiece is the Desert Living Centre, a LEED platinum-rated complex that opened in June 2007. The interpretive displays at the centre so impressed co-ordinators of the Evergreen Brick Works project in Toronto that Aldrich Pears was brought on board to develop a similar vision for a new sustainable living centre that Toronto-based environmental group Evergreen is developing on the site of the former Don Valley brick works. Touted as “Canada’s first full-fledged, large-scale environmental discovery centre,” a major challenge is not just modelling environmental sustainability but ensuring economic viability. Aldrich Pears was chosen from a shortlist of five firms because principal Isaac Marshall understood this, said Seana Irvine, program director for Evergreen Brick Works. “They brought a much more holistic perspective to creating an interpretive centre based on their experience working with comparable facilities,” she said. “[Isaac] talked about the visitor experience and, really, ways to get the visitor to come back again, because he understands the business model.” • |
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