Congratulations to Renewal Development (RD) for taking home the Commitment to Circularity Award for their Home Relocation & Repurposing Program (HRRP). The HRRP connects high-quality homes slated for demolition with coastal First Nations and communities in need of affordable housing. The project identifies the community’s needs and then moves and retrofits buildings to their land. In doing so, the HRRP preserves the majority of the embodied carbon associated with these homes while also preventing the embodied carbon that would have otherwise been emitted in the new build of a similar home. The program also prevents valuable building materials from going to landfill and the associated GHG emissions resulting from their decomposition. In the summer of 2023, RD saved, moved, and retrofitted a 110-year-old yellow schoolhouse from Kitsilano (Sen̓áḵw) to the Squamish Nation’s Xwmélch’tstn Reserve in North Vancouver. The repurposed building has just opened as a Learning Nest for Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim (the Squamish language) this February. A Whole-Building Lifecycle Assessment conducted on the project by Light House, found that relocating the building and performing energy efficiency upgrades resulted in 9.4 tonnes (31.1%) less embodied carbon emissions and 7.1 tonnes (18.1%) less total life cycle carbon emissions than an equivalent newly constructed Step Code 3 building (option 3) over a 60-year lifespan. The HRRP preserves embodied carbon while tackling the housing crisis, preserving homes, slashing one of the province’s largest waste streams, preserving natural resources and reducing GHG emissions!

This category is for exceptional initiatives and projects that embrace and tangibly advance circularity or circular concepts within the BC building sector. The applicant must be based in BC (or have an office in BC) with demonstrated impact in BC. Lead Judge: Caroline Butchart, Aspect Structural Engineers