Biomimicry and Design Course
April 29th-March 5th, 2005
La Cusinga Lodge, Pacific Coast, Uvita, Costa Rica

Humans are not alone in creating built environments. Crabs, bowerbirds, mangroves, corals, spiders ~ a whole suite of nature’s creatures have been creating inhabitations for millennia.

Perhaps their “blueprints” might inspire you to discover functional, innovative, and sustainable solutions to some of the building industry’s greatest challenges.

Join us for this exciting, hands-on, interactive course for students and professional architects, engineers, and designers interested in bringing nature’s strategies and solutions to the design table.

Instructors: Janine Benyus, co-founder of Biomimicry Guild and author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
Dayna Baumeister, PhD, biologist and co-founder of Biomimicry Guild

What you’ll learn:
• What is Biomimicry?
• Examples of biomimetic success stories
• How you can use biomimicry to design new products, processes, systems

What you’ll do:
• Solve a design challenge by asking “what would nature do here?”
• Brainstorm with biologists
• Learn from local plants, animals, and ecosystems
• Become acquainted with life’s inherently sustainable design principles
• Learn how to incorporate bio-inspired design techniques in your own organization

What you’ll take home:
• A sense of possibility, because sustainable models already exist...right outside!
• A proven method for bringing nature’s ideas to the design table
• Tools and expert contacts for further explorations
• A whole new way of viewing and valuing the genius that surrounds us

Design emphasis on built environment, 35 AIA credits available

Cost includes tuition, fees, field trips, in-country transportation, food and lodging (6 nights).
Regular registration: $1925.00
Student registration: $1625.00 (current ID required)
Early-bird registration (paid in full by March 1st): $1800 regular, $1550 student
Single occupancy surcharge $300

For details on the course and to register: http://www.biomimicry.net/costarica.html

By Jenn Lutz
Wednesday April 13, 2005

Canmore Leader — Bob Kocian made a decision three years ago to go green and never look back.

The Riverdale Homes owner, along with business partner Tom Knott, decided once and for all that a good home is far more than trendy paint colours, hardwood floors and fancy appliances.

“That’s how people seem to assess a good builder, and yet a good builder, it’s what you don’t see that makes a world of difference,” Kocian says.

An early adopter of Canmore’s foray into The Natural Step sustainability program, Riverdale Homes is suitably placed to take part. With houses that boast energy efficient, environmentally friendly features like on-demand hot water, heat recovery ventilation units that pour fresh air into every room in the house eight times per day and insulation that’s 50 per cent more effective than the many choices of other area builders, Riverdale is on the leading edge of sustainable, environmentally sound construction -- so called green building.

And the Bow Valley is increasingly becoming a hotbed of green building activity, at least according to some in development and environmental circles. Evidence of this is the arrival of Alex Zimmerman, president of the two-years-young Canada Green Building Council who is speaking in Canmore tomorrow night.

“I would think the very fact the Biosphere Institute is engaging the town in the whole Natural Step exercise is pretty significant,” Zimmerman says. Even the fact Canmore’s Civic Centre and Banff’s high school are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified though the U.S. Green Building Council shows prerogative, he says, noting many cities in Canada have yet to certify any buildings.

“Governments and institutions are definitely leading the way in green building, in part because they tend to be long-term owners of buildings and so the connection between doing something better at the front end and reaping the long-term benefits is more obvious to them,” Zimmerman says. “But commercial buildings are starting to recognize the benefits of green building as well in terms of not only reduced operating costs but direct benefits in terms of health and productivity in their employees.”

Residential construction is probably the furthest behind in terms of adopting greener attitudes, Zimmerman says.

Kocian says he’s able to build green homes in Canmore largely because the hefty price tag on homes supports the idea of putting in what many would consider extras -- even luxuries.

“When you add a $3,000-better furnace it’s in a house with a $700,000 price tag. It makes no difference to buyers,” Kocian says. “If they put that on their mortgage the cost is something like $12 a month and the savings alone is about $80 a month. It just doesn’t make sense not to build good houses.”

Kocian says he often debates the merits of building above and beyond what’s required in building codes with other Bow Valley developers, who happily state they pocket the $3,000 he spends on a better furnace or more effective insulation.

“My answer to that is, ‘Well, the difference is that when I walk through a grocery store or into a restaurant in town I can walk up to any one of my customers knowing that I’m never going to get anything but a friendly handshake,’” he laughs.

Zimmerman says he’s not going to focus heavily on the Canada Green Building Council itself when he speaks at Canmore Collegiate on Thursday night, but plans rather to touch on why developers, builders and homeowners everywhere should be concerned about environmental issues. He also plans to try and help place green buildings in the context of larger issues of sustainability.

“But mostly what I’m going to do is show a bunch of pictures to illustrate what green buildings look like and what various techniques and technologies are used around the world. It gives people ideas on how to take those principles and apply them locally. It’s actually quite hopeful when you start to look at what people can do.”

Many people don’t realize that green building is about much more than just the materials you put into the tangible part of the project, Zimmerman says. It’s also about doing what you can to reduce waste and energy in the construction process, such as purchasing materials as close to the site as possible to cut down on transport energy.

Currently in Canada there are 12 projects that have received LEED certification, Zimmerman says -- six in B.C., five in Alberta (two of which are in the Bow Valley) and one in Manitoba. Another 112 projects have registered their intent to aim for LEED status since just last week, when the CaGBC first began taking certification registrations. There are also about 50 more Canadian projects registered with the U.S. Green Building Council.

“The important part of that story is that in the year 2000 there were zero. So it’s been tripling or doubling every year,” he said, noting CaGBC membership growth is also indicative of the exponential growth of interest in green building. The CaGBC has seen 800 member organizations sign up in just over two years.

“That’s well over 10 per cent a month on average growth rate.”

Jim Love, an environmental design and mechanical engineering professor at the University of Calgary who is also working on the Bison Courtyard project in Banff, says he thinks the Bow Valley is a becoming a “hotbed” for green building. Though to date the valley has only two LEED certified buildings -- and Kocian also has dozens of Riverdale homes that are Gold standard under the Built Green Alberta program -- Love says when you compare it with populations like Vancouver that also only have a small handful of certified projects, things begin looking a little greener on this side of the fence.

However, it doesn’t mean we should rest on our laurels just yet.

“The fact that we’ve got one or two buildings done (in the valley) is good and it’s a big improvement but it’s not like it’s the majority of construction. But hopefully we’ll change practices and the lessons learned and the experience people gain will start flowing out through people involved in the building industry.”