Canadian Consulting Engineer December 2011

For professional engineers in private practice

DECEMBER 2011

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contents

December 2011 Volume 52, No. 7

Cover: Biological Sciences Complex, University of British Columbia.

Photograph by Martin Tessler, courtesy Acton Ostry Architects.

See story page 14.

Raising Morale.

See story page 34.

departments Comment

4

Up Front

6

ASHRAE Event

12

Products

32

Advertiser Index

33

Next issue: transportation, water and wastewater systems; engineering education.

features Biological Sciences Remake. Two wings of the aging Biological Sciences Complex at the University of British Columbia have been transformed into a place of beauty.

MCW & Read Jones Christoffersen

14

Catalysts for Change. Universities and colleges are building some of the greenest buildings in the country and leading the way in reducing carbon emissions.

By Bronwen Parsons

18

The Great Grey Drop-Off. Baby boomers are starting to retire and consulting engineers are facing a shortage of engineers to replace them.

By Jean Sorensen

24

Mona Campbell Building. A new academic and classroom building at Dalhousie University has an innovative floor slab system to open up the floor-to-ceiling height.

CBCL Consulting Engineers

29

on topic BUSINESS Essential Training. Why consulting engineers need to make systematic staff training a budget item.

By John Boyd, P.Eng., Design Firm Seminars 30

December 2011

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EMPLOYMENT Raising Morale.

Six keys to creating a positive work environment

By Mike A. Cuma, Legacy Bowes Group

Canadian Consulting Engineer

34

3

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engineer FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

comment

CANADIAN

C O N S U LT I N G

Editor

Bronwen Parsons E-mail: bparsons@ccemag.com (416) 510-5119 Senior Publisher

The cold side of cheap glass walls

Maureen Levy E-mail: mlevy@ccemag.com (416) 510-5111

4

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I

Art Director

Ellie Robinson

I

mpressive programs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are being carried out at campuses across Canada. Hundreds of millions of dollars has gone into developing green buildings and upgrading the existing building stock (page18).

An especially fascinating approach has been taken at the University of British Columbia. The new CIRS building collects heat from the roof of a poorly insulated building next door -- energy that would otherwise go up to warm the heavens. Nancy Knight of UBC suggested that that this concept of networking buildings to circulate waste heat could be applied beyond universities into dense urban areas. Instead of retrofitting an older building’s envelope to be more efficient, it might make more economic sense to simply draw off the heat from the roof and recycle it.

Of course it would take hordes of lawyers and financial types to set up these kinds of arrangements between different owners. But if a developer owns lots of contiguous buildings, it is a feasible approach.

On the subject of energy seeping from building envelopes, questions are being asked in the media and among engineers about why we are building so many condominium towers with floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Toronto currently has 150 towers under construction, way more than any other city in North America.

The glass condos look beautiful and provide magnificent views from inside.

Consequently they have huge market appeal. Units of just 700 square feet are going for $500,000 plus in the downtown. But most of these towers are essentially greenhouses. Young buyers might not be so quick to snap them up if they knew their energy and environmental costs.

Questions about why we are using so much glass began when some panes fell from new condos onto the city’s sidewalks this summer. Then in November the CBC radio show Metro Morning ran a series “Throwaway Buildings: the slow motion failure of Toronto’s glass condos.” The program, produced by Mary Wiens, suggested that some of these glass walls will need costly repairs in as few as 10-15 years.

Just as critical is the poor thermal performance of glass. Commercial office buildings and extremely high-end residential towers use carefully engineered curtain walls that aren’t usually a problem. However, many condominium towers are being constructed quickly with simpler “window walls” that rely heavily on sealants and caulking and have poor insulating values.

New York and other U.S. cities have a mandatory building energy labelling system that Canada would do well to adopt. Buildings over 50,000 square feet have to disclose their energy efficiency and have to be audited every 10 years.

Some U.S. cities also have strict rules governing building quality.

When we buy a fridge we are given its energy rating. When we buy a car it’s our right to know how much gasoline it uses per kilometre. Investing in a condominium means not just investing in your own unit, but in the durability and energy efficiency of the entire building. Now why on earth shouldn’t someone investing their financial future not have the right to know how well the building performs?

Bronwen Parsons

I s i

Contributing Editor

Rosalind Cairncross, P.Eng. Advertising Sales Manager

Vince Naccarato E-mail: vnaccarato@ccemag.com (416) 510-5118 Editorial Advisors

Bruce Bodden, P.Eng., Gerald Epp, P.Eng., Chris Newcomb, P.Eng., Laurier Nichols, ing., Lee Norton, P.Eng., Jonathan Rubes, P.Eng., Paul Ruffell, P.Eng., Andrew Steeves, P.Eng., Ron Wilson, P.Eng. Circulation

Barbara Adelt (416) 442-5600 x3546 badelt@bizinfogroup.ca Production Co-ordinator

Karen Samuels (416) 510-5190 Vice President, Publishing Business Information Group (BIG)

Alex Papanou

President, Business Information Group (BIG)

Bruce Creighton Head Office

80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9 Tel: (416) 442-5600 Fax: (416) 510-5134 CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER is published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. EDITORIAL PURPOSE: Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine covers innovative engineering projects, news and business information for professional engineers engaged in private consulting practice. The editors assume no liability for the accuracy of the text or its fitness for any particular purpose.

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.

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©

December 2011

11-12-15 11:03 AM

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w H

KASIAN

up front

ENVIRONMENT

Earth’s Prognosis The latest report from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization says that the presence of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere last year reached its highest levels since pre-industrial times.

Carbon dioxide’s atmospheric abundance has risen by 39% since the start of the industrial era around the year 1750.

Federal Building, Edmonton.

COMPANIES

BUILDINGS

Edmonton’s Federal Building is reborn Edmonton’s Federal Building and public plaza is being dramatically redesigned in a $275-million project. The 10-storey Art-Deco style building, called one of the city’s most significant architectural landmarks, was designed in 1939 but not built until the late 1950s. It has sat vacant since 1989.

A two-storey entry pavilion with gathering spaces, cafe and visitor centre is being added on the west, while a large underground parkade will replace the surface parking lots, making way for a new public plaza to reconnect the building to the legislature grounds. The mixed use complex, scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2012, will provide office space for Alberta’s MLAs and legislative staff, as well as Government of Alberta departments.

Kasian is the prime consultant. Consulting engineers are Stantec (civil, structural engineering and energy modeling), Hemisphere (mechanical), Genivar (electrical), Building Science Engineering (building envelope), Gabriel Mackinnon (lighting) and LRI (code). Moriyama and Teshima are doing urban design and Clark Builders are construction managers.

Djavad Mowafaghian Centre starts construction Ground was broken for the new Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health in Vancouver in October. The $68.8 million, six-storey building is owned by the University of British Columbia and is being built on campus.

The centre “unites the study of neuroscience, neurology and psychiatry” and will provide patient clinical care as well as research and teaching facilities It Stantec

BUILDINGS

Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health

includes a “Synapse Garden” and a large atrium, and it is being designed to the LEED Gold standard.

“Almost half the population of B.C. is affected directly or indirectly by a brain disease, including mental health disorders, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,” said B.C. Health Minister Michael de Jong at the ground breaking.

Yolles now part of CH2M HILL CH2M HILL has acquired Halcrow, the U.K.-based engineering and design firm that includes Canada’s Halcrow-Yolles.

The predecessor firm of Halcrow Yolles, was Yolles Partnership, a structural engineering firm based in Toronto that became legendary through the work of its founders Morden Yolles and Roland Bergmann.

Yolles started the firm in 1952, and Bergmann was a principal from 1955 until he died in 1998.

Yolles Partnership was involved in numerous iconic projects. They include structures such as the World Financial Centre in New York City, Canary Wharf in London, the CIBC tower in Montreal, Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and BCE Place in Toronto.

Yolles Partnership became part of the Halcrow group around the year 2006

s

D

A su w an ap

continued on page 8 6

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December 2011

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The consultant team is: Stantec (architecture), Fast + Epp (structural), AME (mechanical), Aerius (electrical), Core Group (civil), Geopacific (geotechnical), GHL (code), JRS (envelope). Heatherbrae are construction managers.

INDUSTRIAL

Steep walls at Steepbank Associated Engineering has designed a heavy haul bridge over the Steepbank River near Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta. The 33-metre span bridge rests on 20-metre high

Steepbank earth wall start up.

mechanically stabilized earth wall abutments. The abutments are believed to be the tallest mechanically stabilized earth wall abutments in North America.

TRANSPORTATION

City transit projects on track Cities across Canada are starting new transit projects. In Toronto, Metrolinx announced that they had selected a group to design, build and finance a three-kilometre section of the rail link from downtown to Pearson International Airport. The selected AirLINX

8

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Transit Partners has AECOM as consulting engineers. Construction is to begin in 2012.

SNC-Lavalin in a 50/50 joint venture with Graham Infrastructure has won a $300-million contract for the city of Edmonton’s North Light Rapid Transit project. The consortium, known as North Link Partnership, will provide construction management, labour, equipment, and commissioning services. The North LRT is a 3.3 kilometre extension from the city hall to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. The downtown portion involves a 700metre underground tunnel.

In Ottawa, a joint venture involving Morrison Hershfield, STV Canada Consulting, URS and Jacobs Associates (Capital Transit Partners) is completing the preliminary engineering of the $2 billion, 12.5-kilometre Ottawa Light Rail Transit project.

The first phase involves tunneling three kilometres under the downtown. The city has advanced the opening date to spring 2018.

PEOPLE

Awards and appointments Fred Leber, chief executive officer of Leber/Rubes (LRI) in Toronto, has been appointed chair of the Underwriters Laboratories Canada (ULC) Committee on Fire Alarm and Life Safety Equipment and Systems.

Nils Voermann, P.Eng., global managing director of technologies with Hatch, won the Engineering

Medal for Engineering Excellence in the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards handed out November 12.

In the same awards, Anton Davies, P.Eng., Anton Davies vice-president of Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin, won the Engineering Medal for Management.

INTERNATIONAL

Chileans head for Toronto The Chilean association of consulting engineers (Asociacion de Empresas Consultoras de Ingenieria de Chile (AIC)) will be in Toronto this spring hoping to establish contacts with Canadian junior mining companies and Canadian consulting engineers.

The move by the engineers is part of a wider push by Chile to increase its exports from the services sector. The narrow country that stretches over 4,000 miles down the western coast of South America sees itself as becoming a gateway to Latin America. Several Canadian consulting engineers such as SNC-Lavalin and Golder are already established in the country.

AIC president Andres Poch Piretta explained to CCE that whereas Chilean consulting engineering firms used to be largely local, in recent years large international companies have been acquiring them. An entire city quarter of over 20 blocks in the capital Santiago is occupied by mining engineering companies. continued on page 11

December 2011

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up front

continued from page 8

While the engineering sector in Chile is dominated by the mining industry, the country is also developing hightech expertise in areas such as water treatment and environmental monitoring, security and electronics recycling.

Chile has around 17 million people, with about 6 million in the capital Santiago. It is on the verge of becoming a developing country, with exports that grew from $71 billion in 2010 to a forecast $85 billion in 2011.

the Two Rivers hydro developments net the province billions of dollars every year and they produce 64% of BC Hydro’s electricity.

The book delves into the political and governmental framework in the early 1950s and 1960s and the monu-

mental vision and perseverance required from the likes of former premier W.A.C. Bennett and Gordon Shrum, BC Hydro’s co-chair in charge of the Peace project.

It strikes an interesting balance between factual details and the percontinued on page 12

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continued from page 11

sonal recollections of the people who made the dream a reality. It tells of the thousands of residents, hunters and trappers whose livelihoods were impacted. It reminisces about details such as the Beattie family ranch, “the envy of the country,” which was lost when over 1,700 square kilometres on the Peace River were flooded. An interview with Stu Drinnan who owned a store in Hudson’s Hope recalls when the town of 800 exploded to accommodate 4,500 newcomers within three years.

For those who appreciate history and the magnificence of engineering mega projects, this book is a must-read.

Sales of the book go to the BC Hydro Power Pioneers Miracle Million Campaign for BC Children’s Hospital.

James Kay is a principal with Aplin Martin Consultants. He is branch manager in Kelowna, B.C.

events

2012 ASHRAE Winter Conference The 2012 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Winter Conference is being held at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago.

The conference runs from Saturday, January 21 to Wednesday, January 25.

The technical program has more than 100 programs by nearly 300 speakers. Highlights include: • Energy Efficiency track: DOAS Parallel Systems, Configuration and Controls; • Energy Modeling Applications track: Integrated Multi-domain Simulations for Innovative Building Design and Operation; • High Performance Buildings track: Advanced Control and Diagnostic Techniques for Efficient Operation of High Performance Buildings; Thermal Displacement Ventilation Applica-

tions for High Performance Buildings; • HVAC&R Fundamentals and Applications track: “How to Specify Seismic Certification”; “Loads on the Move: Mobile Apps”; • HVAC&R Systems and Equipment track: Chicago Smackdown: AirSource vs. Ground Source or Best Practices for Air-Source vs. GroundSource Heat Pump Systems; WaterCooled VRF Systems; • Integrated Design track: Streamlining BIM through Open Information Exchanges; Advancing the ‘I’ in BIM; Professional Skills track: Protecting Your Design Against Changing Requirements; Increase the Impact of Your Presentation; • Specialized Applications, Healthcare, Laboratories, and Data Centers track.

For more information on the ASHRAE Conference, visit www. ashrae.org/chicago.

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December 2011

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buildings

Biological Sciences Remake

Martin Tessler/courtesy of Acton Ostry

Two wings of an aging science complex at the University of British Columbia have been gutted and transformed into a vibrant research environment.

MCW - mechanical-electrical engineers R e a d J o n e s C h r i s t o ff e r s e n - s t r u c t u r a l e n g i n e e r s

AT THE HEART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA CAMPUS two wings of the aging Biological

Sciences complex have been completely transformed.

The South Wing, which dates from 1957, and the West Wing which dates from 1970 and faces Main Mall, were gutted and renovated in a 19-month project, officially reopening in August.

Acton Ostry Architects led the design team, which had Read Jones Christoffersen as structural engineers, and MCW as the mechanical-electrical engineers.

The $47-million, 170,000 sq. ft. project was completed as

14

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p14-30 CCE Dec11 FEATURES.indd 14

part of the University of British Columbia’s Renew program, which aims to repurpose and rehabilitate outdated buildings rather than replace them.

The four-storey renovated wings now have state-of the art laboratories, aquaria, research spaces, classrooms, offices and gathering spaces for the Departments of Botany and Zoology.

According to an associate professor in the university’s Department of Zoology: “Acton Ostry transformed a bland, outdated and ineffectual academic building into an exciting and vibrant research environment.”

December 2011

11-12-01 10:38 AM

buildings

ENERGY SYSTEMS A TIGHT SQUEEZE “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL BUILDING,” says Adam Juck, P.Eng., an associate with MCW Consultants and the mechanical engineer of record for the renovated complex. His appreciation of the architecture was honed during the early design stages when the engineers were faced with having to squeeze entirely new mechanical and electrical systems as well as special laboratory infrastructure into the existing 1960s-era structures.

“I’d say we had about 50% of the ceiling depth we needed from an ideal standpoint for many areas in the building,” says Juck. As a result, “All the services -- electrical, mechanical, as well as lab services such as medical gas and industrial water -- were competing for space within the existing structure.”

With a new building, the structural engineers can coordinate their design to satisfy the mechanical engineers’ requirements for service shafts. Here, however, the existing structural members sometimes had to be cut to make space

for the mechanical systems. MCW and structural engineers RJC worked together to select the most practical locations for the structural changes.

The renovated building is designed to achieve LEEDGold certification and is predicted to use 41% less energy than a standard building of its type. Laboratory buildings require large amounts of fresh air, which requires lots of energy, so 41% energy savings “is fantastic” says Juck.

Using the equipment as a heat source A special centralized water-to-water heat pump system is a key factor in the energy savings. Whereas most heat pump systems use the ground, a lake or an aquifer as their thermal energy source, this system uses the equipment in the building itself as its thermal energy source.

“Thanks to the water-to-water heat pump system, we are pulling heat from areas that are producing a lot of heat and sending it to areas that need it,” says Juck.

The heat pumps serve a closed loop hydronic system, providing its primary source of low-temperature energy.

The campus central steam plant provides supplemental energy only as required during peak periods. Advanced continued on page 16

Martin Tessler, courtesy Acton Ostry

Opposite: West Wing on Main Mall, with new seismic concrete buttresses on the exterior. Above: lab interior. The building incorporates a demonstration “Core Sunlighting System” that collects sunlight in panels mounted on the building exterior. The units concentrate the sunlight and direct it into hybrid light guide fixtures mounted on the ceiling. The system was invented by Professor Lorne Whitehead of UBC with SunCentral.

December 2011

p14-30 CCE Dec11 FEATURES.indd 15

Canadian Consulting Engineer

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continued from page 15

controls help to optimize and balance the system.

The centralized water-to-water heat pump system consists of nine 45-ton pumps, five in the West Wing and four in the South Wing, located in their mechanical rooms. The pumps have total cooling capacities of 225 and 180 tons respectively, and heating capacities of 3,600 and 2,600 MBTU/hr.

During the cooling season, excess heat is rejected via roof mounted fluid coolers.

The perimeter offices use low temperature hot water radiation for heating, and have operable windows for natural ventilation, providing significant energy savings.

Capturing heat from equipment In a laboratory building there are lots of special situations to enable the heat exchange to take place in the heat pump system. For example, Juck explains, the building has freezers running at -80 degrees C and each of them is giving off a lot of heat. Some rooms have 25 of these freezers. “In the past you would just exhaust that hot air from the roof of the building,” says Juck. “In this building the heat is pulled out through a fan coil unit and becomes the source heat for the closed-loop hydronic space heating system.”

Heat is also fed into the heat pump system from the Environmental Chambers. Used for fish and animal testing, the chambers are “basically a large room that is essen-

STRUCTURAL RENOVATIONS B y R e n a t o C a m p o re s e , P. E n g .

R e a d J o n e s C h r i s t o ff e r s e n

BUILT IN 1970, THE WEST WING OF THE BIOSCIENCE BUILDING is a five-storey cast-in-place concrete structure.

The retrofit required completely stripping the interiors, and the structure had to be seismically upgraded.

Since it was not necessary to meet the seismic code requirements for new construction, it was felt that upgrading to meet 75% of the 2005 National Building Code requirements would reduce costs and yet provide good performance in a large seismic event.

Although the structure contained a number of reinforced concrete walls, their capacity to resist seismic forces was limited and the reinforcing detail was not suitable for ductile behaviour. A new ductile concrete shearwall system was therefore designed to resist all the seismic loads.

As this was not a heritage building, we took the approach of locating the seismic upgrading system on the exterior of the building. The approach minimized costs and gave more flexibility for planning the interior spaces. Working in close collaboration with the architect, we developed an exterior system of concrete walls and buttresses which, in addition to providing seismic resistance, provided articulation and architectural interest to the west facade. Illuminated and 16

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Martin Tessler/courtesy of Acton Ostry

buildings

Right: interior corridor. All the building and lab infrastructure had to be squeezed into a small space above special perforated wood ceilings in the corridors.

tially a big refrigerator inserted into the structure,” says Juck. Though the chambers have their own separate and independent heating and cooling systems, MCW was able to harvest the heat they give off and feed it into the centralized heat pump system.

Ventilation in the laboratories UBC’s health and safety department asked for 10 air changes an hour in the laboratories in the Biological Sciences Building, but MCW were able to show through a computational fluid dynamic model that they could achieve safe conditions with 8 air changes an hour -- thereby saving energy.

Further energy savings are met by using a manifold exhaust system for most of the 50 lab fume hoods, which allowed heat reclaim coils to be attached to it. --BP

B e

decorated glass panels were mounted on the outside of the concrete buttresses, lending added drama at night.

Locating the seismic walls on the exterior of the building simplified construction and reduced time and cost. However, a disadvantage was that the walls could not mobilize much of the building’s own weight to help reduce the seismic overturning moments on the walls and footings. To minimize the size of the foundations, therefore, vertical soil anchors were incorporated in the footings.

The smaller four-storey South Wing, built in 1957, was also of concrete construction, so we used a similar approach of adding ductile concrete shear walls. Since the site did not lend itself to adding exterior shearwalls, we added two sets of “L” shaped ductile concrete shearwalls in inconspicuous corners in the interior of the building to provide the necessary seismic resistance. These walls were placed adjacent to existing concrete walls to minimize their impact on windows and facilitate space planning. In this case we were able to mobilize a significant portion of the building’s mass to help resist overturning forces, thereby reducing the size of the footings.

CCE Structural/building envelope engineers: Read Jones Christoffersen (Renato Camporse, P.Eng., Phoebe He). Mechanical/electrical engineers: MCW Consultants (Adam Juck, P.Eng., Andrew Burt, Greg Lord, P.Eng.). Architect: Acton Ostry Architects. Other key players: Research Facilities Design (laboratories), Scott (general contractor), Division 15 Mechanical (mechanical contractor)

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sustainability

CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE University and college campuses provide ideal opportunities for reducing carbon emissions from our built environment.

B Y B R O N W E N PA R S O N S

ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S DOWNTOWN ST. GEORGE CAMPUS ARE 120 LARGE BUILDINGS -- over

12 million square feet of space -- all consuming energy. The buildings range from heavy masonry Victorian structures like the venerable Mining Building on College Street, to sleek glass boxes such as the Pharmacy Building at the corner of University Avenue.

To walk from one side of the campus to the other takes about 20 minutes. The site is threaded with busy streets and narrow laneways, some of which are owned by the university. There are shady paths, wide open sports fields, and secluded courtyards. Like many of Canada’s universities, the campus represents a quiet oasis in the heart of the teeming city.

But Canadian university and college campuses are becoming much more.

They provide an almost ideal incubator for developing ways of making our buildings and cities more energy efficient. The campus is like a mini-town, with many different types of buildings and facilities -- but all under one owner. Generally there is one department in charge of

buildings and facilities and those people work under a ruling administration that is relatively free of political and other constraints. So it can be easier to reach decisions about building in a sustainable way in the campus environment than in the messy “real” world outside.

In recent years there have been plenty of opportunities to push the green agenda. Massive building programs have taken place at campuses across Canada, helped by federal and provincial funding programs and large private donations. The University of Calgary, for example, has undergone a 30% expansion of its built area since 1990.

Universities also have the right motivation. Campuses are occupied by people who are the most idealistic, most aware of global issues, and therefore most likely to be concerned about having buildings reduce their impact on the environment.

The College Sustainability Report Card ("Green Report") is published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It evaluates over 300 of the largest campuses across the U.S. and Canada, giving them an A to

Right: informal central seating area at the Energy, Environment and Experiential Learning (EEEL) building, completed this year on the northern edge of the University of Calgary. The 25,000m2 building is adjacent to public transit and is designed for LEED Platinum certification. Its energy saving features include a castin-place concrete structure with concrete made with 30% flyash, mechanical systems such as displacement ventilation, a highly efficient building envelope, and use of 100% green power. Housing undergraduate classroom and laboratory space, the building also provides administrative and research spaces for the university’s new Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy.

Architects are Perkins + Will and DIALOG, structural engineers are RJC and Dialog; mechanical engineer is Dialog; electrical engineer is Stebnicki + Partners; civil engineer is AECOM, building envelope engineer is Building Envelope Engineering.

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Image courtesy of Perkins + Will Canada Architects Co.

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Image courtesy of Perkins + Wioll Canada Architects Co.

Left: exterior of the EEEL building at the University of Calgary. The building envelope has specially shaped aluminum spandrel panels to capture sunlight and brighten the facade. Some spandrels are rotated downward to direct daylight into exterior spaces such as an adjacent plaza.

F grade. Three Canadian universities graduated with an A grade in 2011: University of British Columbia, University of Calgary and the University of Toronto. Others, McGill, Queen’s, McMaster, York, Laval and the University of New Brunswick, scored the average grade B. Emily Flynn, manager of special projects at the Sustainable Endowments Institute, says that university campus buildings are “definitely” leading the way in energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases. “Colleges and universities are leaders of innovation in our society and can more easily test out the successes of new practices and ideas on their campuses before they can be embraced by the wider society,” says Flynn.

Nancy Knight, associate vice president of campus and community planning at the University of British Columbia, agrees: “Yes, the university sector in North America has been very keen in tackling sustainability issues. And UBC has definitely been in a leadership role.”

The movement is gaining momentum. Flynn points out that in 2006 when the Green Report began, 22% of institutions reported having a green building policy. In the 2011 edition 79% of the schools surveyed had en20

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Image courtesy of Perkins + Will Canada Architects Co.

Right: the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, or CIRS, building recently opened at the University of British Columbia. The 5,700-m2 building is so green it is set to exceed LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge standards. Its wood structure includes pine-beetle killed lumber (which is currently B.C.’s largest source of carbon emissions). It incorporates renewable energy technologies and it treats wastewater on site. Every workspace is daylit and is naturally ventilated. The design team includes: Perkins + Will Canada (architect), Fast + Epp (structural), Stantec (mechanical-electrical), Core Group (civil), Morrison Hershfield (building envelope), Eco-Tek, NovaTec (water).

forced such a policy. In five years the trend had moved from one-quarter to the majority.

Since 2008, the presidents of 28 post-secondary institutions across Canada have signed the University and College Presidents’ Climate Change Statement of Action for Canada. Joanne Perdue, an architect and the director of sustainability at the University of Calgary, explains that in signing on to the statement, institutions commit to catalyzing solutions to address climate change both in their operations and also in the teaching and research they undertake. In the U.S. a similar declaration of intent has been signed by approximately 700 presidents. “So when you put all of that together and look at the critical mass of universities that are working on this basis, it is really quite powerful and exciting in terms of the potential impact,” says Perdue.

Making buildings work together as systems What specifically are Canadian universities doing? Knight lists a host of different projects at UBC that are reducing its carbon footprint. The university’s target is to become carbon neutral by 2050. It has already exceeded the targets of Kyoto -- the international agreement on greenhouse gases

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sustainability

“Whereas to date the discussions around green building have focused on standalone structures, now there is a lot of discussion about how you can link buildings in systems.” of 1990 that really started things moving in the green movement. UBC is now on track to reduce emissions by 33% below 2007 levels by 2015. (The university is technically carbon neutral now due to buying carbon offset credits as mandated by the provincial government.)

In terms of individual buildings, the university’s most recent green building showcase is the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, or CIRS that opened in November. Designed by Peter Busby of Perkins + Will, with consultants that include Stantec and Fast + Epp, the $23-million, 5,700-m2 building is so green it is set to exceed LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge standards. “CIRS is a new building that is pushing [beyond] LEED Platinum into how you can build regenerative buildings,” says Knight.

One feature that Knight finds particularly interesting is that CIRS uses heat harvested from the roof of an older laboratory building next door. The system is so effective, there is enough spare heat left over for CIRS to recycle it back to the older building!

Making buildings work together as systems in this way could be the wave of the future: “It is a great example of what you could do in an urban context,” says Knight. Sometimes it doesn’t make economic sense to refurbish a building envelope, she suggests, “so maybe another approach is to look at capturing the waste heat that is coming off them and reusing it in an adjacent building.” Whereas to date the discussions around green building have focused on standalone structures, “now there is a lot of discussion about how you can link buildings in systems,” says Knight.

University campuses are perfect for pioneering such building networks since they own the land and contiguous buildings, and generally they own the infrastructure.

Energy infrastructure -- the bonanza Many campuses have district energy systems with a central plant that produces heat and hot water for all the buildings. Converting these plants to cogeneration units represents a bonanza for universities in reducing their carbon emissions. The University of Toronto added cogeneration to its 100-year old central steam plant on Russell Street 18 years ago. The plant now supplies 6 MW of the 30 MW peak demand on the St. George Campus. A flue heat recovery system was added to the plant in 2000.

The University of Calgary’s Climate Action Plan has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2015, and by 80% by 2050. The university is on track to meet the 2015 milestone, thanks in big part to a recent upgrade of its main campus central heating and cooling plant to co-gener-

ation technology. The new natural gas-fired system will generate about 80% of the campus’s total electrical demand, while the system's recovered energy is being used to heat the buildings. Stantec were the consulting engineers.

Perdue explains that because Alberta’s electricity grid is largely supplied with coal-fired energy, the university’s switch to on-site electricity generation represents a “significant drop” in its greenhouse gas emissions. Annual reductions are anticipated to be 80,000 metric tonnes. “Additionally, the cost savings are expected to be in the neighbourhood of $3.5 million per year,” she says.

And at the University of B.C. construction is under way on a 2-MW biomass cogeneration plant. When it’s completed, the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Project will reduce the campus’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4,500 tonnes, amounting to one-third of its goal of 33% reductions by 2015.

UBC is also in the throes of an $85 million project to convert its 1920s district heating system from steam to hot water. The work means replacing 14 kilometres of pipe and installing new heat exchangers in individual buildings.

Using steam for space heating in buildings is a real mismatch, explains Knight. “It is just way more energy than what you need for a low grade energy requirement such as space or even hot water heating. It’s like using a chainsaw to cut a piece of bread.” With a hot water system the campus will be able to incorporate renewable energy sources such as geothermal or sewage heat -- something that is not possible with steam.

The University of B.C. calls itself a “Living Lab,” and freely shares data on new systems it installs. It also provides educational tours to visiting professional groups and local communities. “There are other folks that have steam systems that will follow our experience and want to see how the technology works out, whether the costs came out as projected, and so on," says Knight.

Industry benefits too, since many of the campus energy projects are done in partnership with the private sector, helping to further corporate research. Nexterra and GE are partners in the biomass project, for example.

Harnessing the earth and solar energy Universities are also introducing renewable energy sources such as geothermal fields and photovoltaics to their buildings. They are able to take advantage of the close-at-hand installations to do field research into the effectiveness of these relatively new building technologies. At the University continued on page 22 December 2011

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Below: : the UBC Bioenergy Research and Demonstration project will start operating in 2012, producing 2 MW of electricity and steam heat. It is expected to eliminate 4,500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year from the Vancouver campus.

Image courtesy Diamond & Schmitt Architects

of Ontario Institute of Technology in Whitby, for example, a large geothermal field of 370 boreholes 180 metres deep was installed in 2004. It is now used by the university to do research on the technology.

At the University of Calgary, the Child Development Centre, a LEED Platinum project completed in 2006, has a 65,000 kWh photovoltaic array on its south side. Dr. James Love, a Canadian leader in building energy engineering and a professor at the university, works with students doing post-doctoral research on the PV panels’ performance, as well as other building features like displacement ventilation.

A million in savings, for virtually no capital investment What is also making a huge difference at campuses is their adoption of multi-million dollar programs to upgrade their existing building stock.

Earth & Environmental

UBC

Left: axonometric of the geothermal borehole system at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Ontario. The field’s performance, one of the largest of its kind when built in 2006, is used for research into ground source heat technology.

Under the University of Calgary's Energy Performance Initiative, three programs have so far been completed to upgrade existing buildings. Perdue explains that the first two phases addressed “the low hanging fruit, which involved changing things that are easy to access such as the variable speed fans, controls, and relamping.” The second phase, which finished in March this year, included a $15-million investment with a $3-million a year payback -“a very robust return on investment,” says Perdue. The program is projected to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 29,000 metric tonnes.

In phase three the university concentrated on adjusting operating hours. “Sometimes the older buildings are not zoned in the same way that new buildings are,” says Perdue. “So, for example, you may have a lot of systems on because there might be one night class taking place. We also found a lot of systems on after

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sustainability hours when buildings were minimally occupied.”

“For essentially no capital investment we came up with approximately $1 million in annual savings through optimizing operating hours,” says Perdue, “and a reduction of about 8,000 metric tonnes in annual greenhouse gas emissions.”

The university is currently planning phase four of its energy performance initiative. It will delve deeper into retrofits and will include a re-commissioning program and an enterprise-wide energy management system.

The University of B.C. has been chopping its emissions through a massive $120-million “UBC Renew” program.

Funded 50% by the provincial government, UBC Renew involved energy upgrades to 40,000 gross square metres of academic buildings: “maybe a quarter of our older building stock” says Knight. And the University of Toronto has saved $500,000 in each of the last two years in energy and water expenses by optimizing the operation of its buildings. The savings have come through upgrades such as adding comprehensive metering, variable speed drives and new exterior and interior lighting.

Campus sustainability efforts aren’t confined to energy programs, of course. There are successes in saving potable water, reducing waste and using recycled building materials.

At Simon Fraser University in B.C. an entire sustainable community is being built on the side of Burnaby Mountain. UniverCity has 3,000 residents already and plans for 10,000. It preserves natural habitat and it manages all of its stormwater run off with detention ponds and bioswales. It also includes affordable housing and gives incentives for green roofs and energy efficiency. Its latest idea is to have a public transit gondola to whisk commuters to and from the mountain.

Education programs to persuade students to buy into conservation are also a big part of campus sustainability efforts. At the University of Toronto, the campus facilities office has designed a kiosk with an interactive, touch-screen that displays energy savings data and monitors in real time a building’s energy performance. The first kiosk is installed in the Exam Building, a renovated 19th-century warehouse just south of College Street.

On a dreary day in October the anxious students hovering in the lobby before going in to take their examinations seemed more intent on snatching a few last moments with their text books than paying attention to the energy kiosk.

Yet it is the entire future of these younger generations that the green building advocates on campus have in mind. CCE

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business

The Great

Grey

Drop-off o As baby boomers start to retire, consulting engineers are facing a shortage of people to replace them.

By Jean Sorensen

C

onsulting professional engineer Ahmet (Met) Ulker at age 58 doesn’t see himself retiring at the traditional age of 65 from the Vancouver office of Applied Engineering Solutions where he works as a principal. “I’ll probably be here until I’m 70,” he says.

But when he does exit with a gold watch he’s confident that his company will be one of those that survives. It has healthy succession and sustainability plans in place and a corporate culture aimed at surfing over the tidal wave of greying baby-boomers who are nearing retirement age.

Baby-boomers like Ulker are staying on in the workplace so that they can help shift corporate ownership and industry knowledge from their senior group to a much younger group of

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Jean Sorensen

business

Met Ulker and Sunny Ghataurah of Applied Engineering Solutions look over plans in the Vancouver office. Ulker, a senior partner, and Ghataurah, a younger partner, are symbolic of the gap in engineering that is occurring as the middle-aged engineer is almost nonexistent. For individuals like Ghataurah, it is a fantastic opportunity “to drive the bus” and take a leadership role in the firm.

people -- people often only in their 30s. The age gap between the senior and succeeding groups is because the three age groups that have commonly sustained Canadian engineering firms have taken a hit in the middle rank. Consequently, the industry faces both short and long-term labour challenges.

“We are pretty well off,” says Ulker. Over a three-year period, the Vancouver office has gone from one to 25 employees. There are now three senior partners in their 50s.

At the same time, "We have only one employee in his 40s, and the next oldest is 35 years old," says Ulker.

"So there is a gap between those 35 and those almost 58 years old.”

The middle group of 35 to 45-year olds has been virtually gutted from the engineering industry. Brent Lyon, P.Eng., national recruiter for engineers across Canada for David Aplin Recruiting, serves on committees at the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, speaks at academic recruitment events, and handles a recruiting team searching for engineers. He put it in simple numbers using B.C. statistics.

“Last year there were 6,185 P.Eng's and P.Geo's aged 45

to 54, and only 4,393 between 35 and 44 -- a ratio of 1.4:1 in the wrong direction,” points out Lyon.

“Even if we retained 100% of the engineers who are around 40 years of age, we’d still have to import about 2,000 more in order to fill the vacancies that will come about from the older age demographic departing over time,” says Lyon.

The B.C. demographics for geoscientists is particularly bad as there are only 246 at ages 35-44, and 542 between the ages of 45-55 -- just over twice the number heading for retirement than in the wave behind.

A once stalled mining sector, roller coaster economy, and generally spot contracts where companies have finished with the engineer when the project is done have contributed to the slim middle population. The valleys occurred in 2008, 2000, 1993, 1983, and 1972. The mining sector was especially hard hit. University enrolment nosedived. “We forgot to make them [engineers] for several years,” Lyon says. One University of British Columbia graduating class in mining during the 1990s “could fit around a picnic table. It was unbelievably tiny,” he says.

“We have also not really treated engineers well,” says Lyon. Conversely, he says, engineers have not been good at continued on page 26 December 2011

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promoting their self-worth or explaining to employers what they add to the bottom line beyond the project life, something that accountants and lawyers have accomplished.

“Engineers, though, are smart creatures,” says Lyon, and have the ability to adapt during long employment droughts by entering other professions. “They make good realtors, good IT consultants and equipment sales people – there are all sorts of ways that engineers can leave.” Regrettably, they don’t come back.

While the supply of “experienced” engineers is dwindling, the need for them has surged.

So in Saskatchewan where there is a demand for engineers to work on the province's mega-projects in oil and gas, membership in the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS) has doubled since 2005. However, a large percentage of those people are members-in-training or engineers coming from outside the province or from outside the country.

Keeping baby boomers tethered One solution to the dearth in middle-ranking engineers is to have the baby-boomers stick around. Ulker has two retirees, friends in the industry, who are professional engineers willing

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to work on a casual basis. “One is 79 and the other is 68 years of age,” he says, adding that they work at their own pace on an hourly basis, putting in the number of hours that they want. “Sometimes they work out of their own homes,” he says.

“You have to be flexible and moderate with the retirement age today,” said Jeff Corbett, P.Eng., managing principal at Read Jones Christofferson (RJC) in Vancouver. “You can’t just hand someone a gold watch at age 65. It is really a two-way street.” Companies realize there is a need to accommodate individuals who want to work past retirement age and also those who want to fade out gradually. RJC has kept several of its retired employees tethered and available to work part time for the company.

One such RJC employee, who asked not to be named, sees it as an ideal arrangement. RJC pays his professional association dues and he can still enjoy retirement but also the workplace he’s known for 40 years. “I work mainly in the background,” the 67-year-old says. “I don’t do client work.”

He sees himself as fulfilling ancillary needs. Working retirees have vast “institutional memories” and “not everything is written down.” He’s been asked about 25-year-old projects, who worked on them, what were the challenges, and hurdles that had to be overcome.

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business The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction A second major role that retirees play today, he says, is serving on committees within companies and the industry, something junior members with young families may not have time for.

A third role retirees take on is working with younger individuals, passing down knowledge or giving lectures on specialized topics where they have expertise. These seminar and mentoring activities help the retiree to meet the annual professional competency standards.

“It’s interesting and it keeps me occupied,” says the RJC retiree.

Tethering baby-boomers is only a stopgap measure. Lyon says there is the reality that boomers will grow bored over the long haul and eventually want to move off. “When you have a senior person who is used to leading a project -- does that 67 year old want to be hunched over a drawing board doing pipe sizing?” he asks.

The slim middle’s waste With the 35 to 50 year-old group thinned down, there are two issues: how to add to the ranks and how to hang onto the people you have.

“We can’t have engineers from other countries driving taxis,” Ulker says simply. It’s a fact of life that immigrant talent is often wasted for lack of assistance and opportunity.

“Whenever I’m in a taxi or somewhere, I ask the individual what they did before,” he says. When the response comes back that the person was an engineer but has no credentials in Canada, Ulker says: “I tell them, come and see me.” He offers to find them more lucrative work or to start the individual on the path to return to their chosen field.

Ulker is also engaging the middle-group managers he does have by getting them to invest in the company. “We are not waiting until people are 40-45 years of age to make associates,” he says. Making younger partners fulfils two functions. “They know they are not going to move around,” he says, and that’s a family plus. There is also more time for the company to groom new partners. When a retirement is announced Ulker’s firm immediately starts the hunt for a suitable candidate as it can take years for someone to grow into the role and work well with other partners.

Lyon’s team is looking offshore for engineers to fill the middle gap. Engineers are being hired from places such as the Philippines, China, India and Iran. “If you can find someone from Sharif University of Technology [in Tehran], hire that person – it’s like the Yale of the Middle East.

They [the graduates] are brilliant and their English is fluent,” says Lyon. There’s the rub, especially when hiring executives or senior engineers from offshore: “You really want someone to be fluent in front of clients and do a compelling presentation,” he says.

Nationally, professional organizations have recognized the need to bring in more engineers from other countries and have facilitated the process. Engineers Canada has ratified several international mobility agreements for both

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graduates and professional engineers from other countries.

According to a source at APEGBC, in the past year: “Of the approximately 1,000 applicants applying to APEGBC for registration as professional engineers for the first time in Canada (not transferring membership from other provinces or territories), 39% were internationally-trained ... and 61% were Canadian trained.”

How long Canada can depend on transplanted skills is another question. Many in the engineering community cite six and seven digit figures for the number of engineers graduating in places like China. However, BusinessWeek magazine in 2005 explored these figures and found they fell far short as the term “engineering” was not equal to definitions in the U.S. The figures of those who would qualify for engineering status were much lower.

Lyons believes that eventually all the engineers from offshore will be needed within their own countries, a move that will only make shortages more acute in Canada.

Attracting more engineers into the pool Organizations like the Structural Engineering Association of B.C. (SEABC) may provide a solution for attracting more young people into practising engineering. When university students take a SEABC course, they receive a free membership. Of the association's 828 members, 256 are students.

Ulker’s firm is being careful to invest knowledge in its younger employees. The company hosts regular catered lunch sessions where the engineers discuss issues and problems. The sessions help to trickle down knowledge to junior staff. Ulker also broadens their knowledge with field trips.

“When there is a plant or facility to see somewhere that involves a trip ... we send some of the younger guys.”

The company has its engineers specialize in various areas of electrical engineering, a move that makes them more efficient and provides greater expertise in solving client problems. “If you take five engineers who only study one field over a period of time you have five specialists who are very good at what they do – it reduces the gestation period of engineering,” Ulker says. It also makes the individual more valuable to the company.

All these programs are investing in individuals to encourage them to stay for the long run. But are they enough?

Ulker believes his firm has done all it can to create a firm that is now internally sustainable.

What about the engineers who have left the industry.

Can they be wooed back? Lyon’s experience has found it a hard task. “A maternity leave isn’t problematic, but if you’ve been away for eight or 10 years, you’ll be too rusty to go back as is,” he says. “An engineer would need to re-educate him or herself. Then it gets down to psychology. You’d be re-educating yourself to get back to the career level you were at a decade ago. It would be demoralizing. Most people wouldn’t do it.”

CCE Jean Sorensen is a freelance writer based in Vancouver.

AIL-245 Wall-to-wall efficiency Canadian Consulting Engineer – December 2011 ½ page vertical – 3.375" × 10" p14-30 CCE Dec11 FEATURES.indd 28

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structures

CBCL, Consulting Engineers

The designers of a new academic office and classroom building at Dalhousie University used an innovative floor slab system to open up the floor-to-ceiling height.

Mona Campbell Building

D

esigned using a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach, the Mona Campbell Building on Lemarchant Street at Dalhousie University is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification. The 105,000-sq. ft. building contains classrooms and is home to the university’s College of Continuing Education as well as the schools of social work, computer science and sustainability. It opened earlier this year at a cost of $26 million.

A tight urban site and municipal planning restrictions on the building height left the designers with a limited 11’-10” floor-to-floor height. This created a design challenge in the classroom wing where the requirements for larger clear span structural depths came head to head with the need for high ceiling heights.

The solution was to use a hybrid precast/cast-in-place concrete flat slab system called Bubbledeck. This proprietary system -- used for only the second time in Canada -- consists of a shop-produced precast concrete slab soffit element with integral reinforcement and void-forming “bubbles.”

The soffit element acts as formwork upon which the finishing upper concrete slab is cast in place, creating a monolithic two-way flat slab system.

The system provided a relatively thin structural floor system with a highquality finish. By partially exposing the slab soffit and integrating the mechanical and electrical services into the ceiling architecture, a sense of spaciousness was achieved.

Among the building’s energy saving features -- the building is predicted to have energy savings of 52% over an equivalent MNECB reference

Left: building at night.

Below left: Bubbledeck soffit panels.

Below right: classroom area.

building -- is a solar air heating collector mounted on the exterior of one wall. The building’s “smart” lighting is also a big energy saver, using 47% less than a comparable standard building.

The building mechanical systems include a distributed heat pump system with individual pumps grouped in central service rooms on each floor. The mechanical system also allows waste heat from a large server room to heat the building.

Complex smoke evacuation systems were designed for the four-storey main atrium space. Once an alarm sounds, the normal building ventilation systems work in concert with power-operated doors on the

ground level to make the 100,000 cfm required make-up air volume.

Rainwater is collected on the roof, filtered and then directed through calming inlets into a waterproofed concrete cistern located in the basement. After filtering and disinfection the water is used for toilet flushing and exterior hoses. Overall the building reduces its use of municipal water by 75%.

CCE Civil, mechanical, electrical, energy, LEED engineering: CBCL (MacDara Woodman, P.Eng., Kerry Fraser P Eng., Tom Watson P Eng., Greg Peters P.Eng, Tim McLeod P.Eng.) Architect: Fowler Bauld & Mitchell

December 2011

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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business

By John Boyd, P.Eng. Design Firm Seminars

Why consulting engineers need to make systematic staff training company policy -- and a budget item.

Essential Training

30

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com

p14-30 CCE Dec11 FEATURES.indd 30

ing curricula. External soluwith companies with well tions involve direct expenditrained staff. tures for courses that may Adopting a systematic not be focused on materials policy towards training relevant to the needs of the provides a number of adindustry. More importantly, vantages: either approach takes the • Training becomes a budprofessional away from work get item; it has specific perand at least in the short term formance improvements as can interfere with day-to-day targets measurable in cost project communications. benefit terms.

Nevertheless, focused train- John Boyd receiving the • Training becomes acing is effective in moving the Beaubien Award from cepted as a way for proper ACEC in November. organization and its staff to performance objectives to the next level of development. be demonstrated to staff. At the same In many firms training is reactive, time, tools are provided to help based on a crisis brought about by a them achieve management perforparticular problem. For a short period mance goals. training is then used to ensure that • Training curricula are developed staff members understand the lessons with the real needs of the business in learned. But very quickly the press of mind. The courses also become part business interferes, and soon the staff of a knowledge management process slide back into their old ways. that delivers the necessary underSome firms rely on the close interstanding at the right time to the action between experienced staff and right participants. newcomers to transfer the necessary • The fact that your company considknowledge, ignoring the fact that ers training so important becomes some senior staff are much better at widely known in the industry, with mentoring than others. As a result, the effect of improving your client the dissemination of knowledge is base, your recruiting, and your retenspotty at best. tion of staff.

The only effective solution to these It is a win-win solution for everyproblems is to turn training into a body, staff and management alike. CCE regular aspect of company policy and John Boyd, P.Eng. is one of three to plan systematically for the necessary senior Canadian engineering execuknowledge transfer as an aspect of tives who recently formed Design Firm staff career development. Experience Seminars (DFS) to address the need for has shown that recent graduates have industry-relevant training in Canada a strong preference to join firms that at all levels of career development. The undertake to improve their employprincipals of DFS have over 90 years ees’ skills. Existing staff members of consulting engineering experience in enjoy being part of a working environfirms large and small. This article was ment that defines expected behaviour written with significant input from and helps them perform to expectaBen Novak, P.Eng., also of DFS. tions. Finally, clients prefer to work ACEC/AFIC

C

onsulting engineering is a demanding business that requires not only high technical competence, but also advanced skills in business and communications.

Engineering training at the university undergraduate level has to concentrate on the technical side to squeeze the necessary components of the curriculum into an already heavy course load. As a result, graduate engineers are faced with the need to continue their education once they enter the workforce in order not only to keep up with technical advances, but also to supplement their technical skills with all the other requirements of the business.

Good companies in consulting engineering recognize the need to complement technical staff skills and so they encourage their people to broaden their capabilities. The logic is not hard to understand -- mistakes in the business aspects of consulting engineering occur more frequently than in the technical areas and every year cost the industry millions of dollars.

Sometimes the mistakes are obvious: for example, the need for rework brought about by poor project management. Others are more subtle but just as damaging. They include bad presentations that confuse clients or stakeholder groups; the poor handling of client relations that results in the loss of future contracts; acceptance of onerous clauses in contracts that shift inappropriate responsibilities onto the shoulders of the consultant, to mention but a few examples.

Training comes at a price whether internally or externally sourced. Inhouse solutions usually mean expensive overhead time spent on develop-

December 2011

11-12-01 10:38 AM

INFRARED HEATING:

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HVAC

Schneider Electric Canada officially opened a new corporate office and plant on McLaughlin Road in Mississauga, Ontario this fall. The building interior was rebuilt to LEED CI Silver standards, with energy efficient features such as T8 lighting, extensive metering, high efficiency rooftop units, system-wide building automation, and on-site charging for electric vehicles. www.schneider-electric.com Johnson Controls has launched Panoptix as an affordable open technology platform for collecting and managing energy data from disparate building systems and other sources such as meters and weather. www.johnsoncontrols.com

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December 2011

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see website

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saveonenergy.ca/business

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www.powerauthority.on.ca

Schneider Electric

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info@schneider-electric.ca

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www.schneider-electric.com

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sales@s-frame.com

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www.s-frame.com

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December 2011

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11-12-01 7:39 AM

employment

By Mike A. Cuma Legacy Bowes Group

Raising Morale

Six ways to create a positive work environment

34

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com

p31-36 CCEDec11 Depts1.indd 34

keep employees informed of the good and bad news that is part of everyday life in most workplaces.

4. Properly Addressed Employee Concerns. Occasionally, workplace problems are left unresolved. Problems with equipment, processes, facilities or tools that are left uncorrected send a strong negative message to employees. Even worse, problems relating to basics like safety, human rights and respect in the workplace that are left unresolved will eventually multiply and decimate workplace morale. It is crucial to properly address employee concerns as quickly and effectively as possible.

5. A Positive Visual Workplace. A quick glance around can tell you a lot. When you see graffiti, vandalism, clutter, poorly maintained lunchrooms or messy parking lots, it speaks volumes about the leadership and the employees. Such a workplace drains morale. Clean, comfortable, inviting environments will help instill happinness.

6. Even, Fair Employee Workloads. Employees come to work every day to succeed. When they are faced with an overwhelming workload day after day they become disengaged. I am not referring to a busy day or a short busy period. Rather, I’m referring to situations where the workload is routinely overwhelming. Worse yet is a situation in which the workload is not reasonably allocated and some people are over busy while others seem to have little to do. Employees will react negatively in such situations.

The good news is that the company’s leadership can address the six points above with little or no cost. Good morale and effective leadership go hand in hand.

CCE

Michael Eddenden

B

usiness leaders, employees and unions often talk about morale in the workplace.

Unfortunately, this subject usually becomes a hot topic when someone thinks morale has deteriorated or is not up to par. Have you noticed that you seldom hear about workplace morale when it’s considered to be good?

People often speak about raising morale as if you could apply some magical ointment to a workplace. Business leaders and well meaning human resource departments will suggest special initiatives, programs or events intended to improve the situation. These programs are usually unsuccessful and unsustainable.

Morale is a lot like motivation: you can’t just give it to employees or an organization.

Morale is the result of ongoing positive behaviours that are routinely demonstrated. So while some people believe that paying higher wages or benefits will somehow improve morale, typically, this does not address the underlying issues. It only creates a higher paid workforce with poor morale.

Following are six basic factors that can have a major impact on morale in a workplace: 1. A Thriving and Successful Organization. The first step towards raising morale is to build and maintain a thriving and successful business. Organizations that focus on continuous improvement are on the right track. This is not to say that organizations facing challenges are doomed to poor morale; in the right circumstances, and with appropriate leadership, an organization and its employees can rally around adversity.

2. Personal Recognition Pays. A simple and genuine “Thank You” goes a long way to improve employee morale.

Employees will go an extra kilometre and beyond for leaders or co-workers who show sincere thanks and appreciation for their efforts. In workplaces with low morale employees will frequently tell you that they seldom, if ever, receive a word of thanks from their supervisor.

3. Positive Organizational Communication. Employees can accept unpleasant or bad news. If you ask, they will very likely have positive suggestions and ideas about what can be done to improve a difficult situation. The key is to

Mike A. Cuma is vice president of labour relations and human resource consulting with Legacy Bowes Group. He is based in Winnipeg. E-mail mcuma@legacybowes.com

December 2011

11-12-01 7:39 AM

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The Topvex series maintains its high performance by combining rotary wheel heat exchangers with a low pressure loss within the cabinet and EC motors for maximum efficiency. This results in a very low Specific Fan Power (SFP*) When designing the Topvex series, we focused on creating a unit that is easy to choose, install, commission and use. The Topvex comes with a user-friendly navigation control panel and control box compatible with building management systems (BMS).

Topvex TR

* SFP - Specific Fan Power (kW/l/s) represents the power consumption of both blowers at a specific operating point

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Systemair Inc • 50 Kanalflakt Way • Bouctouche • NB • E4S 3M5 Tel +1 877 SYS AIR1 • sales@systemair.net • www.systemair.net

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S-FRAME Structural Office’s suite of powerful analysis, design and detailing tools enables you to create Robust Designs; designs less sensitive to load variations and deviations from the intended design specifications during a structure’s life cycle.

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