PEI industrial park aims to meet Passive House standards

Summerside, PEI, has all the charms you’d expect from a small, oceanside city, with friendly locals, fresh breezes and exceptional outdoor recreation. What’s unexpected is that Summerside, which sits near the peaceful waters of Bedeque Bay about 60 kilometres west of Charlottetown, has carved out a niche as a leader in sustainability and renewable energy.

Forward thinking is a trademark, says Mike Thususka, director of economic development, who has worked for the city for 28 years. Mr. Thususka grew up here and his professional investment has resulted in significant returns for his home town.

“Part of my role is to support what’s been here – traditional industries like fishing and farming – but also to attract new industries,” says Mr. Thususka. “We’re focused on self-reliance and self-growth.”

Summerside owns its power utility and it invests the revenue back into its budget. Sixty-two per cent of its power sources are renewable, thanks in part to the Summerside Wind Plant, Canada’s first community-owned wind-energy generator, opened in 2009, and the Sunbank Solar Farm, which opened last year.

The city’s efforts have brought aerospace and transportation manufacturers, IT offices and AI businesses to town, diversifying the local economy and setting the scene for further expansion.

Mr. Thususka is leading the way to another first, designed to entice new, innovative business partners in the clean tech, IT and aerospace sectors: Summerside Eco-Park, the country’s first business park offering an industrial and manufacturing facility that passes the strict, sustainable standards of Passive House design.

Also known as Greenwood Zero, the project is currently completing its testing to become certified.

What is Passive House design?

Passive House buildings are more prevalent in Europe, but they are gaining traction in North America. Founded at the German PassivHaus Institut in the 1990s, the design principles focus on creating homes, commercial facilities and office buildings that meet a specific criteria to maximize energy efficiency, air quality, and heating and cooling through passive measures such as insulation, air-tight construction, high-performing windows and doors, and controlled ventilation.

The goal is to create optimal comfort and air quality indoors year round, at any outdoor temperature, while reducing energy use to lower carbon footprints. To achieve Passive House certification, a building must meet a list of criteria at different levels – Classic, Plus and Premium – some of which differ from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

These include achieving 90-per-cent reduction in heating energy use and 70-per-cent reduction in energy use overall, as well as air-tightness testing, junction molding for durability and moisture control, and more. There are about 6,000 Passive House buildings in Canada.

“When projects like Summerside happen, it demonstrates to a broader community of architects, engineers, designers, trades, people, contractors, public officials and even the citizenry that anything can be done,” says Michael Quast, chief executive of Passive House Canada. ”Hundreds of people working there are going to get to experience how it makes their daily life better. This is not just about hitting net-zero targets for 2050, this is about building for the future we all want.”

A Passive House precedent

Architect Aaron Stavert, founding principal of Open Practice Inc. in Charlottetown, first began working on the Greenwood Zero project in 2013. He suggested creating an industrial facility that could pass Passive House standards – something that hadn’t been done before in Canada. “I think Mike really went out on a limb and took a risk,” Mr. Stavert says.

He brought on Toronto-based Peel Passive House, which specializes in Passive House certification and consultation, working with consultant Stephen Quinn, who is a certifier as well as a designer. “In a case like Summerside, the city’s main driver was innovation. They want to be at the forefront of energy efficient design,” he says. “That was the best news for us because you need everyone to be fully behind this as a concept, and at least in this case in particular, there was no pushback.”

Greenwood Zero is a two-storey, 17,000-square-foot facility overlooking a stormwater pond, with flexible space for up to four separate tenants. It’s a sleek, low-slung building, part industrial facility, part modern office space. Inspiration was taken from potato farms, which use berming, a technique where earth is piled on outside walls to act as natural insulation to keep temperatures cool. “Not knowing who would be moving in here, we set it up for as much flexibility as possible, and we looked at ‘how do we share resources,’ ” Mr. Stavert says.

There’s a common entry reception area and office space with pond views on the second floor, Mr. Stavert adds, in addition to two shipping and receiving bays and a series of warehouse spaces to support the facility. “We tried to think about ‘how does someone come in and still respect the Passive House requirements while minimizing the penetrations through the roof?’ ”

The building is currently undergoing Passive House certification, but it has already passed the air tightness test, exceeding the standard by 30 per cent.

Not without its challenges

Building to Passive House standards requires using materials, windows, doors and other features that meet specific criteria. This can make sourcing difficult, depending on the project’s location, timeline and budget. “Summerside is unique because in our procurement policies, we ensure that anyone that wins the bid from us has to work with our local trades colleges or universities and contractors to pass those skills on, because we think that’s important,” Mr. Thususka says.

This presented a challenge at times during the build.

When sourcing overhead doors for certain bays, Mr. Stavert came up against an air tightness issue that couldn’t be resolved with local products. He ended up sourcing doors from Europe that were already Passive House certified. “One of the challenges with Passive House is if you can get a product or a component that is already certified, it’s just that much simpler,” he says.

There’s also a higher investment in the beginning to build a Passive House building – but in the end, the reduction in energy costs make up the difference. Plus, it’s not just about the bottom line, Mr. Thususka says.

“To attract innovative businesses, you need a facility that will appeal to forward thinkers,” he says. “This is about the future. I’m always thinking about what’s coming ahead.”