Construction firm EllisDon Corporation is testing innovations to cut waste, use low-carbon concrete and accurately measure its reductions at the second phase of a major redevelopment of the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C.

Scheduled for completion in the spring of 2025, the 920,700-square-foot project (including underground parking) will add a 10-storey acute care tower, a 75-bay emergency department, hundreds of beds, 25 operating theatres and a helipad, among other features, to the hospital in the Metro Vancouver area.

Mississauga-based EllisDon was commissioned by the Fraser Health Authority to meet LEED's Version 4 Healthcare Gold certification rating, Daniel Molnar, a regional environmental manager at the company, told Sustainable Biz Canada.

Construction at the hospital has been ongoing for over two years.

Over 90 per cent of the construction waste has been diverted from landfill. Danish company Rockwool is reusing the stone wool insulation from a building being demolished. A concrete mix from Calgary-based Burnco will allow for the reduction of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide. To verify its efforts, EllisDon partnered with construction software company Green Badger on data collection.

“We take it to heart with all of our projects to see if any of our projects could be used as a bit of a catalyst to try out new, inventive pilot programs like this,” Molnar said, and a chance to see “what some of those bumps in the road might be” when employing sustainable construction methods.

Slashing waste from construction

EllisDon has been collecting the stone wool discards from its work so Rockwool can recycle it into more insulation or repurpose it into soil. At least five tonnes of insulation has been collected by Rockwool to date, Molnar added.

Ninety-three per cent of the construction waste — concrete, steel, wood, cardboard, gypsum and plastic — has been sorted into streams, enabling diversion from landfill. Representing 22,441 tonnes, the waste was reused or recycled, enabling EllisDon to exceed its goal of diverting 75 per cent.

To cut the greenhouse gases from building materials referred to as embodied carbon, EllisDon used a ready-mix concrete from supplier Burnco. Early estimates show this will cut 3,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions compared to standard concrete mixes.

EllisDon tweaked the concrete mix with its consulting engineers and concrete suppliers to maintain the same performance and schedule, Molnar said.

Then, to quantify its successes, EllisDon partnered with Green Badger for the first time in B.C. to track figures around waste diversion, sustainable material procurement and carbon reductions.

“You can’t manage what you aren’t measuring,” Molnar said, emphasizing the role Savannah, Ga.-based Green Badger had on the project.

Tracking its progress with Green Badger

A software firm that aims to bring transparency and accountability to the construction industry, founder and CEO Tommy Linstroth said his company’s work is designed to make sustainability easier and more affordable.

Green Badger’s service documents, sources and benchmarks the construction process from design to completion. Sourcing low-carbon building materials can be done via the platform and its use validated. Additionally, it tracks what is being installed, how much waste has been minimized and carbon emissions from the materials and construction, Linstroth said.

Data loss is a common issue in the construction industry as staff come and go during the long, complex projects. Molnar said before Green Badger’s service, each EllisDon project was uniquely calculated, with employees having their own methods and documentation.

By having a consistent data set to draw upon, the construction firm can learn what has been successful and what can be learned for future projects, Linstroth explained.

“To be able to clearly convey that, to sit in owner’s meetings and show them, ‘Here is your dashboard, here is how it’s doing,’ and to be able to go back and see 'where do we have success and where can we get better next time?' it all comes down to quality of that data.”

Green Badger has worked on approximately 2,000 projects around the world, with 75 in Canada. The collaboration on the Royal Columbian Hospital is its first project with EllisDon, which has since evolved into more partnerships between the two companies.

EllisDon's road to more data collection

The sustainability pilots have gone according to plan, Molnar said, with few challenges during construction.

Linstroth concurred, saying Green Badger’s integration into the EllisDon project has been seamless.

The pilot programs taught EllisDon to dial up its conversations on sustainability and refine its work, Molnar said. An aspiration for the company is to be net-zero by 2050.

The construction firm will be expanding its tracking of greenhouse gas emissions from construction such as fuel consumption on site, aiming to keep up with regulations.

“Is that something that our projects are capable of doing? Is that a really tough task or if we carefully lay the ground, is it a relatively easy thing that we just have to keep the wheel going with tapping into that data?” Molnar said.