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Another plastic bag is full, we throw it in to the nearest land fill, it's out sight and
out of mind what is the state of our human kind and I don't know what to say because
we produce more everyday and we call it garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage
garbage, garbage, garbage
>> Today on Going Green For Green were looking at the construction industry and how demand
for greener buildings is changing the way our construction industry operates and builds
its projects. The construction and developers as a whole are constantly as a by the environmentalists
as the enemies. I mean if we're taking a part inefficient old buildings and building new
ones that are more efficient and going to last longer and operate at a lower expense
in terms of its monthly costs. That's a good thing. Today we track down Geoff Smith who
is the CEO of Ellisdon. Certainly one of the largest construction companies in Canada if
not North American and talk to Geoff about how Ellisdon is being effected and how their
practices are being changed by demand for greener buildings.ÿ
>> I think it's an accurate premise that developers and construction companies have been insensitive
to environmental concerns up until very recently. They weren't the enemy of the planet, they
were just weren't thinking about it and I think we're all too concerned with short term
costs versus not just long term environmental impact but long term return on the investment
and energy savings and waste recycling and that kind of thing.ÿ
>> But over the last two or three years its going to the, the top of their priority list.
The value of their buildings is effected now. Plus these are good people, people want to
do good things for the planet, they just didn't know how and now it's the first thing that
everybody asks us at the beginning of the design and construction process. How do I
get LEED silver, how do I get LEED gold, what can I do, what's involved? I read a stat that
35% of the solid waste globally is generated by the construction industry. So that's the
first place you go to make a dramatic change. On the child development centrein Calgary
we were able to divert 78% of the waste from that site away from land fills in to recycling
opportunities, so as you can see that's a dramatic impact.ÿ
>> There are about 58 different levels of design and construction process that you've
got to get to get a LEED platinum accreditation. On the child development centrewe hit all
58 of them. There are different levels of LEED. The main ones are silver, gold and then
platinum. All of them deliver dramatic increases in efficiency of the building in terms of
energy use and turn decreases in terms of wasted being delivered, being created by the
construction process.ÿ
>> you can get to a silver LEED rating for your building, which means the building is
more valuable, better to work in, much better for the environment if you plan it properly
for zero cost. To get to a LEED gold rating, a really dramatic savings on both of those,
both waste and energy.ÿ
>> it's about, I think it's about a five or six or seven percent increase in construction
costs but it's more than paid back over the life of the building. Even in the first five
or ten ten years of the life of the building in energy savings and other efficiencies.
Platinum is a little bit more, call platinum about 10 or 12%, again more than paid back
but it does require that up front investment. >> you're looking at basically if you invest
up front you're looking at ten years to recoup your costs and actually start to see savings
on going LEED platinum. >> if you're talking about LEED platinum,
I think that's fair. If you're talking about LEED silver, as I say which is again a term
of improvement it's zero.ÿ
>> check us out online or follow us on Youtube Facebook and Twitter.
>> Going Green For Green is brought to you by Ontario Electronic Stewardship & RecycleYourElectronics.Caÿ
>> Here we are in down town Toronto at the Bay Adelaide Tower and what's being built
there is far more efficient and a far more environmentally friendly building than was
there previously. They are building gold platinum, 100 story office tower where the energy usage
and the efficiency of the building is going to be so much more superior than what was
there previously. But one has to kind of change his view of construction or of development
in general. The construction industry is really adapting. You know Carl Blanchard from wzmh
architects is going to tell us how architects are totally looking their business in a different
light as a result of the demand that changes from people who want environmentally conscience
buildings.ÿ
>> LEED is a rating system for sustainable buildings. In terms of LEED, we work with
an integrated team right from the beginning of the project so we worked with the with
the engineers, we work with the contractors to make sure the decisions we made early on
in the project would insure the building was a LEED building. It's an intensified site,
it's on public transit.ÿ
>> So those immediately give it some LEED status and some LEED points. You look at bay
adelaide, it's a glass building. It in fact becomes a very energy efficient skin between
the two layers of glass and the double glazing the space is filled with argon, argon becomes
an insulating element within the buildings skin so ultimately the energy that this buildings
skin let's in to the building is significantly less than some of the more traditional office
buildings. We tend with LEED to build more durable buildings, in fact you get a point
for having a more durable building. So you're starting to choose materials and buildings
systems, both mechanical systems and again building envelope that will last beyond standard,
their standard lifestyle so that the desire, the need to replace both things is much less
than in conventional buildings.ÿ
>> We're here in the back lot of Quantum Murray. This is one of the leaders across canada in
remediation strategies in emergency response. They've got a really diverse business and
dealing with some real environmental issues across canada.ÿ
>> Well Quantum Murray is really three companies that have come together in the last two and
half years. Quantum Environmental Group, Murray Demolition and Thompson Metals.ÿ
>> Quantum Environmental Group started 1992 out in Vancouver and we are Canada?s premier
environmental clean up company. So we do a lot of in ground clean ups, contaminated soil
and water. As well as above ground clean ups, hazardous materials like asbestos, PCBs, lead.
Murray Demolition is exactly like the name says, Canada?s premier demolition company
and then thompson metals is a, is a recycling and waste management company that handles
almost all of the products that come off of our contracting sites. So we put those companies
together so that at the end of the day our clients, they're finished with an old industrial
site, they can hand us the keys. We'll go in and take out all of the hazardous materials,
decommission and salvage all the reusable material, demolish the structure, get in to
the ground and clean it up and at the end of the day have a green fill that is ready,
that's ready for redevelopment. Cleaning up the environment use to be an after thought
where we're significantly more integrated with many of our clients, looking at their
operations and advising them often times on, no don't use this process, use this process
and it will be, it will be easier for us to decommission when the time comes. I think
the latest trend that I see is all around beneficial reuse. One of the biggest problems
that we have is in many jurisdictions from a regulatory point of view, once something
is a waste, it's very hard to get it turned back in to a product and I use an example.
Things that use to in to land fills, steel, appliances, all those types of things. You
know those are products to us, we generate revenue from those kinds of thing. Similarly
things like contaminated soil, we have technologies where we can treat contaminated soil and reuse
them. In that whole bio-solids, you know thing that bio-solid is the latest thing. It used
to be that a lot of it goes to land fill, a lot of it goes straight to land application
which, we're seeing a lot of change towards, looking at taking what would otherwise be
waste, turning it in to a product.ÿ
>> The industrial sector of manufacturing in Ontario is a declining area. We see the
growth in obsolete scrape which is scrap generated from cars, fridges, stoves, demolition.ÿ
>> With a GTA population growing the way it is and will in the future, we see a great
opportunity in the secondary scrap market versus the industrial and primary grades.
The addition to demolition to scrap metal facility has been a great source of feed stock.
Our company's well equipped, is a one stop shop company that can handle all these situations
for developers, for large corporations that are down sizing in their facilities and we
see a great growth opportunity going forward with the infrastructure management of Canada.
The changing and the government putting more money in to infrastructure in the future.ÿ
>> A lot of what we're doing here is, taking a part what our parents or our grandparents
assembled on the assembly line. Essentially if you will, this is a disassembly plant where
all those products that were made and manufactured on the assembly line are now being dismantled
and everything down to the nuts, the screws to the bolts and the compressors and the conveyors
and the metals and the wires are all being reused. Unfortunately a lot of this material
is bulked and shipped over seas to India and China where those emerging markets have a
huge appetite for scrap metals. Gary is going to talk to us a little bit about that and
what the dynamics are with respect to commodities on the global market today. Anyways stay tuned,
we're going to be right back James. James is going to take us on a tour through Thompson
metals here in Burlington. This is Going Green For Green, stay tuned.ÿ
>> Check us out online or follow us on YouTube Facebook and Twitter.
>> Going Green For Green is brought to you by the Royal Bank of Canada.ÿ
>> This pacific sea container over here, we're loading for over seas. Various ferrous material.
We call it heavy melt material and as you can see the crane puts it on the dock and
the skid steer pushes it in.ÿ
>> We bring various goods such as communication cable, copper, fridges which we dismantle.
We take the compressors out, aluminium rads, we cut the extension cords, the copper and
we'll segregate it. As well as vehicles that also come here. Again, we'll take everything
apart. The fuel tank, we'll dispose of it properly and all the oils and we'll dispose
of the tires, the interior and we'll salvage in metal and segregate where applicable. We
also have a bunch of aluminium rads that come in from vehicles and other equipment. Doesn't
necessarily have to be cars, sometimes it's just industrial equipment. Something as very
simple as pop cans come in through this facility. Aluminium rims from a vehicles, also aluminium
trimmings from various machine shops. Insulated wire from communication cable. Painted aluminium
to just regular copper and then it's graded from our boys inside peddler area. Each container
can vary anywhere from thirty to 38,000 to 60,000 pounds. The bulk of our material here
in this section is shipped to India and China, the majority of it. So an example like this
is actually pill covers from a medical lab and this is lead and aluminium together and
its another process that we do. Here at Thompson metals, Quantum Murray, we look at everything
as a resource. We try to find new innovative ways to do things and make things work so
that it's beneficial not only to the company but to the environment and we, there are a
lot of trial and errors we do take in place but for 10 trial and errors, eight of them
turn out in the positive manner for the company and for everybody in general. We have a Hamilton
facility that we do a lot of sorting, which means that every day garbage from contractors
or residential waste now when the truck dumps on their floor, we actually have a few pickers
that go through the garbage and take out the aluminium. The copper, anything that we can
recycle, extension cords, anything we pull out of that garbage by hand and then it goes
in to separate bins. We take the bins back to our Burlington facility and from there
we do more sorting, weigh it, then we ship it. Regular number one copper and then again
this comes in from demo sites that we sort or just regular contractors, residential and
it comes here and we put it through our shear. We have a man cutting it in to small pieces
and then we stack it nicely and ready for shipment.
>> This is some aluminium metal here, this is the way we get it. We then load it with
a bobcat, that loads it in to our hopper. From there what happens is a ram comes in
and pushes it. It compresses it and makes it in to a bail and that's the end result
there.
>> I don't think us putting a large amount of scrap on the market effects the commodities.
What affects the commodity, the scrap commodity most is the amount of material that is taken
off shore to the emerging markets. Turkey is a very large producer of steel and supplies
a lot of the arab countries throughout that region. India and China have added steel mills
at unprecedented pace and their consumption when the market is strong and any, one of
those markets their appetite for scrap is quite large. So when we start to read about
boat loads of scrap being shipped off any of the atlantic or pacific ports, you can
almost guarantee that commodity might make an upward movement in North American to compete
with the loss of scrap, as it is very much a supply and demand driven price with scrap
steel. You know one of the challenges we do face in our division within our company of
Quantum Murray is out of the three with the exception of demolition we're probably the
most capital intensive requirements in as I said early the cost of some of this equipment
runs in to the millions of dollars and one of the processes that we want to add to our
operation perhaps is a car shredder. The technology advancement in car shredders has grown immensely.
The emissions controls, the source separation of all the different metals done mechanically
versus manually. We can compete with the any of the growth, emerging markets in asia that
usually use cheap labour to sort those commodities but it is a very capital intensive investment
but one that we see a great growth with the obsolete scrap grades with the growth of the
gta area and other highly densely populated areas in Canada such as Edmonton or Vancouver.ÿ
>> Check us out online or follow us on YouTube Facebook and Twitter.
>> Going Green For Green is brought to you by Ontario Electronic Stewardship & RecycleYourElectronics.Caÿ
>> Within the community of London is a site called Pottersburg, it's actually a small
little municipality on the fringes of of London area.ÿ
>> And Pottersburg is a place where the Ministry of Environment decided to store large amounts
of PCBs, of course PCB's we know, poly chlorinated biphenyls which are quite volatile and are
carcinogens and have both the ability to effect the quality of air we breath, certainly the
water we drink and even for that matter the ground we walk. The advancement of PCB destruction
has finally allowed the Ministry of Environment to deal with the pottersburg site and quantum
murray has been contracted to uncover and remove the PCB contaminated soils and truck
them north of Quebec City where they have been destroyed by Bennet Environmental Group.ÿ
>> Clearly what Pottersburg, the Pottersburg site is a very contentious site in that the
contaminants have been there for over 25 years. What our client, the Ministry of Environment
Ontario did which I think was fantastic was they brought a different level of thinking
to it. They didn't just look at it as an environmental clean up. They said, you know this is a community
issue. This is an area issue so they have a community advisory group that gets together,
talks about how we do this site. They elevated on typically a dig and dump site you would
see our equipment out working in an open field. Here we're putting a cover over top of the
entire site. We're going to build a building and work inside the building so there are
zero emissions coming off of our site while we're doing it. Those types of things that
the ministry did that are really leading edge. They also did a quality base selection. Often
times, clients look at what's going to cost us the least amount of money. What most clients
have realized is that the sticker price at the beginning of the job often bares no resemblance
to the sticker price at the end of the job if they pick the wrong partner to work with
so if you look at a quality based selection, your cost control over the project is significantly
better because in the environmental business, you know you drill a two inch hole to find
out what's in the ground. It's not until you actually in the ground, that you have a full
understanding of the project and then it's the character of the people you're working
with that determine how that project goes from there on. So I should clarify, it's not
a dump site, there was a clean up that happened in the early 80's on an old industrial site
that generated a lot of PCB contaminated soils. Now in the early 80's there was no solution
to destroying contaminated, PCB contaminated soils so large storage vaults were constructed
in the ground to store this material in such, until such time as there was a solution. Today
we have a solution, today what we're doing is we're going in to the site and removing
those soils for safe destruction. Really our business is, the challenges are in logistics
and, well actually it comes down to logistics so cleaning up a dew line site in the arctic
is a lot more challenging than cleaning up the site next door to our Toronto yard here
so those, those challenges are standard construction challenges. When we get in to product and
waste handling, really the challenge for those is where you have co-mingled contaminants.
So in soils if we have a gasoline mixed with a metal contaminated soil or ain buildings
as they say if we have dry wall and floor tile mixed with windows mixed in a pile it's
very difficult to do, beneficial reuse for those. That's really what we look for, is
how can we continue to segregate things more efficiently to allow for beneficial reuse.
Those are some of the challenges. There's every, every site has very particular challenges
which make them unique and we've had our fair share of them. Ground water, if there's active
ground water, high odours on site, those kinds of things are challenges but they're things
that you work your way through.ÿ
>> Today we find ourselves at Yonge and Dundas Square, in the heart of the city. And we?re
going to talk to you and find out what issues you feel are important about the environment.
Would you consider yourself concerned about the environment?
>> Very much so.
>> Yes
>> Of course I am, yeah.
>> Yeah, I?m concerned about the environment.
>> Yeah, yeah, I think about it, sure.
>> Yes I am.
>> And what would you consider your biggest concern?
>> I would say the amount of fresh water on earth is my biggest concern.
>> Things to do with the ocean and pollution of the ocean.
>> Just basic things that everyone needs to survive, so basic needs, like clean water.
>> I?ve been reading more, and thinking about industrial. And Ithink it is pretty out of
control.
>> What is it that you guys have been doing to make a difference, if anything?
>> Definitely not using as many lights. Turning them off when they're not being used.
>> I choose to be a vegetarian to lessen the amount of resources it takes to produce meat.
>> Cycling and recycling.
>> I use a drying rack instead of putting my clothes in the dryer.
>> Overall, there?s a commitment to try to live a more sustainable existence and be at
peace with this world. You know, some people think water is more important, some people
think food is more important, but overall, everybody is committed to living a better
and sustainable life.
>> Check us out online or follow us on Youtube Facebook and Twitter.