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Buildgreen Saskatchewan, a major green conference planned for those in the construction sector, is aiming to foster more inter-disciplinary collaboration in an effort to bring forward much-needed decarbonizing provincial solutions.

Solutions such as Regina’s $313.6 million aquatic centre that broke ground Aug. 20. Crews will drill more than two kilometres underground tapping into naturally occurring hot water for heating the facility.

“It is a first for Saskatchewan,” said Buildgreen Saskatchewan chairman Ayo Daniel Abiola, P.Eng, CDP (ASHRAE) of the net-zero facility, which is also the first in Canada for an aquatics centre.

“Saskatchewan has a particular challenge, with an energy emission factor of 660 grams CO2e/KWH compared to the national average of 100 g/kWh,” according to a press release issued by conference organizers, the Saskatoon and Regina Chapters of ASHRAE.

The two-day conference, to be held Nov. 12 and 13 at Hilton’s DoubleTree conference centre in Regina, will bring together contractors, government representatives, architects and engineers and those involved in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration industries to find decarbonizing building innovations.

Abiola said the challenge is not only making buildings more energy efficient and decreasing carbon output but doing it in a way that it lessens the impact on the environment.

“We should be looking at collaborative ideas as much as possible and knowledge sharing,” he said, rather than stakeholders working in a silo mindset.

Conference organizers are calling the conference “a call to action that will redefine a collaborative approach to sustainability.”

It features speaker panels, workshops as well as building tours and a two-day tradeshow.

Keynote speaker at the Buildgreen Saskatchewan conference is Ginger Scoggins, a 2023-24 past president of ASHRAE, known for tackling the challenges presented by climate change.

Scoggins, a licensed mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience, is president and co-owner of Engineered Designs Inc., a full-service engineering firm she founded over 25 years ago. She is also a certified commissioning agent and certified energy manager who has worked on the design and commissioning of projects ranging from $4 million up to $90 million.

The conference begins with a tour of the University of Regina buildings as it is recognized as a leader in environmental, climate change and clean energy research.

Participants can tour the university’s central heating plant to see a sustainable water treatment system which has a non-chemical solution that improves HVAC efficiency and reduces water and maintenance costs.

The Kirk Tower is also part of the tour and became Western Canada’s first highrise with in-floor HVAC. This system cut energy use by 30 per cent and improved campus-wide electrical efficiency.

On day one at a workshop, ASHRAE instructor Doug Cochrane will teach Introduction to Building De-carbonization, a course offered through the ASHRAE Learning Institute.

The course focuses on the framework of decarbonization, including key definitions and distinct scopes that drive sustainable practices. It also looks at a wide range of topics including building carbon emissions, onsite combustion and refrigerant leakage. The course concludes on the topic of sustainable building innovation and setting a foundation of best practices for a de-carbonizing HVAC&R industry.

Numerous panels will be held over the two-day conference with presenters drawn from across Canada. There will be a presentation by Murdoch MacPherson (principal for MacPherson Engineering),  Neil Struthers (Regina engineer) and Cassidy Taylor (AME Group) on Regina’s direct deep geothermal energy aquatic  facility.

The session explores the research, funding and partnerships that made this pioneering project possible. Presenters will share lessons from international case studies and insights into design and implementation in a cold-climate context.

Daniel Benner, with the Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association, will present on the association’s low-carbon demonstration projects.

Between 2020 and 2023, it supported 20 demonstration projects testing 38 emerging technologies across diverse building types. These projects explored low-carbon materials, high-performance envelope systems, net-zero, Passive House and AI-driven operational optimization.

Brian Brunskill will present on compressed air energy storage (CAES) in salt caverns which can be converted into electricity on demand.

The technology has been proven out over decades in Germany and the U.S. and used in conjunction with Saskatchewan’s abundant wind and solar potential. CAES can provide low-carbon, dispatch-able electricity for the province.

The conference will finish off the second day with an evening community session led by Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski as moderator.

Panel participants include Pat Parrott, program consultant for SaskPower, and Arman Mottaghi, CEO of Properate.

Properate is a Vancouver startup that uses artificial intelligence to help homebuilders create cost-efficient and energy efficient building designs. Mottaghi has developed partnerships with five B.C. cities and has helped more than 200 builders construct energy-efficient homes.

A full speakers’ agenda can be found at the conference website or direct question to event manager, Karen Turner by email karen@turnereventmanagement.com.