Clarification on Canadian Green Building Programs

Clarification on Canadian Green Building Programs

Regarding your article “Promoting Green Buildings in Canada,” published in the July/August issue of

Environmental Building News, I would like to clarify the relationship between the Green Building Information Council (GBIC) and the Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria (BEPAC).

Firstly, a reader might incorrectly construe from your article that the two programs are self-serving. The BEPAC Foundation is a non-profit organization responsible for the continued development, updating, implementation and promotion of the BEPAC program. The GBIC is a non-profit organization created to foster a stronger link and collaboration between those engaged in buildings and environment-related activities. The GBIC’s primary aim is to stimulate public and private efforts to advance the energy and environmental performance of buildings through the creation, exchange and application of appropriate and timely information—the BEPAC program is one of the many forms of such information. Although they involve many of the same personalities, the BEPAC Foundation and GBIC have clearly defined, independent goals and organizational structures.

Secondly, both the BEPAC and GBIC represent the efforts of a number of people. The GBIC, in particular, was initiated primarily through the considerable efforts of Nils Larsson of CANMET, Natural Resources Canada. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify the distinction.

Dr. Raymond J. Cole

School of Architecture

University of British Columbia

Vancouver, Canada

Editor’s responseOur apologies for misconstruing the relationship between the organizations and failing to acknowledge the role of Nils Larsson and others in their formation. It is also worth noting that the BEPAC program received a Citation in Progressive Architecture

magazine’s Second Annual Awards for Architectural Research (P/A July 1995).