Build Light

Helen Goodland, Executive Director

Light House Sustainable Building Centre

by LARISSA BUIJS

photo by Jaime Kowal

While green building in Vancouver is generating growing optimism within the industry and a buzz in the media, Helen Goodland says we’ve got a long way to go.

“The job is not underway to the extent we thought it was,” says Goodland, executive director of the new Light House Sustainable Building Centre on Granville Island. “Only about one to two per cent of the market is actually being built to green standards. Many people think cars and vehicles are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, but buildings are equally the culprit.”

The SBC is Goodland’s brainchild, created to fill a gap in information and resources on how to initiate and proceed with a sustain-able building project. The name is a metaphor for the Centre’s role as both a beacon for British Columbians and an example of how to “build light.”

Still, Goodland emphasizes the Centre’s neutrality. With a background in the public and private sectors and a wide understanding of issues faced by both, her interest in sustain­ability wasn’t so much an “aha” moment as an evolution. “Everybody feels like sustain­-ability is somewhat like religion, that you are touched by God at some point in your career.

I must admit that didn’t happen to me. But it always seemed a very logical thing that buildings should do their best to tread lightly on the planet.”