Past Green Building Festivals
Visit Sustainable Buildings Canada’s YouTube channel to view select presentations and panel discussions from past Green Building Festivals.
BIO: Ecological Principles in Buildings & Cities
Our first digital Festival, the 2020 Green Building Festival presented some of the most innovative approaches for buildings and cities to both mimic and nurture ecosystems. Explore Biodiversity, Biomimicry, Biogenics, Bioresources, Bioeconomy and other generative processes that strive to achieve circularity and the enhancement of nature in the built environment.
Simple vs Complex: Building in a Changed Climate
At GBF19, we explored how to simultaneously design for the extremes of a changed climate and build in a way to reverse those changes. Whether designs and technology are more complex or simple but sophisticated, presenters showed how they (and we) can meet the challenge.
Healthy Environments Large and Small
We tend to think of ‘health’ in terms of our personal well-being but it is inextricably dependent on the environments we create and affect. From indoor environmental quality standards to net zero projects, from material choices to biophilic cities, GBF18 examined how we can build healthy environments while maintaining a healthy environment.
Form Follows Nature: Building a Net Positive Environment
The world’s most advanced buildings and cities are eliminating carbon and making positive contributions to energy, air and water. Discover the processes, problems and solutions that result in projects that do more good than harm: retrofitting homes to net-zero in one day, tons of carbon sequestered in hybrid wood hi-rises, intensifying housing without towers, collaborative project delivery, transformative energy innovations and more.
Resilient and Regenerative Urban Environments
Taking the unique opportunity to join the international iiSBE ‘Sustainable Built Environment’ conference series, the 2016 Green Building Festival (SBE16Toronto) saw expert presentations, technical workshops and juried research papers from international presenters on the theme of ‘Resilient and Regenerative Urban Environments’.
SBE16 Program Guide Technical Papers & Presentations Keynote and Panelist Presentations
Building Resilient Communities
On October 1st 2015, 275 sustainable building professionals and experienced green building practitioners heard from international experts on cutting-edge projects and inspiring case studies addressing the theme Community-scale planning and development for a more resilient urban landscape. 2015 Festival Program Guide.
ResilienCity: the new urban paradigm
In October 2014, hundreds of green building professionals came together for an action-packed day focused on best practices to address climate-driven threats to our cities and sustainable planning, design, engineering, and building solutions. 2014 Festival Program Guide.
Integrated Solutions for District-Scale Sustainability
In October 2013, delegates learned from international case studies including East London, U.K., Malmö, Sweden, and the Seattle 2030 District. Attendees also heard from Canadian experts in district-scale water and energy systems, adaptive reuse, transportation, and city planning. 2013 Festival Program Guide.
New Codes, Better Buildings
For two days in October 2012, delegates gathered at Evergreen Brick Works to learn about and discuss changes to Building Codes at both the national and provincial levels that represented significant advancements in regulatory instruments intended to improve building performance. As part of three distinct programming streams, attendees learned about how buildings and communities can meet and exceed the new code requirements. 2012 Festival Program Guide.