8 l ROOFINGBC l SPRING 2018 RCABC UPDATE BRYAN WALLNER Chief Executive Officer, RCABC Mack Kirk Roofing & Sheet Metal Ltd. "Between the world andthe weather since 1908" 130 - 18799 Airport Way, Pitt Meadows, B.C. V3Y 2B4 Office: 604.258.7121 Fax: 604.258.7122 info@mackkirkroofing.com www.mackkirkroofing.com We Supply The Best Roofing Products & Warranties In Both the Commercial and Residential Markets. Experience • Quality • In Business For Over 30 Years 604-792-9600 info@cascaderoofing.ca www.cascaderoofing.ca We Supply The Best Roofing Products & Warranties In Both the Commercial and Residential Markets. Z EBcoE, not to be confused with the legendary Zebco 33 spincast reel, stands for Zero Ener- gy Building Centre of Excellence, a project that underpins the City of Vancouver’s The Greenest City Action Plan. This plan includes a target to achieve carbon neutral new construction by 2020. New city-owned buildings have to comply immediately. The 2020 deadline helps support the City’s Renewable City Strategy target to have all buildings in Vancouver (including those already built) use only renewable energy by the year 2050. Innovation In July 2016, the Vancouver City Council passed a reso- lution to create the Zero Emissions Building Centre of Excellence with the mission to “facilitate the compilation and dissemination of the knowledge and skills required to design, permit, build and operate zero emission build- ings in B.C., and directed staff to engage partners, secure matching funding, consult with stakeholders and report back with recommendations for implementation in 2017.” The City subsequently issued an RFP for hosting and delivering the ZEBcoE. RCABC was a supporting partner to a proposal – submitted by the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) – that engaged a broad group of industry stakeholders. Currently, VRCA is the preferred (only) proponent, is in the final stages of contract negotiation with the City, Passive House Canada and the Open Green Building Society, and is looking for a talented individual to be ZEBcoE’s Executive Director. This onion has lots of layers, many of which intersect on the roof and greater building envelope. Through its support of VRCA, RCABC will: •  Convene on an as-needed basis a range of training sessions (developed in partnership with Passive House and/or others) applicable to roofing, moisture and air barrier trades at our training centre in Langley. •  Promote zero emissions building training and events to our members on an ongoing basis. People RCABC has taken a leadership position over the past year educating and training special interest groups to recruit candidates to the roofing trade. High school, refugee and corrections programs have introduced over 200 potential labourers and apprentices to the trade. ZEBcoE and the technologies required to meet the ambitious City plans will challenge the labour market to provide high end labour. In an article by Jason Spector in Genentech Media, Sean Pander, head of the City’s green building program, discussed the impact on local labour and local manufacturing: “An increase in demand for high-end building compo- nents and the labour needed to install them will change the economic landscape of Vancouver’s building industry. The city contends it will do so by adding more jobs in the region that can’t be shipped overseas. There’s some solid logic here. The more sophisticated detail work has to be done locally, of course. Beyond that, the types of materials the high-performance buildings will need, like windows and insulation, are not the kind of thing that developers like to import from far away. That bodes better for the region than an approach that relied on fancy equipment imported from Europe or Asia. The local workforce will need to grow and adapt, though. That’s why the city wants to set up the centre to exchange practical knowledge about actually doing this kind of work.” A Google of “zero emission buildings Vancouver” produces articles with words like bold, innovative, leap-frog and North American leader to describe the path Vancouver has chosen. RCABC will be there to help get the message out through its partnership with VRCA and ZEBcoE, providing education and training to our members and stakeholders that will allow them to assess and adapt to the new requirements. IF YOU HAVEN’T HEARD OF ZEBCOE, YOU WILL SOON