Cascadia’s Research Department provides groundbreaking research and technical consulting services to support our mission of leading a transformation towards a built environment that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Our research efforts help to further the adoption and understanding of the Living Building Challenge and other high performance policies, programs and standards throughout North America and beyond.

Our research efforts provide valuable tools and resources to the building industry and government agencies to support the green building movement. Below are examples of our most recent reports and technical findings.

CLEAN WATER HEALTHY SOUND

This study provides insight on the pros and cons of four commonly proposed decentralized and distributed treatment systems and how they relate to conventional practices at different density scales. Overall environmental impacts associated with each wastewater treatment system are compared and analyzed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).  A separate conveyance analysis looks at how density relates to environmental impacts associated with moving wastewater from its point of generation to a central location, regardless of the treatment technology employed. Based on the findings of this LCA study, conclusions are drawn that indicate that gravity-fed, lower energy decentralized treatment approaches have fewer negative environmental impacts when compared to conventional, centralized treatment and conveyance systems.

 View the press release for Clean Water, Healthy Sound here.

AFFORDABLE, SUSTAINABLE HOMES

The Eco-Sense home is a Living Building Challenge Petal Certified home built on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.  The cob house is 200 square meters and was built by the owners for six members of a multi-generational family.  It has five bedrooms, two baths and two kitchens, and is located in the Highlands municipality of the Capital Regional District on Vancouver Island.  This report focuses on the energy and water performance of the house during one year of monitoring, June 15th, 2010 to June 15th, 2011, and also addresses the code barriers and opportunities that arose with the project. Please click here for the report appendix.

Policy-Making for Healthy, 
Resilient Water Systems in the Puget Sound

Maintaining the health and resiliency of our waters bodies is critical—not only for ensuring fresh water for residents, but also for recreation and industries which rely on water as well as protection of the plentiful wildlife who also reside in the Puget Sound basin. Yet growing populations, greater urbanization, and variables such as changing weather patterns place our ecosystems at risk.

Appropriately applied on-site water and wastewater systems hold great promise for enhancing the health and resiliency of the Puget Sound, but lack of information and regulatory support for these systems in many cases prohibit their use.
This policy-making toolkit is intended to assist communities as they re-imagine water and wastewater in a more holistic framework and consider the lifecycle impacts of systems when making capital investment decisions.  It provides local and regional policy makers, planners, and community members with recommendations for enhancing the health and resiliency of their water infrastructure through greater support for of smaller, site-scale and distributed systems.

Comparative Analysis of Prescriptive, Performance-Based, and Outcome-Based Energy Code Systems 

Prepared for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, this report provides an overview of the pros and cons of various energy code systems and how they compare in their ability to predict and measure actual energy performance. The report also provides recommendations to AHFC for adopting a "code" path for their emerging energy retrofit revolving loan program.

regulatory pathways to net zero water

Intended for projects pursing net zero water strategies, this report describes obstacles present within current codes, identifies possible alternative pathways for seeking approvals, and provides guidance to Seattle-area design teams pursuing the goals of the Living Building Challenge.

Toward Net Zero Water: 
Best Management Practices for Decentralized Sourcing and Treatment

Increasing populations will place growing demands on our nation’s aging water and wastewater infrastructure.  The integration of “closed-loop” systems that emphasize water efficiency, and on-site supply, treatment and reuse is becoming increasingly important as communities seek to strengthen the resiliency of their water systems.  This report offers best management practices for designing safe, efficient and effective net zero water systems at the single family, multi-family/commercial and neighborhood scales. It contains an overview of best practices and technologies for decentralized and distributed water systems, with special focus on rainwater harvesting for potable and non-potable uses, greywater reclamation, and onsite wastewater treatment including composting toilets. Case studies illustrate best-in-class examples of innovative water systems used by actual projects from around the globe.

Produced through funding from Compton Foundation, Inc., this manual is intended for building owners, designers and regulatory agencies to better understand net zero water strategies and how they might be applied in American cities.

High Performance Green Building: What's it Worth?

Interest and investment in high performance green/sustainable buildings have grown substantially over the last 15 years. Despite this increased attention, these buildings account for only a small percentage of the markets across the United States and Canada. While there has been a great deal of discussion about the value that these buildings provide, there is a significant disconnect between the building/design community and the financial/investment community on how to quantify and validate this value. Further, there is no consensus between these communities regarding what exactly is meant by the term value. Often, the two groups are using the same words but speaking different languages.

The primary purpose of this study is to help bridge the gap in understanding between these two distinct but interrelated communities by providing information about the valuation of high performance green buildings with a focus on commercial investment office properties.

Code, Regulatory, and Systemic Barriers Affecting Living Building Projects

This report addresses both systemic and specific regulatory barriers encountered by projects pursuing the goals and prerequisites established by the Living Building Challenge within the U.S. and Canada. The methodology employed in developing it included examining the range of Cascadia Green Building Council: Copyright 2009 regulatory and other approvals required to design and build leading-edge projects, surveying Living Building Challenge project teams, researching and reviewing existing literature on this topic, and interviewing knowledgeable experts across the U.S. and Canada in the public and private sectors, in research, and in non-governmental organizations.

City of Vancouver/ Clark County Code Study

Cascadia is working with the City of Vancouver, WA, and Clark County, WA, to identify and address code and regulatory barriers to the Living Building Challenge for sustainable, affordable, residential development. The Code Study identified 6 green residential projects built or under development in the region that were assessed against Cascadia’s Living Building Challenge criteria. A detailed review of the case study projects against the city and county’s land use, development, and building codes was performed to highlight the potential obstacles projects may encounter.  This project is funded through the Washington State Department of Community Trade & Economic Development.

Living Building Financial Study

A subsequent endeavor to the widely distributed ‘Packard Sustainability Matrix’, published by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 1999, the purpose of Cascadia’s Financial Study is to investigate the economic obstacles to creating Living Buildings, and determine how these vary based on building type and location. Using an RFP process, Cascadia contracted with a multi-disciplinary team, including SERA Architects, Gerding/Edlen Development, Skanska Construction, Interface Engineering, and New Buildings Institute.

Achieving Water Independence in Buildings

In pursuing the Living Building Challenge for a conceptual affordable housing project, Central City Concern, a non-profit owner of affordable housing in Portland, OR, initiated research to understand the regulatory, technological and behavioral barriers to achieve net-zero water.

Central City Concern’s report, Achieving Water Independence in Buildings, explains water reuse strategies and what current Oregon regulations allow. Their approach helped achieve statewide rainwater and greywater allowances in Oregon and may offer guidance for those in other states wishing explore the possibilities of water reuse in buildings and those wishing to reform limiting regulation.