Sustainability + Resilience
Purposeful and responsive action must be undertaken, while ensuring equality is considered and the wellbeing of those who occupy or interact with the built environment is maintained.
Our formula starts with thoughtful discourse between our design team and the client at the initiation of every project and incorporated into work as appropriate to the project scope. We recognize that as a team, we all practice an aspect of architecture, and as a collective team of experts, we can harness the power of design to contribute to innovative, cost effective, and proven strategies for a multi-faceted approach to sustainability.
What sets METAFOR apart is that our solutions are rooted in a practice of experience, hands-on training, and a breadth of knowledge that is informed by historic design projects, operational knowledge, and continuous education – we truly care about learning and sharing that knowledge with others. Our network and strategic partnerships with engineers, contractors, manufacturers, and developers of data-driven building analytical tools means our project teams are enabled to see sustainability goals and objectives through successful implementation and reporting.
Our formula for success focuses on referencing national guidelines that will further inform design, being considerate to a changing climate, the cumulative and complementary impacts of multiple passive design features, and targeted system specifications. The likelihood of success is further enhanced by ensuring a culturally sensitive approach is taken to addressing energy literacy among building tenants and mitigating energy poverty for projects that specifically include housing.
At METAFOR, we are proud to continually improve our processes through the integration of building science engineering to create more effectively, durable, resilient, sustainable, high performance, inclusive and community minded buildings. Our approach allows clients to understand key metrics of their building to make more informed decisions about the design that are impacted by changing energy codes and building optimization.
Lessons learned from our extensive experience in a wide range of sectors across North America, including post construction phases for renewal and repairs, aids our process to better inform our designs and execution of new buildings.
Integrated Sustainability Solutions
- Design review services to ensure engineering and design reflect high performance building goals.
- High performance Building Science design for new building and existing building retrofits.
- Development of net-zero emissions strategies including building design, enclosure specifications, renewable energy systems design, and green energy contracting.
- High performance building feasibility studies, financing strategies, grant applications, and grant administration.
- Innovative financing solutions for building integrated renewable energy systems.
- Coordination of building certifications including LEED, WELL, EnerPHit/Passive House, and Zero Carbon Building Standard.
- Enhanced building commissioning or systems commissioning for enclosure and renewable energy systems.
Building Enclosure Commissioning
The BECx standards require the BECxA to have a fundamental understanding of the building enclosure, METAFOR delivers the service with an experienced understanding of the building enclosure bringing more value to the building owner.
The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) defines the Building Enclosure Commissioning as “a process utilized to validate that the design and performance of materials, components, assemblies, and systems achieve the objectives and requirements of the owner.”
Our services can be provided in relation to the pursuit of, or outside of LEED where the project seeks to ensure the performance of the building enclosure is verified and documented to meet the owner’s objectives.
- LEED V4 Enhanced Commissioning credits (2 Points)
- ASHRAE Guideline 0–2005
- National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Guideline 3–2012
- ASTM E2813 - 18 - Standard Practice for Building Enclosure Commissioning
- ASTM E2947-16a - Standard Guide for Building Enclosure Commissioning
