Funds for freshwater centre flowing in.

Money is beginning to trickle in towards building one of the most energy efficient laboratories in North America.

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In August, the future home of the Laurentian University's Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit and its research staff received $2 million in construction money from Queen's Park, the first of many public and private contributions expected this fall.

"We've made six gift sculptures for each major donor," says university biologist Dr. John Gunn, a Canada Research Chair specializing in stressed aquatic systems, "so we're hoping for six cheques."

Architects and researchers on the project's core review team were tweaking the final designs of the Living with Lakes Centre. They're shooting for LEED platinum certification, the highest rating under the United States Green Council standards for environmentally sustainable construction.

"We want to be able to hang the plaque in our front hall."

Gunn and the capital fundraising staff are waiting on contributions from FedNor, the City of Greater Sudbury and Sudbury's two major miners, CVRD Inco and Xstrata Nickel.

Previously, the aquatic research building project collected $800,000 from Canada Innovation for Innovation and Ontario Innovation Trust.

Construction of the Living with Lakes Centre is expected to cost $10.4 million. Adding modern lab equipment, furnishings, combined with project management and other fees added pushed the project to $15.8 million.

Compared to conventional building methods, the LEED design is expected to create about $1 million in annual energy savings.

The 30,000-square-foot centre for the aquatic research unit is moving slightly off-campus to the university's eight-acre Ramsey Lake property. The Robertson Cottage on the site will be demolished.

Construction tenders can't put out until a more substantial amount of money for construction is raised, says Gunn.

But the building is tentatively expected to be under construction or complete by 2009.

The centre is expected to create 30 new jobs in technical positions and research posts.

Achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification means leaving as small an environmental footprint on the site as possible while using recycled material where necessary and sustainable sources of energy. It means minimal site disturbance with no construction waste trucked to the landfill.

Partnering on the project are Sudbury's J.L. Richards & Associates and Vancouver's Busby, Perkins + Will, a leading green building design firm.

LEED buildings are not a new concept. Many such structures are going up from Vancouver, to California, to India.

But one has never been built in a northern climate "with a decent snow load," says Gunn. And it's never been done on a project featuring an active lab with equipment drawing power around the clock.

"The weather is hardest to deal with. With snow and frozen conditions, we don't know whether the energy and water systems will work perfectly.

Some of the building's features include a green roof, a geo-thermal energy system and ways to incorporating waste material like industrial slag into the site design.

While other LEED buildings meet all the standards of minimal energy use, the Sudbury centre will also use as little water as possible. Some of it will be gathered from the local watershed.

Through a specially constructed wetland and bio-swales, water emptying into Lake Ramsay, Sudbury's main drinking water reservoir, will be in a cleaner state than when it entered the site.

"We hope to succeed on all fronts," says Gunn.

Laurentian researchers are seeking an additional $7 million more to test out the performance of these natural systems in cold climates.

"It's good to view the whole thing as an experiment and a learning experience on how to do it better for the next LEED building," says Gunn.

To showcase many of the design elements, things such as pipes and insulation will be exposed, "not buried under dry-wall."

The Living with Lakes Centre will be very much a public building. The university is inviting the City of Greater Sudbury to be a full research partner with an environmental stewardship office housing municipal water technicians. Science North has also been approached about creating a youth program to expose young people to the workings of an active lab.

Some of the aquatic research work already underway delves into projects on climate change, bio-mediation of mine waste, the fur harvest in Ontario, and forest harvest practices around streams.

www.coopunitlaurentian.ca

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business