CVC installs Canada’s first ICC-compliant smart blue roof

Photo courtesy CVC.

Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) recently constructed and commissioned a ‘smart blue roof’ at its head office in Mississauga, Ont., to store up to 40,000 L of rainwater on top of the building.

The roof will help cool the building during warmer weather by holding rainwater until it evaporates from the rooftop, thus saving energy. The system can also store the non-potable water in a harvesting tank and then either reuse it or slowly release it back into the municipal stormwater system, reducing the risk of flooding, stream erosion and other ecological impacts. The roof is called ‘smart’ because it uses real-time weather information and control logic to determine how best to use the captured rainwater.

The project is reportedly Canada’s first International Code Council (ICC) compliant smart blue roof. Given increased risks of flooding, due to more extreme and unpredictable rainfall patterns, such stormwater management systems could be scaled for local communities across the country, particularly in highly urbanized areas.

CVC partnered with the multi-agency Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP) and was supported by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Intact Financial and the Region of Peel to construct the roof at its head office at 1255 Old Derry Road. The project team included WSP, Enviro-Stewards, Firenza Plumbing & Heating, Interpump, Kisters, PAC Building Group, Thaler Metal, Trio Roofing Systems and Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

Image courtesy CVC.

Coinciding with the replacement of CVC’s existing roof assembly, the project’s four stages included rooftop construction, modulating control valve installation, a third-floor water recirculation and treatment system and basement rainwater harvesting upgrades.

With construction complete, CVC is now assessing the system’s real-world performance to better understand how to scale the technology for thelocal  industrial, commercial and institutional sectors and for communities throughout Canada. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to be monitored over the next two years include:

• Total volume (m³) of stormwater removed from the storm sewer system.
• Total peak flow reduction (m³/s) to the storm sewer system.
• Estimated savings on the annual stormwater charge.
• Estimated annual water savings from rainwater reuse.
• Estimated annual energy savings from rooftop evaporative cooling.

CVC is a conservation authority established by the Ontario government in 1954 to protect, restore and enhance the natural environment of the Credit River watershed. It is a member of Conservation Ontario.

Image courtesy CVC.