Pre-Symposium Field Trips

10:00pm - 4:00pm

Thursday, November 6th

Welcome to our Pre-Symposium Tours!

It is our pleasure to highlight seven fantastic local initiatives that connect to our symposium!  

Please…

  • Take a look, and select the tour that you would like to attend.

  • Locations for all tours are shown – simply show up promptly at 2 PM for the tour of your choice!

  • Please note that these tours are restricted to symposium registrants.

This year we are excited to offer two timeslots for field trips! The first field trips will begin at 10am and the second group will begin at 12:00pm. See below for the field trip schedule and more details on each location.

Discover Banff’s Most Sustainable Buildings

This tour will begin at the Malcolm Hotel at 9:30am where participants will board an electric ROAM bus. The field trip will include three sites in Banff including the ROAM Transit Centre, Banff’s Biomass Facility, and the Banff Public Pavilion. For more details on each site, see below. The detailed field trip schedule is as follows:

  • 9:30am - Pick up at the Malcolm Hotel

  • 10:00am - Stop 1 @ District heating facility

  • 10:45am - Stop 2 @ ROAM Bus Depot

  • 11:30am - head to Pavilion

  • 11:45am - Stop 3 @ Banff’s Public Pavilion

  • 12:30 - Stop downtown Banff to allow for 1 hour lunch break (lunch not provided by the symposium)

  • 1:30pm - load up the bus downtown Banff and drive back to the Malcolm Hotel

  • 2:00pm - Drop off at the Malcolm Hotel

Banff’s Public Pavilion

The Town of Banff’s Banff Recreation Grounds Public Pavilion is constructed to Passive House Low Energy Building standards, as well as Rick Hansen Accessibility Certification.  Design features include super-insulated foundations, walls, and roof, unique dowel-laminated timber walls, triple and quadruple-paned windows, a solar array, and 100% electric heat pump heating and cooling system.  This tour will be led by staff from the town of Banff and SSRIA (Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association).  

Banff’s Biomass Facility

The Town of Banff created a biomass district heating system to provide renewable heat for four municipal buildings. The biomass district heating system uses a high-tech boiler to burn waste wood, like wood chips, that previously would go to landfill. The advanced combustion chambers produce extremely clean emissions, representing less than a single campfire. Eliminating fossil fuels from heating and reducing waste going to landfills significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

ROAM Transit Operations and Training Centre

Roam Transit operates transit service throughout the Bow Valley, carrying over 2.7 million riders in 2024. The Roam Transit Operations and Training Centre in Banff opened in 2021 and is home to the Roam fleet of 41 buses, of which 13 are fully electric and another 4 are hybrid electric.  The building is highly efficient, with 680 solar panels on the roof and heated entirely by a district heat system that fuels 4 buildings in the area. The tour will include a demonstration of the Roam Transit driving simulator and the electric bus charging infrastructure within the building.

 

Exploring Geo-exchange at the Malcolm, and Spring Creek

Our symposium is held at Spring Creek's Malcolm Hotel, and Spring Creek' staff will spotlight two exciting elements of their work. You will get a chance to tour the new Spring Creek Staff Accommodation building, a near net-zero condominium being built to Built Green Platinum certification.  Plus, Spring Creek's multiple large buildings extensively use geoexchange, an open loop groundwater circulation and heat exchange system to heat and cool buildings, and you'll get a chance to view both a completed system and a retrofit currently under construction in the Malcolm Hotel itself!  Meet in the lobby of the Malcolm Hotel at 2 PM.

 

Dealing responsibly with construction and demolition waste

Sustainable building includes dealing responsibly with construction and demolition waste.  The Francis Cooke Regional Resource Recovery Centre & Class III Landfill implements resource recovery for asphalt, concrete, drywall, metal, glass, wood, topsoil, shingles, and organics.  This tour will help you learn about the circular economy, and what you can do to keep materials out of the landfill, and will be led by staff from the Bow Valley Waste Management Commission.  The site is just 45 minutes west of Calgary - an easy stop on your way to Canmore. Meet just past the weigh scale at the Landfill at 2 PM.

Near Net Zero Fire Station

The new Canmore Fire Station, located at 1200 Steward Road, became operational in January of 2024. It is an 8-bay facility with a total area of over 19,000sqft. It showcases many sustainable building design features, including a 178KW DC rooftop solar system and air source heat pump. In alignment with Town of Canmore’s corporate goal of reducing its greenhouse gas production by 50% in 2030, this facility is designed to be one of Alberta’s first fire stations to meet net zero energy standards. This tour will showcase the form and function of a facility that symbolizes community resiliency in the context of sustainable development. Meet at the Fire Station at 12 pm.

Canmore’s Greenest Home?

This is a just-completed, all-electric, net-zero-ready Passive House built atop a reclaimed coal mine. The high-performance building envelope was assembled from offsite-fabricated panels. The windows and doors are Passive House Cold Climate certified, and feature exterior motorized shades. Heating and cooling are provided by a Ground-Source Heatpump, while a heatpump Water Heater provides domestic hot water. The house exterior and ventilation systems are designed to protect the house in the event of wildfires, and the decking is made from fire-resistant bamboo composite. The tour will be presented by the owner and (scheduling permitting) the designers and builders.  Meet at the home at 12 pm.