As Civil Engineer on the award-winning VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre, Binnie is proud to announce that the project is the first in Vancouver to achieve the Living Building Challenge Petal certification.

Granted by the International Living Future Institute, this certification measures sustainability in the built environment. The Visit Centre has achieved certification in three categories: Site, Materials, Health and Beauty.  The Visitor Centre uses on-site, renewable sources as a means to achieve net-zero energy each year – sources such as geothermal boreholes, solar photovoltaics, and solar hot water tubes. Wood is the primary building material. Binnie is proud to have designed an integrated stormwater management plan for the Centre, with features to achieve volume reduction, rate control, and to improve water quality.

In 2014, the Visitor Centre was named “Most Sustainable Building of the Year” by World Architecture News.