Park centres are green LEEDersDinosaur Provincial Park is accustomed to attracting paleontologists to its unparalleled bone beds. But these days, it's as likely to draw a crowd of green-minded architects. They're coming to view the park's new interpretive centre, awarded Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for its impressive conservation of resources.
"Architecture groups are coming to the park to see the buildings, not the park," says Keith Bocking, Alberta Provincial Parks heritage appreciation team leader for Southern Alberta. "Our park peers from across the country have also been looking at what we're doing." Among its many green features, the interpretive centre at Dinosaur Provincial Park boasts a passive evaporation cooling tower, in which air passes through a wet fabric atop the tower and falls, creating a cooling downdraft on hot summer days. "It's not rocket science," says Bocking. "It's a simple technology that takes advantage of the fact that cooling air sinks." It's just one of four new energy-efficient interpretive centres in Alberta provincial parks, the result of an inspired provincial centennial project. There's another Gold LEED facility in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park, in north-central Alberta, and anticipated Silver LEED centres in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, both in the province's deep south. In keeping with LEED principles, the interpretive centres all used recycled materials and minimized waste during their construction and employ natural lighting, passive solar and opening windows so as to conserve considerable amounts of energy, while creating a pleasant working environment. They also combine waterless urinals and low-flow toilets to cut typical water use by more than half. The Lesser Slave Lake facility, which is distant from major utility corridors, is also using composting toilets and harnessing geothermal energy to provide winter heating and summer cooling. "We wanted to promote sustainable buildings, and they're located in provincial parks, which have a green mandate. It was a good fit. We thought we could also use them as classrooms to introduce park visitors to sustainable features that homeowners might consider," says Bocking, noting signage and brochures extol the buildings' green features.
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