Ask the Expert: Josée Lupien

An innovator, visionary and a determined pioneer with over 20 years in green building, Josée Lupien is an expert ambassador for the green transition. Madame LEED, as she is often called, has been involved in the first LEED projects in Quebec and has to her credit 200 LEED, WELL, and Zero Carbon Building projects, as well as the development of sustainability strategies. Josée is the recipient of CAGBC’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement honour. She tells us more about her commitment to healthier and more welcoming buildings and her professional journey. 

How did your passion for sustainable building come about?

I come from a health sciences background, so the human aspect and well-being have always been very important to me. Before specializing in green building, I worked as an architectural specifications representative for a manufacturer. I had the opportunity to collaborate with architects, so after a while, materials held no secrets for me. I discovered the LEED certification as part of one of the first projects in Quebec where the company I represented had the only product that met LEED requirements. At the same time, the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) was created.

This passion for sustainable building, materials and well-being quickly became part of my discussions with my peers. Very quickly I began to share my knowledge about certification and presented LEED to architects with the aim of demystifying these new concepts. I got involved in founding the Quebec chapter of the CAGBC in the early 2000s, and sustainable building became my personal mission. This is when decided to found Vertima with my partner Jean DesRosiers, in 2008. So, the passion was always there, I just needed a trigger to make it a vocation. 

You have over a hundred projects under your belt, and the demand for sustainable buildings is only increasing. What solutions can easily be replicated at scale? 

In fact, we have completed more than 125 certified buildings and currently have 76 projects in progress. We also have other analysis mandates, disclosure reports and environmental product certifications. With regard to sustainable building, I have noticed in recent years more importance given to the envelope to improve performance, to the transition and energy performance, even more now with the Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) Standards. There is also the question of the embodied carbon in building materials which becomes second nature to reduce. From the start of a project, we carry out a building life cycle analysis. Another important element is the building site, which plays an important role in integrating the project into its environment, so that it has a minimal environmental footprint. There are low hanging fruits that we can easily reach through upstream decisions. 

A green building project is a lot of common sense and quality control. Be it for a LEED certification or another, we are required to measure our performance and not just wishful thinking. Third-party audits also bring rigor to the performance of the project. The good practices that we develop over time gradually become the rule, and the requirements of today become the standards of tomorrow, allowing us to raise the bar as we gain experience. 

Approximately 25 percent of your projects are based outside Quebec, in Canada and abroad. How do you export your expertise? 

We work as a third party with manufacturers nationally and internationally, in particular to produce environmental product declarations (EPD) and health product declarations (HPD). These standards and protocols are recognized internationally, and our clients contact us mainly through partner referrals and word of mouth. We even have a partner in Egypt with whom we are developing this market locally. Collaboration, rigor, transparency and value creation for our clients are our main values, and we are privileged to build relationships with those who share this same passion. The qualifications of our team and our numerous projects spanning over 16 years in the field have demonstrated rigor and diligence, which today allows us to have international references such as EPD International. 

Vertima has successfully tackled the decarbonization of multi-unit residential buildings. What is your approach to getting residential building owners and developers to meet the requirements of the ZCB – Design Standard? 

Indeed, Vertima coordinates several ZCB projects, and our materials expertise also allows us to carry out building life cycle analyses and embodied carbon assessments. Again, we are fortunate to have a good network of partners including engineers who deal with the energy transition aspect. Now for the ZCB Standards in particular, the complementarity of our expertise allows us to cover both dimensions: operational carbon and embodied carbon. I reiterate that collaboration is essential today with people who have the same values ​​and the same professionalism as us. 

Real estate owners and developers use certification as a lever to promote their project based on carbon footprint. We need to explain that embodied carbon is just as important, if not more, in reducing the footprint. Even before a project is started, we take the time to inform our clients about certification, clarify the process, the steps, and the creation of value for their assets. We really need to define the issues and opportunities to allow the client to have a global vision, a good understanding to make the best decisions. 

What is your main takeaway from Building Lasting Change 2024? 

Everything is moving so fast at an individual scale but not fast enough at an industry scale. There have been efforts at the financial level, on federal government commitments with the announcement on the Green Government Strategy, the announcement of Efficiency Capital and the Canada Infrastructure Bank for retrofits. Retrofits are very important, simply because the existing building stock allows us to reuse materials instead of buying new ones, and this is where the difference can be made on embodied carbon. What I also learned is the importance of harmonizing methods, among other things for calculating the building life cycle analysis. There were also a lot of discussions on the importance of sharing lessons learned. I really liked the concept of a National Embodied Carbon Summit because it was able to bring together industry experts, stakeholders, policy makers, architects and many others to stimulate our collective brains. Throughout the conference I took time to exchange with my peers, create business connections and above all to confirm our common vision. It was a reminder for me that today we have to do more with less. 

What does the Lifetime achievement honour represent for you ? What’s next ? 

It was a big surprise. Honestly, I never anticipated that I would receive this recognition alongside people I have long admired like Daniel Pearl and Peter Busby. Personally, I have always done things out of conviction and aligned with my deep values ​​of contributing to change. Receiving this award helped me take a step back, think about how far we have come over the past 20 years and have hope that the shift we are experiencing on a global scale will further accelerate our collective knowledge. and our practices.

If I have come this far, it also means that I still have a lot to give. This award is a real boost of energy. I consider myself more responsible than ever to continue, as an ambassador, to promote green building. I feel privileged to carry out this mission with my partner in life and in business Jean DesRosiers, with whom this dream has become a reality. Vertima would not exist without his vision and daily support. I am also very proud of our team who carry out our mission with such conviction.

Caring for buildings means caring for future generations, and we need to roll up our sleeves, break down silos and collaborate because there is still much to do. We are fortunate to be able to count on organizations such as CAGBC to carry out our collective mission. I’d like to thank CAGBC President and CEO Thomas Mueller and the entire CAGBC team for their daily efforts, I am proud to be part of your big family! 

With that I’d like to declare a challenge to double the number of ZCB projects by the next BLC conference in Vancouver next year! Who’s up for the challenge?

Let us all be the leaders of today and tomorrow!