Ask the Expert: Kevin Hydes

With over three decades as an engineer, Kevin Hydes’ rich experience has made him an authority in green building design and sustainability solutions. Serving on different boards and expert committees, Hydes has made sustainable buildings his cause. His contributions to the green building movement in Canada, the United States, and his native England have won him several distinctions and a well-earned reputation as an innovator, pioneer, and green business leader. In our recent interview, we revisit the evolution of the Canadian green building landscape, Hydes’ achievements, and his future plans as he closes a chapter at Introba and refocuses on the ways he can advance solutions to the climate crisis.

You’ve spent the last 25 years focusing on green engineering, first with Keen Engineering, one of the first green engineering firms in North America and then founding Integral with a focus on deep green engineering. What were some of the pivotal moments in the industry during your career?

I think the creation of the first green building council (GBC) in the United States was a key moment. A business-led coalition of industry, government and academia proved to be the key model for market transformation under a non-profit big tent. The launching of LEED a few years later gave the industry a tool and a level playing field to unleash market forces to drive change. The first ever LEED workshops showed a great example from “pre-LEED” Canadian projects such as the C.K. Choi at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Vancouver Public Library and the BC Hydro Edmonds building, since there were not yet any LEED-certified projects.

The subsequent creation of other councils around the world, including CAGBC as one of the founding members of WorldGBC, created a boots-on-the-ground army of practitioners to deliver results. WorldGBC led the creation of a “buildings day” finally at COP 26 in Glasgow, which is now a permanent feature of COP. As a result, buildings are now part of every conversation at the highest level in all nations.

What has been the biggest mindset shift in the industry over this period?

Without a doubt the shift from climate skepticism and denial to climate crisis and emergency from all corners of the globe and society.
“Inconvenient truth” by Al Gore was pivotal in bringing scientific data to the masses, and especially to the green building movement. As change agents, we heard his message at Greenbuild and other events including a 2006 session I helped organize with students at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal.

You were (and continue to be) heavily involved in the green building movement. You were Co-Founder of CAGBC, Chair of USGBC and World GBC to name a few. What was the attraction of getting involved in these organizations?

Firstly, to learn and then to share with colleagues, clients and the broader community. We were all learning so much from each other and challenging each other, and we continue to do so. To be involved with these amazing organizations and individuals is a privilege and a commitment to life-long learning. In the end, it is all about making a difference: work hard, play hard and give back.

What difference did they make in the marketplace and where do you see the future opportunities or role for councils like CAGBC now that green building is more mainstream?

Green building councils have made a difference, transforming our industry in so many ways. On one hand, they provide guidance to policy-makers to use model language in public policy so that leading cities, provinces or states could share best practices with their peers and create new networks. On the other hand, they give the private sector the tools to increase competition to keep pulling the market forward. Pushing, pulling, celebrating are the tools we have used over time, even as the agenda shifts.

CAGBC has become the national convenor of green buildings and climate response in the built environment. CAGBC needs to seize the moment given this unique position to create impactful and lasting partnerships with all stakeholders, influencers and decision makers to accelerate our trajectory towards the targets we have set, and we need to reach. This is our destiny.

In your opinion, where are we on the continuum to scale up market transformation and what would be our biggest opportunity to make that happen?

We have only just begun. Currently, we are behind where we need to be in terms of actual reductions. But we cannot allow ourselves to give up hope or languish. We must be in a world of flourishing optimism, taking real examples of success and replicating and amplifying it in a way we have not done before. Every decision counts, whether it is a line being drawn by a designer, a materials order by a purchaser, decision made on site by the builder or plumber, and of course the daily decisions made by the owners, operators and users to maximize the opportunity to do more with less.

How would you like to be involved over the next 10 years? Where do you see the best points of leverage?

For me, it’s a personal, moral and ethical question. Given the opportunity I have had, it would be wrong for me to sit on the sidelines and watch. I am as active as ever with many GBCs at local, state/provincial, national and global levels. I was proud to help organize and host the World GBC at Introba London offices in June. I also have been working with groups across California to create a new and powerful statewide chapter bringing in all these local chapters under one roof to move the state agenda forward more powerfully. I will continue to help and support USGBC and CAGBC any way I can, as a friend and advisor to these groups and others.

We know that you encountered and worked with many green building and sustainability leaders from across the world. Who inspired you the most and why?

My mentor and the person who got me started on my green journey is the great architect Bob Berkebile (BNIM archs) from Kansas City. I met him in the early 90’s at a Charente charente for the University of British Columbia (UBC) C.K. Choi building along with other great leaders from that team: Eva and Kyoshi Matsuzaki, Freda Pagani, Joanne Perdue, Cornelia Oberlander, Ray Cole and others. It was Bob that allowed all of us to reach our maximum potential on that project and, in my case, begin a journey that would have never happened otherwise. The C.K. Choi building was my seminal project and mid-course correction. Bob was also the originator of the AIA COTE program and helped USGBC in its formative years. He has inspired thousands along the way.

David Suzuki, the great Canadian national treasure and an environmental activist his entire life, spoke many times at our conferences and gave me a fresh insight into the problems we need to solve. At one of his speeches where I introduced him on stage, he said something that made me want to fight even harder for the planet: “as an activist who has fought against drilling for oil on the north slope in Alaska three times in my life… we never get a win, we only get a postponement…” I work every day to hopefully prove him wrong.

I became an advisor to the Clinton Climate Foundation a number of years ago and met the president a number of times. In 2007, I was at a meeting of his then newly created C-40 (the world’s 40 biggest cities coalition now under the Bloomberg foundation). He stood on stage with the mayors of the 40 cities, the CEOs of the biggest industry actors globally, and the world’s biggest banks, and said as only he can “we’re here to fight against climate change…here’s what I am going to do… Get the world’s biggest cities and cutovers together… get the world’s biggest manufacturers together… and get major procurement at scale… and then get the banks over here to provide the finance at favorable terms and prices.”

My co-founders at CAGBC, Peter Busby, Joe Van Belleghem and at the RAIC inspire me daily with their legacies, relentless achievements, and commitment to the cause. David Gottfreid, who came up with the brilliance of the GBC mile with USGBC and then WorldGBC as founder, continues to push the agenda through innovative products. AND the unsung heroes of our movement, the CEOs of our GBC movement — Christina Gamboa at WorldGBC, Peter Templeton at USGBC and of course my friend for 30 years, Thomas Mueller who never stops asking “what’s next”. I thank all of you and the board members, volunteers and staff that support and push them.

As you reflect on your career, what would you consider your biggest achievements and what keeps you going?

Projects. We learn by doing. I have been fortunate to work with amazing collaborators, colleagues, clients and teams over the years. I have been part of many firsts along the way and two projects that won the “world green building of the year” title. York University Computer science in 2002 and Google Bayview campus in California last year. But it is all the jobs in between and the people along the way. The students I taught at McGill’s School of Architecture when I lived in Montreal, the guest lectures at UBC, the University of Toronto, McGill, The University of California, Berkeley and others. The many industry conferences and events.
What keeps me going is the energy I get from all of you in this movement and the opportunity to keep learning, doing and sharing, and continuing to have fun and celebrate our successes along the way again. Work hard, play hard, and give back.

Your firm’s tenet is trust, nurture and inspire. What advice do you have for emerging green building professionals that are entering the workforce now?

The words were given to me by my mentor Bob Berkebile originally as I was chair at World GBC to help set a clear vision at the time. I brought them into the firm to gather a global team of leaders to push each other by believing in one another, helping each other and pushing forward with the work. Alignment is the key to the success of any team and this what we have done to meet our goals.
We need two to three times as many people in the built environment workforce to meet the challenges we have set for 2050. I would encourage any emerging professional to follow their passion. Don’t be afraid of some mistakes along the way, find friends who are as passionate as you and listen to elders you may want to learn from, then go for it.

Is there anything else that you would like to share?

Our families support us along the way and often sacrifice for some of the efforts needed to be active in this way. I want to thank all my family and friends who have supported me and all of you. My wife and partner Jenny is my rock and couldn’t have done any of this without her.
Our firms allow us to make these contributions to make them and the industry better. Thanks to Keen, Stantec, Integral and Introba for their support over the years.

Be an optimist, be a realist, be a pragmatist, be a doer, be an influencer, be a dreamer, be a listener. “Be the change you seek”.