Building Tomorrow, Respecting Yesterday

Look, we're not gonna pretend we've got all the answers. But after years of restoring century-old buildings and watching how they've outlasted modern stuff, we've learned a thing or two about what actually works.

Our Current Impact

Carbon Reduction 68%
Energy Efficiency 82%
Material Reuse 74%
Heritage restoration

Why We're Kinda Obsessed with Old Buildings

Here's the thing - the greenest building is usually the one that's already standing. Sounds simple, right? But it took me a decade of tearing down "outdated" structures to realize we were throwing away perfectly good bones.

That 1920s warehouse downtown? It's got walls three feet thick that naturally regulate temperature better than most modern HVAC systems. The old-growth timber beams we salvaged from a demolished mill? They'll outlast anything we could buy today, and they've already sequestered their carbon for a century.

Don't get me wrong - we're not against new construction. Sometimes you gotta build from scratch. But when we do, we're borrowing tricks from buildings that've survived generations: proper orientation for passive heating, materials that actually last, and designs that can adapt instead of getting demolished when needs change.

127
Buildings Saved
2.4M
kg CO2 Avoided
89%
Material Salvage Rate

Real Numbers from Real Projects

No greenwashing, just what we've actually measured over the past three years

42%

Average energy reduction across renovated heritage buildings vs. conventional retrofit

58%

Water consumption decrease through greywater systems and low-flow fixtures

1,847

Tons of construction waste diverted from landfills through salvage and reuse

91%

Of our new builds incorporate renewable energy generation on-site

Typical New Build vs. Our Approach

Embodied Carbon -63%
Construction Timeline -28%
Material Costs -34%
Operational Energy -51%
Sustainable construction methods

What We Actually Use (And Why)

Reclaimed materials

Salvaged & Reclaimed

Old-growth timber, heritage brick, vintage fixtures - stuff that's already proven it can last

Local materials

Local & Low-Impact

BC cedar, regional stone, lime-based mortars - materials that don't need to travel halfway around the world

Modern sustainable tech

Smart Integration

High-performance glazing, smart HVAC, solar panels - when new tech actually makes sense

Our Material Selection Process

We're not picking materials based on what's trendy. Here's what we actually look at:

  • How long will it genuinely last (not what the brochure says)
  • Can it be repaired instead of replaced when stuff goes wrong
  • What's the real carbon cost from extraction to installation
  • Does it improve indoor air quality or make it worse
  • Can future generations reuse it or will it end up in a landfill
78%

of our materials come from within 500km of the project site

The Certification Game

Yeah, we do LEED and Green Globes certifications. They're useful benchmarks, and sometimes clients need that official stamp. But honestly? We've seen plenty of certified buildings that waste energy like crazy, and plenty of uncertified ones that run circles around them.

What matters more to us is how the building actually performs once people are living and working in it. That's why we do post-occupancy monitoring on every project - checking real energy use, air quality, occupant comfort. The data doesn't lie, and it's taught us way more than any certification checklist ever could.

LEED Accredited
Passive House Certified
Green Globes Professional
CaGBC Member

34

LEED Certified Projects

17

Net-Zero Buildings

8

Passive House Designs

100%

Post-Occupancy Tracking

Real Talk: A Project That Changed How We Think

The Gastown Warehouse Conversion - where we learned that sometimes the best solution is the one that's been there all along

Warehouse conversion project

Client wanted to tear down this 1912 warehouse and build a new "eco-friendly" office complex. We ran the numbers and showed them something wild - keeping the existing structure would save more carbon than 40 years of operating a super-efficient new building.

Those massive timber beams? They're natural carbon storage. The three-foot-thick masonry walls? Better thermal mass than anything we could've built today. The tall ceilings and strategic window placement? Perfect for natural ventilation and daylighting.

We stripped it back to the bones, reinforced what needed reinforcing, added modern systems where they made sense, and ended up with a building that uses 67% less energy than code requires for new construction. Plus, it's got character you can't fake.

Project Impact:

  • 847 tons CO2 saved vs. new build
  • 92% of original material retained
  • EUI: 38 kWh/m²/year

Where We're Headed

We're not sitting still. Here's what we're working on and honestly struggling with:

2026 Goals

  • All new projects net-zero operational carbon
  • 50% reduction in embodied carbon across portfolio
  • 100% renewable energy in our office operations

Current Challenges

  • Finding truly sustainable insulation options
  • Balancing heritage preservation with deep retrofits
  • Making low-carbon concrete actually work financially
Let's Talk About Your Project

Wanna See the Data?

We publish annual sustainability reports with all our metrics, successes, and yeah, our failures too. Because if we're gonna talk about doing better, we need to be honest about where we're falling short.

2024 Annual Sustainability Report
Complete carbon accounting, energy metrics, and project breakdowns
PDF
Material Carbon Database
Our internal database of embodied carbon for common materials
Access
Post-Occupancy Performance Data
How our buildings actually perform vs. what we designed them to do
Dashboard

Got Questions?

We're always happy to chat about sustainable design, share what we've learned, or admit when we don't know something.

(604) 555-8247

contact@jadefirechronos.info

Get In Touch