(Accepting In-Person & Virtual Presentation Requests)
Ghina Annan has 12 years of experience in the development of high-performance building design while applying building science and design solutions to reach carbon neutral and resilient goals. Ghina received her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and her master’s in Mechanical Engineering, applied energy from the American University of Beirut.
Ghina Annan is the Sustainability Discipline Team Lead for Stantec, Ottawa. She is passionate about cities and the built environment, leading teams to achieve effective sustainability outcomes while identifying and implementing adequate strategies to achieve net zero energy, water, waste, and carbon while following regulations, codes, standards, and safety. Her work includes designing for climate risk, resiliency, and future proofing; reviewing building performance modeling and energy management assessments; facilitating sustainable design and certifications, health and wellbeing consulting and certifications; advising on strategy formulation and long-term planning, market and feasibility assessments and managing carbon accountability and reporting, and climate risk assessments and adaptation planning. Successfully, she led the WELL Health-Safety Rating certification for six of Stantec’s offices through the International WELL Building Institute.
She has won several awards and certificates in her field, including the International Young Energy Professional of 2022 from Association of Energy Engineering (AEE), TRUE Certification for Zero Waste, and the Fitwel Certification System. She is En-ROADS Climate Ambassador and a climate leader. She is Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP), EDGE (Excellence in Design for greater Efficiencies) Expert, EcoDistricts Accredited professional; a Well Accredited professional (AP), LEED Accredited professional (AP) in building design and construction, Certified Energy Manager (CEM), GSAS Certified Green Professional (CGP), Certified Energy Professional (GSAS-CEP), Pearl Qualified Professional (PQP), Home Performance Index (HPI) Assessor and Living Future Accreditation (LFA).
Ghina's contribution to the first chapter on global climate change to appear in the ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook (2021) comes within her long-term and highly impactful involvement in the Technical Committee on Global Climate Change and her work will surely support designers and building operators to ensure robust operation for decades to come. Currently, she is the chair of ASHRAE Whole Life Carbon Guide for Building Systems contributing to the development of an ASHRAE guidelines. Her work focuses on determining a holistic methodology to quantify how material processes from cradle to grave affect climate change, non-renewable resources, and the environment. Ghina has also published several articles and papers in her field, including Building Decarbonization Transformation and A Comprehensive benchmark of Building Energy Demand and Consumption.
Ghina provides a number of training seminars for architects, engineers, builders, manufacturers, code officials, utility program developers and others addressing: Sustainable Community Planning and Resiliency, Net zero energy and carbon, Embodied carbon in building design and construction, climate action plans, health, well-being and happiness of building occupants, Building Performance, commissioning and recommissioning, Renewable energy systems assessment, hygrothermal analysis and Electrification. She is a frequent keynote speaker at various national conferences and events including the first ASHRAE decarbonization conference and all 5 ASHRAE International Conferences on Efficient Building Design that took place in Beirut, Lebanon.
As a passionate advocate for sustainability and a firm believer in the urgent need for decarbonization, she created a YouTube channel that educates stakeholders of all backgrounds about sustainability, climate change, climate adaptation and mitigation, resilience, future proofing and much more in the industry. By leveraging her expertise in the field, she created engaging and informative content that helps viewers take more informed decisions and stay up to date with the latest developments in the sustainability space. She has been actively involved in educating the next generation about sustainability through a program called Green Apple Day of Service by USGBC. Over the past seven years, she had the privilege of educating more than 10,000 students in school events. This one-day event provides students with the opportunity to listen to a presentation on sustainability, followed by hands-on activities that serve sustainability.
Operational carbon occurs over time; it relates to a building’s energy source and energy use intensity and can be measured from the meter to ensure optimized operating building efficiency before meeting the building demand for all loads with renewable energy sources. In order to achieve a Net Zero Carbon – Operational Energy asset, an asset has to comply with energy use target through a whole system integrated approach considering energy metrics early in design to avoid added costs and emissions. Thus, Energy Targets for Net Zero Carbon – Operational Energy include eliminating the use of fossil fuels, meeting energy use intensity (KWh/m2) including all energy used, reducing space heating and/or cooling demand (Kwh/m2), increasing renewable energy generation and offsetting of residual emissions due to energy distribution. Available renewable Energy Procurement Forms include onsite renewable energy system, offsite rrenewable energy, renewable energy power purchase agreement (PPA) for minimuim 15 years and a green tariff/price.
Addressing climate change has traditionally focused on reducing carbon emissions from operational energy consumption. Though, as buildings become more energy efficient, (and electricity generation has decarbonised), operational carbon of new buildings has significantly reduced. This means that embodied carbon can represent a higher proportion of whole life carbon than it used to. Embodied carbon is the emissions from the manufacturing, transport, installation, use, and end of life of building materials. Upfront carbon refers to the emissions that occur during the production and construction phases and are released into the atmosphere before the building is operational or the retrofit is complete. One way to decreasing, even to negative values, the upfront carbon will be in storing or sequestering carbon in building materials as materials can lock carbon away over many years. Conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the building materials is important to establish a framework for how buildings will be assessed against their zero carbon targets for upfront carbon (life cycle stages A1-5), use stage embodied carbon (life cycle stages B1-5) and end of life carbon (life cycle stages C1-4). Hence, all projects need to evaluate their embodied carbon fully including materials beyond the structure and envelope. In fact, MEP Embodied carbon measurement is also substantial because a lot of MEP equipment is in our buildings, it is replaced very often, it is mostly made out of metals and it relies significantly on refrigerants. Thus, reducing embodied carbon due to MEP systems should be prioritized by measuring and reporting progress against a clear plan. Moreover, specifying low GWP refrigerants when designing systems and ensuring Environmental product declarations (EPDs) in product specification for all MEP component can serve in reducing the GHG emissions.
Achieving net zero carbon will require us to transform how we design, build and operate buildings of all types and scales. Projects must commit to WLCA, develop consistent and transparent carbon intensity and benchmark data, adopt explicit targets, define net-zero buildings and establish wider collaboration
Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and some trends are now irreversible. The 21st Century is projected to have severe detrimental consequences on the environment and societies world-wide, and it is caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions. We are in a climate emergency; every ton of concrete that we use today forms emissions in the atmosphere. Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. With a population growth anticipation of 32% in the next 30 years, the ultimate goal is to ensure a decarbonized built environment through carbon-negative construction and a holistic design approach towards zero operational and embodied carbon. The fundamental strategies to address operational carbon include a lean, clean, green design that begins with a strong passive design strategy and optimized thermal performing envelope with minimal need for active systems, then adds in renewable energy generation and carbon offsets. Solar PV system augments significant embodied carbon initially however, total carbon is significantly reduced by using PV versus not using PV due to the operational carbon savings. As building energy efficiency increases and power supply decarbonizes, operational energy generation will drop and the impact of embodied carbon emissions in building materials becomes increasingly significant. Ongoing monitoring of operational energy consumption and renewable production is necessary to understand a building’s carbon emissions and maintain reduction targets. Reducing the impact of embodied energy requires critically appraising existing building stock through repurposing, refurbishing and extending the building life. Variation in embodied carbon intensity between building typologies makes setting a target for the embodied component of whole life net zero challenging. Building less through space utilization and adaptation, using smart materials with minimum embodied carbon, prioritizing durable material and material that sequester carbon and minimizing waste generation are all critical considerations to embodied carbon reductions.
Understanding Whole Building Life Cycle assessment for all projects at early design stages, developing consistent and transparent carbon intensity and benchmark data, adopting explicit targets for net zero facilitate reductions and credible pathways towards net zero. Moreover, future policies should provide accurate guidelines for required life cycle phases, objects of assessment, material quantity data sources, and treatment of carbon sequestration as applicable.
Climate change is attributed to global warming which is triggered by magnified concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Earth’s atmosphere that give rise to global warming. All design and specification happen in the context of the local natural and built environment and climate. Today, the world is experiencing major changes in climate both globally and locally, and at rates much higher than originally predicted. A climate action plan that embarks on detailed steps to cut emissions and comply with net zero targets is essential. Climate change will affect humanity and life on earth, which is why everyone deserves to be a part of the climate conversation and the decision-making process. A decisive decade is ahead and the course set today is destined to have a significant impact on the further development of climate change. The amount of greenhouse gases must be significantly reduced to avoid to restrict temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, maintaining life on earth livable and ensure dynamic ecosystems. The goal is to maximize our energy efficiency, promote renewable energy, manage net zero operations, electrify and minimize onsite fossil fuel consumption, promote building grid Integration and reduce embodied carbon through building less with minimum waste output. Building a climate resilient environment that adapts to the current and future changes requires major restoration design considerations inclusive of:
1. Maintain globally signification biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services
2. Arrest or reverse land degradation
3. Sustainable forest management
4. Shifts towards a low emission, resilient development path
5. Increase resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change
6. Prevent the exposure of humans and environment to harmful chemical and waste
7. Promote collective management of transboundary water systems
8. Identify areas with potential significant flood risk, prioritizing future mitigation
9. Identify spatial, temporal, and economic associations between natural and developed environments and sea level change.