lar project. Geothermal depends on a life-cycle
analysis to make sure it’s the right solution for
the building owner’s problem.”
Doing what’s right economically for the cli-
ent is ultimately at the heart of SMS Engineer-
ing. Maintaining the current clientele is im-
portant to SMS, this includes the short-term
goal of servicing their architectural clients and
developers to participate in critical ongoing fu-
ture developments and to grow communities.
“We try to just build the best building we
can these days and try to encourage sustain-
ability, not necessarily abiding by the LEED
points to a tee, but still using these guidelines
as much as we feasibly can,” explains Walkes.
“LEED was essentially a good thing to have to
get people thinking about sustainability in the
first place, and trying to make sure that we get
the best buildings built. In doing that we put
out challenges to various people, ourselves in-
cluded, to push the boundaries a bit and en-
courage the owners to step out of their com-
fort zone to try and do something different.”
JUNE 2014
H
business elite canada
69
