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Prioritizing Roof Performance Over Secondary Uses is Key for Structures Enduring Through Climate Change

Climate change is reshaping how buildings, and their roofs, perform.

The decisions engineers/consultants, institutional and commercial building owners, and property managers make today regarding both new construction and retrofits will directly impact a structure’s ability to withstand climate-related risks into the future.

Roofs are a building’s first line of defence against the elements, and they must be constructed to withstand higher wind loads, heavier rainfall, and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles. As a result, roof resilience is rapidly becoming a critical risk management and asset protection issue.

This creates a design tension, as ancillary roof uses become more popular. Building designers and project teams are often pressured to prioritize secondary roof uses or cost savings over long-term roof performance.

Green/vegetated roofs, solar photovoltaic arrays, water retention systems, communications infrastructure, and rooftop amenity spaces all add value by mitigating climate impacts, supporting sustainability goals, and creating functional spaces.

However, these benefits come with increased roof loads and long-term performance risks if roof systems are not designed with resilience top of mind.

The Argument for Prioritizing Roof Performance

Roofs must perform over the long term, remaining securely in place, preventing leaks during high winds and heavy precipitation, and maintaining occupant comfort. When roof systems fall short of these objectives, the resulting failures are often expensive and disruptive to fix.

An article in Canadian Architect calls for building codes to “get with the times” as climate risks intensify.

While essential, the codes establish minimum life-safety standards rather than focusing on durability, energy performance, or resilience. Roofs designed to code minimums may meet compliance requirements but could still underperform in real-world climate conditions.

It begs the question – do we need higher standards for building codes as the climate crisis worsens to better incorporate resilience in buildings?

For example, a voluntary standard exists for wind and drainage for commercial roofs in CSA A123.26, Performance Requirements for Climate Resilience of Low Slope Membrane Roofing Systems, setting the stage for designers to meet future climate changes.

Even when a design concept is sound and up to code, value engineering often targets roofing systems for cost reductions, meaning that materials could be downgraded, assemblies altered, and performance characteristics diminished. In the age of climate change, this could lead to faster wear and tear on the roofing components that range from small fixes to catastrophic damage.

This practice must change so that enduring roof system performance is top of mind in both new construction and roof retrofit projects.

When roof performance is prioritized first, ancillary uses can succeed without compromising its performance or the building envelope.

Balancing Roof Performance with Ancillary Uses

Ancillary roof uses add extra environmental, social, and economic value to commercial and institutional buildings, but these uses must be integrated into a long-term roof performance strategy, not layered on as an afterthought. Roofs overburdened with inadequate drainage, insufficient wind resistance, or minimal insulation are far more likely to fail.

Mitigating competing priorities requires informed decision-making, supported by qualified roof consultants and performance-driven standards that anticipate future climate conditions, energy costs, and technological advancements.

When roof performance is prioritized first, ancillary uses can succeed without compromising its performance or the building envelope.

Institutional and commercial roofs are increasingly central to climate resilience strategies, and the choices engineers, designers, building owners, and property managers make today about design standards, materials, insulation levels, and maintenance will be tested throughout the structure’s lifespan.

Those who prioritize resilient, high-performing roof systems now will be better positioned to protect their property, maintain operations, and successfully adapt their building to a shifting climate in the long run.

The Pretium Way

At Pretium, we work directly with you to understand your roofing needs and develop tailored solutions. Our roofing experts assess roof conditions and identity optimal replacement and retrofit approaches, considering forward-looking performance standards. To learn more about Pretium’s roofing projects, check out some of our featured projects, like 111 Scotia Court, Whitby: https://pretiumengineering.com/projects/111-scotia-court-whitby/.

Canada’s Path to Net-Zero Must Prioritize Both Energy Efficiency and the Occupant Experience

When energy efficiency measures are pursued without considering thermal comfort, we risk creating buildings that operate effectively but leave occupants dissatisfied with their internal environments.

Through the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, the country is legally committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, but, these ambitious reductions can’t be the only end goal.

Without balancing the importance of energy efficiency and thermal comfort in building designs, Canada risks missing the mark on what truly makes buildings sustainable: being spaces people want to use consistently, to live and to work.

Policy Context: The Missing Piece

The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act establishes long-term emissions targets and formal reporting requirements, yet it does not describe how performance should be achieved at the building level, leaving key responsibilities to the designers, engineers, and policymakers.

A major pillar of the effort is the Canada Green Buildings Strategy, which aims to lower emissions from both new construction and existing buildings. The approach focuses heavily on reducing energy efficiency gaps by improving insulation, upgrading windows, tightening envelopes, and minimizing unwanted air leakage.

Not once does the strategy mention indoor environmental quality (IEQ), which includes factors like lighting, acoustics, air quality, and thermal comfort – subjective elements that impact how an individual experiences a space.

Occupant Comfort: More Than Just a Thermostat Setpoint

Thermal comfort is often misunderstood and oversimplified. There is an assumption that setting a thermostat to a specific temperature ensures comfort, but as Robert Bean – one of Canada’s foremost authorities on the subject – puts it, Using the thermostat reading as a proxy for thermal comfort is like calling baking soda a cake.

In reality, temperature is only one of six factors that influence our sense of comfort. These are defined in ASHRAE Standard 55 – Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy. There are four physical factors that contribute to thermal comfort, including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air speed, and humidity, along with two personal variables: one’s metabolic rate and clothing insulation.

These variables are expressed as numerical values that can be used to quantify personal comfort by calculating an index called the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). This index predicts the average value of a large group of individuals’ self-reported perceptions of the different factors, called “thermal sensation votes,” based on a sensation scale that ranges from cold to hot.

Designing With Indoor Environmental Quality in Mind

A tight, highly insulated building envelope reduces heating demand and boosts energy efficiency. However, without proper attention to ventilation, radiant conditions, or humidity control, it could leave occupants uncomfortable, even unhealthy.

Research from Efficiency Canada highlights that high-performance buildings designed with passive strategies – think building orientation, shading, airtightness, and insulation – paired with efficient active systems like heaters and heat pumps, deliver both energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

Meanwhile, smart technologies such as occupant-centric controls allow systems to respond to peoples’ real-time needs, not just static thermostat setpoints.

At Pretium, we understand this and prioritize the balance between energy efficiency and thermal comfort in our approach to building design and retrofits.

With a multidisciplinary engineering team that includes building envelope specialists, mechanical engineers and energy performance experts, we take a unique, whole-building systems approach and evaluate any improvements alongside their impact on occupant comfort, placing peoples’ needs at the heart of building performance.

A Delicate Balance of Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort

Success in achieving net-zero goals requires buy-in from Canadians, so Canada can’t afford to treat energy efficiency and thermal comfort as competing goals.

Our buildings need to serve both climate targets and the people who live and work in them.

By treating buildings as systems and designing with the six factors of thermal comfort in mind, we can create spaces that are efficient, sustainable and – most significantly – enjoyable to spend time in.

Tag: building design

Why Roof Performance and Resilience Matters More Than Ever in the Climate-Change Era

By Pretium Engineering

Prioritizing Roof Performance Over Secondary Uses is Key for Structures Enduring Through Climate Change

The Argument for Prioritizing Roof Performance