Tuesday, February 19, 2013
A significant legal precedent was set last week
in Canada that could have ripple effects worldwide. A Canadian judge has
recognized in a ruling the need for building owners to take action to reduce
migratory bird deaths from lethal collisions with the highly reflective windows
of office buildings.
“This is a significant development in an
increasingly serious issue that is gaining more attention worldwide – the
impact of man-made structures on wildlife, especially birds, and the need to
modify existing buildings, as well as incorporating bird-friendly design into
new construction,” said Dr. Christine Sheppard, Bird Collisions Campaign
Manager for American Bird Conservancy, one of the leading U.S. bird
conservation organizations and the only one in the U.S. with a national bird
collisions program.
Cadillac Fairview, one of Canada’s largest
commercial property owners and managers, was charged with violating the
Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA).
In a ruling, Judge Melvyn Green of the Ontario Court of Justice found that
hundreds of birds, including threatened species, had been injured and killed at
the company’s Yonge Corporate Centre, consisting of three office buildings in
Toronto, during the 2010 spring and fall migrations. Judge Green ruled that
both the EPA and SARA are properly interpreted to prohibit the emission
(intentional or unintentional) of reflected light where that reflection causes
the death or injury of birds.
While the Toronto court acquitted Cadillac
Fairview and related companies of the charges, that verdict was handed down
only as a consequence to the corporate steps being taken to address the
problem. The company began investigating window films as a solution after Ecojustice
and Ontario Nature laid similar charges against a different building owner, and
subsequently installed window films on the most lethal side of their complex at
a cost of over $100,000. The company also committed to retrofitting the
remainder of the complex.
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