The Canada Green Building Council. (CaGBC) and the CaGBC Manitoba Chapter announced last month that Manitoba has reached its 100th LEED. certified project. Totaling 601,753 sq. m. of space, these 100 LEED certifications represent Manitoba’s greenest and most sustainable buildings, with 72 certifications in Winnipeg, six in Brandon, and the remaining 22 projects spread across the province.
“The Manitoba Chapter is thrilled to celebrate the 100th LEED certification in our province,” says Crystal Bornais, Chapter Engagement Specialist for CaGBC’s Manitoba Chapter. “This milestone shows the commitment to green building in Manitoba and to our sustainable future. Each one of the 100 projects represents the hard work of so many members of our green building community, committed owners, and leaders in public policy. I would like to congratulate everyone who has played a part in these successes along the way.”
The honour of the 100th project goes to Stantec’s new Winnipeg office at 311 Portage Street, which earned LEED Gold for Commercial Interiors certification on June 27. This 55,000 sq.ft office space amalgamates the company’s many office locations into one central spot in the city, and incorporated various green design measures in order to achieve a construction waste diversion of 91.33%, a 36.7% reduction in installed lighting power density over ASHRAE 90.1-2004, and reduction of 61.43% over baseline for water fixture performance.
“This excellent outcome in achieving LEED Gold certification in the Commercial Interiors rating system is the result of strong collaboration within our Architecture, Interior Design, and Engineering buildings team,” says Eric Wiens, Stantec Vice President and Regional Leader, Manitoba. “I can’t think of a better way to serve as a role model for our clients than to achieve this certification from the CaGBC and to demonstrate our own high performance design capacity right within our Stantec office in downtown Winnipeg.”
Manitoba’s 100 LEED certified projects include 16 LEED Certified, 41 LEED Silver, 34 LEED Gold, and nine LEED Platinum. Rating system types are broken down as 72 New Construction or Core and Shell projects, six Commercial Interiors projects, five Existing Building certifications, and 17 Homes projects, with a total of 50 residential units.
Throughout the years, there have been a number of significant milestones for LEED in Manitoba. These include:
• The LEED Platinum certified Amber Trails Community School, which recently won a 2017 CaGBC Green Building Excellence Award. Located in the heart of a new neighbourhood in North Winnipeg, Amber Trails has achieved over 50 per cent reduction in water use, and impressive energy savings of 65 per cent in energy cost and 68 per cent in energy use. This is a school for more than its students – it is open and accessible and has evolved into an important hub within the community.
• The Sir Sam Steele project, a LEED Gold certified group of affordable homes built by Habitat for Humanity and designed by Manitoba company ft3, which is saving residents up to 30 per cent in energy and water costs each year.
• The 17-storey office tower at 220 Portage Ave. in Winnipeg, which earned LEED Platinum for Existing Building certification in 2013, becoming one of the province’s most high-profile green building projects and showcasing how an older building could be retrofitted to maximize performance and efficiency.
• When it certified LEED Platinum in 2012, Manitoba Hydro Place was Canada’s largest LEED Platinum office tower and was one of the first in Canada to be designed as climactically responsive. It is also known as an extremely energy efficient building.
As of June 1, 2017, there were a remarkable 3,176 LEED certified buildings across Canada.
