WATERLOO, ONT. — The Cora Group of Waterloo, Ont. has announced that its evolv1 project has achieved Zero Carbon Building Standard – Performance certification through the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building program.
The Waterloo building is the second to receive the certification and follows an earlier certification, for ZCB-Design. The announcement came April 22, Earth Day. The builder has targeted evolv1 to become net-positive energy.
During evolv1’s first year of operation, the 104,000-square-foot building’s total annual energy production was 848,823 kilowatt-hours.
Tenants include the Accelerator Centre, Borealis AI, EY, Sustainable Waterloo Region, TextNow, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. The builder is close to achieving LEED Platinum certification for the project, the release noted.
“The goal was to influence the market and now with the Performance certification, we hope the influence is even stronger,” said Cora Group COO Adrian Conrad in the release. “Since the Cora Group opened evolv1’s doors, it has welcomed everyone from students to country leaders through its building to show the tangible example of what a zero-carbon future could look like. The vision is to build a better future for our world.”
Sustainability features include two different solar technologies — solar panels and a passive solar wall system. The building’s open-loop geothermal system uses an aquifer to heat and cool the commercial space. The geothermal well is 160 metres deep and pumps 800 gallons per minute.
Other features include a 40,000-litre rainwater cistern and daylight harvesting. The building promotes sustainability with 28 electric vehicle chargers and there are 1,440 Canadian-made solar panels covering the building’s parking spots. There are also 754 solar panels on the roof. At its peak, the onsite solar panels can produce more than 2,000 kilowatt-hours of energy over consumption.
“Cora knew it wanted to apply for the zero-carbon performance certification once one year of reliable energy data was available and took steps to achieve this goal. It was important for us to ensure the building was fully occupied during the certification period to further validate our performance,” said Thor Neumann, the Cora Group’s senior project manager.
Contributors to the project included the David Johnston Research and Technology Park, EY, Sustainable Waterloo Region, Beatty Geothermal Consulting, CFMS-West Consulting, Circuit Meter, Conestogo Mechanical, Livescape, Melloul-Blamey Construction, Mitsubishi Heating and Cooling Canada, Stantec, Stecho Electric and VCT Group.
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