Green building leaders, projects honoured by CaGBC

OTTAWA — The winners of the 2020 Leadership and Green Building Excellence Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that demonstrate outstanding industry leadership and have made significant contributions to advance green building in Canada, are being honoured by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

Recipients will be recognized throughout Building Lasting Change 2020, taking place online on five consecutive Tuesdays from Sept. 22 to Oct. 20. Leadership award winners will also be profiled weekly beginning in early September, while Green Building Excellence winning projects will be explored in a series of lunch and learn sessions starting late October, the CaGBC reports.

The winners are as follows:

• CaGBC Lifetime Achievement — Andrew McAllan, a leader in green building and commercial real estate for over 30 years, has served as chair of CaGBC’s national board, devoting six years to the major transformation of the council. He has also been on the Advisory Board for Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark and has been an active member of NAIOP, REALPAC and BOMA Canada.
• Emerging Green Leader — Samantha Menard, manager with the Energy Team at EQ Building Performance, demonstrates a commitment to energy conservation and building excellence in her young career. Menard was actively involved with Sidewalk Labs research projects and the ENERGY STAR Multifamily High Rise technical advisory group.
• Inspired Educator — Mohawk College takes a multifaceted approach to sustainability learning leadership, with all of the college’s 18 academic programs offering sustainability courses. Its Sustainability Office offers over 30 programs and services designed to promote sustainability education to students and staff. The Joyce Centre for Partnership and Innovation has achieved both Zero Carbon Building — Design and Performance certifications.
• Government Leadership — The City of Vancouver Civic Buildings. Vancouver’s Real Estate and Facilities Management department has adopted aggressive green building strategies, demonstrating how other Canadian municipalities can design and build leading-edge green buildings.
• Volunteer Leadership — Chapter — Paul Frith, director of advocacy and sales with Geosource Energy, is an advocate for CaGBC’s Greater Toronto Chapter and is being recognized for his fundraising and organizational work as co-chair of the chapter’s Drive for Change golf tournament committee over the past four years along with his commitment to other CaGBC initiatives.
• Green Building Champion — Stephani Carter, founder and owner of EcoAmmo for her impact on green building in Alberta. A founding member of CaGBC’s Alberta Chapter, she moved on to found EcoAmmo in 2006 and the firm has since assisted in over 216 LEED certifications with more on the way.
• Green Building Pioneer — BentallGreenOak and RWDI. Bentall engaged RWDI to help boost the resiliency of their portfolio by developing a proprietary climate adaptation planning tool. In creating a database, 413 existing properties and 75 million square feet have been provided their own climate change adaptation plan.
• Ed Lim Technical Leadership — Grant Peters, partner and manager of Green Building Services with Fluent Group Consulting Engineers and councillor at the Town of Orangeville, served for a decade on the CaGBC Sites and Water Technical Advisory Group (TAG), including a four-year term as chair and representing the TAG on the LEED Canada steering committee. Peters has provided his expertise to CaGBC as a Building Lasting Change Program Committee member and as a judge on the Green Building Excellence Awards Committee.
• Students Leading Sustainability — Andy Kesteloo Memorial Project Award — Colin Pinchin, a fourth-year student at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, for his project Pathways: A Sustainable Approach for Rehabilitation and Regeneration of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, providing a mix of place regeneration, transitional housing and skills development within a progressive mixed-use building design.

Winners of the 2020 CaGBC Green Building Excellence Awards are:

• Zero Carbon Award — The University of Calgary MacKimmie Complex Redevelopment, which uses novel envelope measures and creative building reuse to strive for energy and carbon targets. The retrofit project will play a significant role in supporting UCalgary’s goal for carbon neutrality by 2050.
• New Construction — Le Phenix, Montreal. A deep retrofit of a former warehouse which represents a rebirth into a health-promoting, energy-efficient and innovative living lab.
• Existing Building — Humber College Building Nx, Toronto. The deep energy retrofit has achieved Zero Carbon Building Standard — Design certification, with the airtightness and thermal continuity of the building envelope driving improved energy results, while investment in lighting, temperature control and air quality brings increased occupant comfort.
• Inspiring Home — West Bay Passive House, in West Vancouver. A single-family home which combines contemporary West Coast architecture with Passive House principles and a solar photo voltaic array to achieve net zero energy in style.
• Tenant Improvement — mcCallumSather workspace, Hamilton, Ont. As part of the renovation of the Westinghouse HQ building, which had sat derelict since the 1980s. This workspace creates a teaching tool that demonstrates how innovative design results in a high performing, efficient, and healthy place to work.