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The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) unveiled the 2023 CAGBC Awards winners at its Building Lasting Change conference. The annual awards celebrate innovative projects, teams, and individuals making positive contributions to Canada’s green building sector.
“As we begin our third decade, the CAGBC Awards showcase how green building has driven innovation in the industry from coast to coast,” says Thomas Mueller, president and CEO of CAGBC. “Celebrating leadership in advancing our thinking and our practices enables the green building community to recognize the progress we have made together. The commitment and innovation represented by these award winners is what we need to move the industry forward at scale.”
The national competition features awards in two categories, Green Building Excellence for Canada’s most efficient, effective, and impactful buildings; and Green Building Leadership for individuals or teams contributing to the success of Canada’s green building sector. It also includes the Andy Kesteloo Memorial Student Project Award for an inspiring student project, who will be awarded later this year.
In addition to the CAGBC Awards, CAGBC also presented its 2023 Lifetime Achievement honour to an individual for an extraordinary career in green building. This year, Michael Brooks, CEO of REALPAC, was recognized for his more-than-25-years career advancing green building in Canada and around the world. During his time with REALPAC, Brooks has led many initiatives to support the commercial real estate industry in meeting government and market expectations on green building, decarbonization, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
2023 CAGBC Award winners
This year’s submissions show a strong commitment to reducing impacts on the environment and climate through innovative, resilient, and low-carbon solutions.
Green Building Excellence
Zero Carbon Design
Sponsored by East Port Properties
Winner: Collège Sainte-Anne, Lachine, Quebec
With sustainability as a core tenant, the college brought together a team of building professionals, construction managers, and teachers to form a task force focused on reducing the buildings’ energy consumption and limiting embodied carbon, while staying on budget. Energy modelling was performed throughout the integrated design process to optimize the buildings’ overall performance through high-performance envelopes and passive heating features.
Honorable Mention
The Stack | 1133 Melville, Vancouver, British Columbia
The Stack | 1133 Melville is amongst the first of its kind to obtain Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) – Design Standard certification. Having partnered early with CAGBC, The Stack was included in the ZCB Standard Pilot program and through its design helped communicate the challenges and opportunities the ZCB standards afford to larger high-density developments.
Deep Carbon Retrofit
Sponsored by Entuitive
Winner: Scotia Plaza’s 100 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario
With Scotia Plaza’s 100 Yonge Street building in Toronto, the owner sought to upgrade its outdated mechanical and HVAC systems, while increasing its overall energy efficiency and limiting disruption to existing tenants. The owner’s efforts to prioritize energy efficiency and carbon reductions resulted in the complete elimination of fossil fuel consumption and an estimated annual reduction of 600 tonnes (590 tons) of CO2 emissions.
New Construction
Sponsored by Morguard Investments
Winner: Manitou a bi Bii daziigae, Red River College Polytechnic, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Manitou a bi Bii daziigae translates from Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) to where the creator sits and brings light. This 9,290-m2 (100,000-sf) building represents Indigenous knowledge, teachings, and traditions, while blending modernity and heritage, represented through Indigenous design elements, artwork, and diverse light-filled spaces.
Inspiring Home
Sponsored by Enbridge
Winner: Lauberivière, Québec City, Québec
Lauberivière, a building for community support services, focuses on sustainability, demonstrating a 47.7 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from baseline, recovering heat from the kitchen’s refrigeration systems to pre-heat domestic hot water, a green roof, community garden, and an aluminum cladding system that reduced the building’s embodied carbon.
Green Building Leadership
Green Building Champion
Winner: Kathy Wardle, principal and director of sustainability, Perkins&Will.
Green Building Visionary
Winner: Nerva Energy Group Inc.
Emerging Green Leader
Sponsored by DIALOG
Winner: Hillary Geer, energy specialist, EQ building performance.
Government Leadership
Sponsored by Stantec
Winner: André Cazelais, MGP, arch. head of the ecological transition and innovation department, building planning, and management service, City of Montreal.
Honourable Mention
Russel Horne, supervisor, energy and asset management, City of Kingston.
To learn more about the winners, visit CAGBC Award winners.