CaGBC Honours Canada’s Green Building Leaders at 2017 Leadership Awards

 June 9, 2017

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) honoured the 2017 Leadership Award recipients as a part of Building Lasting Change, the 2017 CaGBC National Conference and Showcase.

The annual leadership awards recognize individuals and organizations that show outstanding leadership in the industry, and those who have made a significant contribution to advancing green building in Canada.

New this year, the CaGBC has also added two new categories of awards that showcase excellence in green building for new construction and existing building projects. These awards are presented to the team responsible for green building projects that demonstrate optimal building performance and occupant satisfaction.

The winners of the first-ever CaGBC Green Building Excellence awards are:

• New Construction: Amber Trails Community School. Located in North Winnipeg, Amber Trails has reduced water use by over 50%, energy costs by 65%, and energy use by 68%

• Existing Building: Vancouver Convention Centre (VCC). The VCC creates a spectacular environment that visitors from around the world want to experience. Among its many sustainability efforts, this LEED Platinum building has the largest non-industrial green roof in North America composed of native and adaptive species. As a result of the numerous features and best practices, the VCC operates 44% more efficiently than a typical Canadian convention centre

The winners of the 2017 CaGBC Leadership Awards are as follows:

• CaGBC Lifetime Achievement Award: Stephen Carpenter, former President and Founder of Enermodal Engineering Ltd. For over 35 years, Stephen Carpenter has designed and promoted energy efficient and sustainable buildings and communities. He was the co-author of the first LEED Canada Reference Guide and was the LEED Canada Technical Chair for 10 years. Steve has shaped the CaGBC and the LEED Canada rating system, and as president of Enermodal Engineering — Canada’s largest firm exclusively dedicated to creating green buildings — he has shaped how LEED is applied in the Canadian building industry. His firm is responsible for 23 of the first 25 LEED for New Construction certified buildings in Ontario.

• CaGBC Inspired Educator Award: Dr. Janet Moore and Duane Elverum, Co-Directors and Co-Founders of CityStudio. CityStudio Vancouver is an innovation lab for the city. As a partnership between the City of Vancouver and six public post-secondary schools, they place students inside City Hall and communities to co-create, design and launch real projects on the ground.

• CaGBC Emerging Green Builder Award: Hilary Corneau, Project Delivery Analyst, Brookfield GIS. In addition to her work at Brookfield GIS, Hilary was peer-elected as co-chair of the Greater Toronto Chapter’s Emerging Green Professionals (EGP) Committee, where she oversaw 14 team members promoting the green building industry and providing opportunities to students and young professionals. As a result of her input and the committee’s dedication, the EGP committee has evolved into a significant force bridging academia and the green building industry.

• Government Leadership Award: Office of Climate Change, Executive Council, Government of Newfoundland & Labrador. The Provincial Energy Plan established environmental sustainability as a strategic objective of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy policy. Key departments and agencies were engaged to develop the Build Better Buildings Policy, which centred on LEED, including a requirement to strive for LEED Silver status. This has been an ambitious goal in a province that is mostly rural and a vast geography with limited access to green building materials, products and expertise. The office also organized a public awareness program called Turn Back the Tide. It offers information and tips on green buildings to a variety of audiences.

• CaGBC Volunteer Leadership – Technical Expertise: Wendy McDonald, Sustainability Consultant and Professional Engineer. Wendy has a long background in energy conservation, sustainability and mechanical design. In the mid 1990s while still at the University of Victoria, she began volunteering as a member of the Greater Victoria Water District’s Water Resources Conservation Advisory Committee. In 2008, Wendy joined the Energy & Engineering Technical Advisory Group, where she has continued to appeal for LEED’s accessibility to this day. Wendy has also chaired the EAc1 Modelling Rules Task Force and the CaGBC LEED NC Submittal Improvement Task Force.

• CaGBC Volunteer Leadership – Chapter: Tony Iacobelli, Manager, Sustainability at the City of Vaughan. Tony has extensive experience working with the not-for-profit sector and within the Municipality of Vaughan. He has a unique understanding and valuable insight into environmental planning and policy implementation and has been a key contributor for the chapter’s submissions to the province on land use planning amendments, as well as working on multiple initiatives such as energy benchmarking, health and wellness, and the climate change action plan discussion.

• CaGBC Green Building Champion Award: David Ramslie, Head of Sustainability, Planning and Research, Integral Group. Dave has been an exceptional advocate and partner to the CaGBC over the last year, primarily in the form of his major contributions to two key initiatives. In early 2016, he coordinated development of the CaGBC’s National Framework for Energy Benchmarking, bringing together stakeholders from across the industry under the umbrella of the CaGBC to develop a new Canadian approach to energy benchmarking. In 2016 and 2017, he has turned his focus to the development of the CaGBC’s Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.

• CaGBC Green Building Pioneer Award: Liviu Craiu-Botan, Manager, Energy and Technical Services, Oxford Properties Group. Liviu is considered one of the country’s leading technical minds when it comes to energy use and building portfolios. Since 2013 he has been the driving force behind Oxford Properties’ energy management program across more than 35 office or retail sites and over 300 people from the Canadian REM operating teams. The performance outcomes across the large portfolio are exemplary, and the systems scale programs and practices, and demonstrated outcomes set a precedent in Canada for other large building portfolios holders.

• Students Leading Sustainability: Andy Kesteloo Memorial Project Award: Andrew Martins, British Columbia Institute of Technology. Andrew won for his project called The Center for Urban Energy Exchange. His vision sees buildings resembling something similar to a living organism, rather than a conventional building, and this idea forms the basis of his architectural methodology, which he calls Whole System Design. The Centre for Urban Energy Exchange would use the potential energy stored in organic food waste, municipal solid waste and black water waste, and convert it back into usable heating and electricity, while producing profit-generating revenue via the conversion’s by-products. Through this submission, Andrew also demonstrated a net revenue stream for this building prototype, which could be turned it into smaller, economically-feasible business models that are scalable, more easily implemented and able to help distribute wealth and share the benefits of micro grids.