66 Slater Street

Located in the heart of Ottawa’s downtown Central Business District and steps away from Parliament Hill sits 66 Slater Street. The 22-floor commercial office building, originally constructed in 1969, achieved LEED Gold certification for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EB:O&M) in April of this year.

The building’s owner, KingSett Capital, sought to align 66 Slater with a green certification program that would allow them to provide ongoing exceptional property management as well as increase building mechanical and electrical efficiency – and LEED EB:O&M fit those criteria perfectly. In order to earn certification, the building was retrofitted with features like a new reflective roof, building-wide installation of water efficient plumbing fixtures and energy efficiency upgrades.

The following case study was written using responses previously provided for a LEED Spotlight in August 2016, and is the result of an interview with Jeanne Medland, Director, Sustainability at KingSett Capital.

Going for LEED Gold

Over two years ago, KingSett committed to increasing their portfolio’s energy and water efficiency. With this commitment in place, they targeted LEED Gold certification for 66 Slater Street. They determined that a green certified building ultimately provided a better environment for tenants and would yield competitive operating rates and, therefore, reduced occupancy costs for tenants.

“Having green certified buildings within the portfolio speaks to KingSett’s commitment to sustainability and our belief in the importance of investing in sustainability enhancements to provide premium, risk-weighted returns,” says Ms. Medland. “LEED’s transparency and reputation were an obvious choice for certification. We also wanted to differentiate 66 Slater by proving that a Class-B+ Office building can do the right thing and would make the building more efficient and, in doing so, increase leasing interest.”

Energy benchmarking through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager provides the measurement of success

For KingSett, reducing the energy consumption of the building was an important goal for 66 Slater. When the process began, the building had an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager score of 42 and their initial goal was to achieve a score of 69, which is the LEED EB:O&M 2009 prerequisite.

When the project exceeded their goal, they extended even further and set their sights on the LEED v4 prerequisite of 75. The energy performance improved to a score of 73 at the time of certification and currently sits above the LEED v4 prerequisite at 78. KingSett has been tracking property-level data (utilities and other KPIs) and established that since 2013, 66 Slater has decreased its energy consumption significantly by approximately 15 per cent from the baseline year (2013).

Water fixtures were also replaced, though the payback wasn’t remarkable, as KingSett felt that reducing water consumption over the long term was an important goal to achieve and a key target in their portfolio. As a result of this investment, the building was able to earn an innovation point for exemplary performance.

KingSett also acknowledged the 20Vic operations team at 66 Slater for playing a significant role in the success of the project. “Site staff really focused their attention on the energy performance of the building. Not only did they work with the energy auditors and commissioning team to implement improvements, but they also monitored the buildings performance closely using smart meters. Any anomalies were addressed right away, helping to minimize any impact on the building’s performance.”