2024 CAGBC Awards recognize Canadian green building leaders and projects

“LEED Fellow Josée Lupien is a visionary and pioneer who, over her 20-plus year career, has advanced green building in Québec and Canada,” Mueller said. “She has been a driving force for CAGBC in Québec, a stalwart supporter of LEED and our Zero Carbon Building Standards. Beyond her numerous professional achievements, the industry has benefited from Josée’s tireless commitment to education. We’re privileged to have her as an active CAGBC member and as part of our faculty of subject-matter experts.”

Lupien is the co-founder of Vertima, a company that helps guide environmental strategies to improve client’s market positioning and improve the environmental performance of businesses, products, services and buildings. Founded in 2008, Vertima has completed more than 110 certified projects, including many certified under LEED® and the Zero Carbon Building Standards™.

Winner: Neil Campbell Rowing Centre
Location: St. Catherines, ON

The Neil Campbell Rowing Centre demonstrates how simple, elemental, and respectful design can support a broad spectrum of uses and enhance the identity of a venerable place, while also achieving Net-Zero Energy benchmark and certification under the Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard. A key venue for the 2022 Canada Summer Games, the building will host the 2024 World Rowing Championships and provide year-round fitness and rowing training for Canadian athletes, continuing the site’s rich history of competition that began in 1903.

Winner: 25 St. Clair Avenue East Rehabilitation
Location: Toronto, ON

The 25 St. Clair Avenue East project is a major renovation of an existing a ten-storey federal office building in Toronto, Ontario. As part of the Government of Canada’s Greening Government Strategy, this project demonstrates the federal government’s commitment to achieving a net-zero emissions and climate resilient building portfolio by 2050. Certified under CAGBC’s Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard, the project reuses the existing concrete and steel structure, saving an estimated 7,700 tonnes of embodied carbon and diverting over 81 percent of construction waste from landfill.

Winner: The Centennial College A-Building Expansion
Location: Scarborough, ON

Centennial College A-Building embraces design principles that reduce environmental impact and enhance occupant well-being. The new five-storey low-carbon, highly energy efficient, mass timber student services building is part of a project that includes the partial renovation of an existing 1994 building, and the exterior work surrounding the two buildings. Designed by DIALOG in association with Smoke Architecture, it draws from the Indigenous concept of “Two-eyed Seeing,” meaning it reflects both Indigenous and Western cultures.

Inspiring home
Sponsored by Enbridge

Winner: SFU Affordable Housing
Location: Burnaby, BC

SFU Affordable Housing is a high-performance, community-oriented housing project in the UniverCity neighborhood at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus. The project provides 90 below-market student rental apartments that prioritize underserved communities with accessible, adaptable, and family-oriented housing. Consisting of two wood-frame buildings of four and six storeys atop a single storey parkade, the project’s residences are supported by a blend of amenities including a courtyard playground, multipurpose pavilion, shared laundry and study rooms, and a bicycle workshop to support active transportation.

Winner: Sarah Petrevan, Cement Association of Canada

Sarah Petrevan is a leader in the embodied carbon conversation. Prior to joining the Cement Association of Canada (CAC), she founded the Buy Clean Industry Alliance, a coalition of industry associations, construction companies, labour groups and environmental organizations to advance low carbon building materials in the built environment through procurement. Now at the CAC, Sarah is an active member of the Alliance and works with them to advance the policy landscape to enable low-carbon concrete. Sarah participates in numerous advisory panels, including CAGBC’s Advisory Panel on Carbon Capture and Utilization in Cementitious Building Materials.

The team at Humber College is at the forefront of Canadian educational institutions in its pursuit to build and operate its portfolio with the mindset of global sustainability leadership. The institution has led several key initiatives, including releasing its 2023 Green Building Standards with stringent sustainability requirements for all development. The backbone of the standards are mandatory Zero Carbon Building Standards and LEED Platinum certification, stringent EUIs, high-performance envelopes, resiliency, wellness, and much more.

Winner: Region of Peel – Office of Climate Change and Energy Management

The team at the Office of Climate Change and Energy Management (OCCEM) at the Region of Peel has developed and implemented a corporate net zero energy building policy and standard for new construction, enabling zero carbon growth and setting a precedent for other municipalities. The Region developed a corporate Net Zero Emission (NZE) Policy and Standard for new construction, thus ensuring all new corporate buildings do not add to the already strained current GHG inventory. This enables the Region to meet its corporate emissions reduction target of 45 percent by 2030 as well as the longer-term ambition of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. (Pictured – Hemant Grover, Manager , Office of Climate Change and energy Management, Region of Peel)

Winner: Shefali Panse, Certainteed

Shefali Panse began her sustainability journey while pursuing her M.S. in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley in 2016. She educated herself on climate change and decided to pursue a career in the construction industry for a company with a strong commitment to the planet and people. Since 2023, she has been co-leading CertainTeed Canada’s sustainable solutions program with a focus on its Montreal plant’s equipment electrification project, a $130M investment to create North America’s first zero-carbon manufacturing drywall plant. Shefali is considered a leader among her peers on sustainability topics because of her expertise on the subject, willingness to learn, versatility in communicating with various stakeholders and creativity.

Lyle Scott has been a long-time and dedicated volunteer to CAGBC. Almost continuously since 2007, Lyle has served on multiple committees and taskforces, including LEED for Homes development, durable building design, core and shell design, and as a chair for the LEED Canada NC 2009 submittals group. His years of experience made Lyle a valuable member of CAGBC technical advisory groups, including as vice-chair on one of the first incarnations of CAGBC’s LEED oversight committee. After serving as a long-time member and chair of the LEED Canada Steering Committee, Lyle recently worked with staff to re-shape the technical committees to support CAGBC’s goals for the future, serving as the first chair of the new LEED Advisory Committee.