CAGBC Awards celebrate Canadian green building innovators

Toronto, ON – June 3, 2022 – Last night, the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) unveiled this year’s winners of the CAGBC Awards during the 2022 Building Lasting Change conference’s Gala event. The annual awards celebrate innovative projects, teams and individuals that have made positive contributions to Canada’s green building sector.

“It is a real pleasure to come together in person to celebrate the leaders and innovators of Canada’s green building industry,” said Thomas Mueller, CAGBC President and CEO. “Highlighting our successes is a good way to advance green buildings across Canada and demonstrate the building sector’s leadership in the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

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 industry. It also includes the Andy Kesteloo Memorial Student Project Award for an inspiring student project which will be awarded later this year.

In addition to the CAGBC Awards, CAGBC also presented its 2022 Lifetime Achievement honour to an individual for an extraordinary career in green building. This year, Joanne Perdue, Associate Vice President, Sustainability, University of Calgary, was recognized for her 30-year career advancing green building in Canada.

“After joining the University of Calgary as the founding Director of the Office of Sustainability in 2007, Joanne has played a pivotal role in the adoption of sustainable practices into the University’s policies and strategies, as well as playing an active role in CAGBC,” said Mueller. “I congratulate Joanne on her commitments to sustainable design and her many achievements.”

Under Perdue’s leadership, the University of Calgary has been recognized as the top ranked school in Corporate Knights’ 2017 Greenest Campus Index and among the world’s top 5% of institutions advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2020 and 2021 by the Times Higher Education University Impact Ranking. Outside of her work at the University, Perdue is Co-Chair of The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Climate Action Engagement & Enablement Plan Steering Committee and sits on their Committee on Regenerative Environments. She also served on CAGBC’s National Board of Directors from 2014 to 2020. 

The CAGBC Awards recognize the best of the best in the green building industry. This year’s submissions continue to illustrate a strong commitment to reducing impacts on the environment through innovative, resilient and efficient solutions.

The winners of the 2022 CAGBC Awards are:

Green Building Excellence Category

New Construction (sponsored by Morguard Investments) 
Local 144 – Plumbers’ Union Head Office and Training Facility 

As the first LEED v4 BD+C Platinum-certified building in Canada, this project showcases how sustainability and green building practices can enhance the industrial sector and provide healthy, comfortable and efficient spaces for workers in all fields. With impressive energy conservation and water reduction features, Local 144 serves as an inspiration for the future of the built environment. 

Existing Building Operations 
Winner: Bentall Centre 

Powered 100% by renewable electricity and carbon neutral across all operations, the Bentall Centre consists of four LEED Platinum towers totaling 1.5 million sf of commercial and retail space. The Bentall Centre’s property management and engineering teams are laser-focused on furthering sustainable operations as it relates to energy management and efficiency, reducing water consumption, increasing waste diversion, optimizing occupant health and safety, and effectively engaging tenants on their role in the Bentall Centre’s sustainability efforts.

Zero Carbon Design (sponsored by East Port Properties)
Winner: Roam Transit Operations and Training Centre 

The Roam Transit Operations and Training Centre represents the unprecedented integration of several low carbon technologies including ultra-efficient mechanical systems, a super-insulated building envelope, district heating, a biomass waste-to-energy operation, solar photovoltaics, and electric bus charging. The Centre supports the operations of the Roam Transit bus fleet, encouraging the shift to alternative transportation in Banff National Park. A 302.6 kW solar array over the bus storage roof areas offsets the electricity use of the facility and provides for the charging of the electric bus fleet.  

Deep Carbon Retrofit (sponsored by Entuitive) 
Winner: 500 MacNab Ken Soble Tower EnerPHit 

The Ken Soble tower is considered North America’s first EnerPHit retrofit of a residential tower, and the largest residential Passive House retrofit in the world. Measures implemented, including a high-performance building envelop and upgrades to its mechanical systems, led to an impressive 94 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The revitalization of the Ken Soble Tower created 146 new affordable, comfortable, and climate resilient living units for seniors.  

Inspiring Home (sponsored by Enbridge) 
Winner: Multifaith Housing Initiative – Veterans’ House 

This 3-storey, 40-unit residential project has created a healthy living space for homeless veterans in Ottawa while incorporating leading green building practices into its development. With reductions in energy use of 43% and in carbon emissions of 57% below the reference model, Veterans’ House demonstrates the ways in which environmental leadership and significant social benefits can be accomplished simultaneously.

Green Building Leadership 

Green Building Champion (sponsored by DIALOG) 
Winner: Alan DeSousa, Mayor of Saint Laurent 

For over 13 years, Mayor Alan DeSousa has championed the cause for green buildings in the Saint Laurent borough of Montreal, as well as across Québec and Canada, as an integral component of sustainable development. As the Montreal executive committee member responsible for sustainable development for over 11 years, Mayor DeSousa has been the architect of the City of Montreal’s environmental and sustainable development policies, plans and programs over the past decade. He is a frequent guest speaker on sustainable development issues, including green building policy, and has addressed audiences at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Americana and the Canada Green Building Council. As current Vice-Chair of the Green Municipal Fund Council of the FCM, he has advocated for green building certification in FCM building programs for municipalities across our country. 

Green Building Pioneer (sponsored by Enwave) 
Winner: Multiplex Construction Canada Ltd. 

Multiplex has been at the forefront of sustainable construction in Canada. As the first Canadian construction company to set a GHG reduction target in line with the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi), the first contractor signatory of the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Commitment and through its integration of sustainability practices into each division, from bid pursuits and pre-construction to procurement and operations, Multiplex aims to lead the industry towards a more sustainable future.  

Emerging Green Leader 
Winner: Michael Mousa 

A Sustainability Consultant with DIALOG, Michael’s achievements in advocacy and community building has established him as a leader in the field. Through his involvement with the Carbon Leadership Forum Toronto and Toronto Clean Energy Partnership, and his mentorship of young engineers at the University of Toronto, Michael’s passion for climate action and his dedication to the community has inspired many, especially those from under-represented groups, to pursue their goals and a career in green building.  

Inspired Educator 
Nancy Bosscha, Bow Valley College 

A member of Bow Valley College’s Green Sustainability committee for over a decade, Nancy has sought to enhance the education of her students at every opportunity. In advocating for sustainable material selection, inviting a wide array of guest speakers to her courses and incorporating emerging concepts such as circularity to her teachings, her contributions to sustainability at Bow Valley College and the education of its graduates are inspiring. 

Government Leadership (sponsored by Stantec) 
Winner: Global Affairs Canada – International Platform Branch 

Global Affairs Canada’s pursued and achieved the first international Zero Carbon Building Certification at their Permanent Mission of Canada in Geneva, Switzerland in late 2021. The Geneva ZCB certification demonstrated GAC’s leadership in greening its global portfolio of 178 missions in 110 countries. Additionally, the certification demonstrated leadership within the Canadian government and other nations’ foreign affairs departments encouraging the reduction of their portfolio’s emissions. It has shown to other federal departments that implementation of the Zero Carbon Building Standard at an existing building is feasible and was aligned with Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Greening Government Strategy requirements and the goal for government operations to be net-zero by 2050. GAC, as a member of international communities of practice, has shared these best practices and accomplishments with other nations, so that they too may be inspired and replicate these accomplishments elsewhere. 

Ed Lim Technical Expertise Volunteer 
Winner: Christian Cianfrone 

A founding member of the Zero Carbon Steering Committee for four years and member of the Energy and Engineering TAG from 2010 to 2018, Christian brings an expertise in low energy design to his various CAGBC committee posts and believes that we must always be pushing harder. In addition to his work with CAGBC, Christian has sat on the Energy and Engineering TAG of the USGBC and the Climate Change Mitigation Committee of the City of Calgary. His expertise has helped develop and deliver several key educational courses for CAGBC related to the topics of LEED documentation, as well as the NECB and how it intersects with the LEED rating system.  

The CAGBC Awards committee extends its appreciation to all firms, individuals, and projects who made a submission to this year’s competition.

To find out more about the CAGBC Awards, past recipients, and the submission process, please visit cagbc.org/awards.

For media inquiries, contact media@cagbc.org

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