This page offers a list of commercial green buildings in Canada. The list includes buildings that are LEED™ certified or registered, C-2000 buildings, projects that have competed in the International Green Building Challenge, and buildings that have self identified as green.

This list is not comprehensive. It will grow as more projects are brought to the attention of the researcher. If you know of a green building project in Canada that is not represented here, please e-mail Rodney McDonald at rodney.mcdonald@mts.net

This list is organized first by province and then alphabetical by project name. All projects are complete unless noted. The information (including photos) was compiled from existing Internet resources, including Canada Green Building Council, Green Buildings BC, Advanced Buildings: Technologies and Practices, the Advanced Case Studies in Canadian Sustainable Design, and Green Building Challenge.

First LEED™ Certified project in Alberta.

The Hinton Government Centre combines a variety of passive and active approaches to sustainable design, from a low-impact site strategy to material selection to sophisticated electronic environmental controls.

LEED Silver equivalent.

www.greenbuildingsbc.com

First commercial use of ground source energy in Canada.

Burnaby Mountain Secondary School
Burnaby, BC
http://www.greenbuildingsbc.com

The design team and project manager attribute the success and the reduced cost of the project to the Integrated Management approach.

City of Vancouver National Works Yard
Vancouver, BC
http://www.cagbc.ca
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca

First LEED™ Gold under LEED™ BC. First LEED™ Gold in City of Vancouver.

The C.K. Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research at UBC is widely recognized as one of the Lower Mainland's preeminent sustainable building projects. Developed as a demonstration green building, the building was designed and constructed without any adjustments to its original budget or schedule and has outperformed many of its original building targets. The American Institute of Architects recognized the building as one of its Top Ten Earth Day 2000 Green Buildings.

Design integration throughout the process allowed the building to incorporate superior design strategies at a lower cost.

Features include building reuse, energy efficiency, water efficiency.
Nominated for a Hallmark Society Heritage Restoration Award.

The Liu Centre has been committed to a rigorous ‘green’ agenda: it was constructed within the footprint of its predecessor and makes extensive use of materials from that carefully deconstructed building; and it is sited with sensitivity to the quality of indoor light and its natural forest setting.

Thermal mass, an efficient envelope, natural ventilation, and solar control are the primary design strategies used to ensure energy efficiency performance 35 percent below ASHRAE standards.

Revenue Canada Surry Tax Centre
Surrey, BC
http://www.greenbuildingsbc.com
http://www.advancedbuildings.org
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca

Advanced building design techniques were aimed at employee comfort, workspace flexibility, and energy sustainability. The large floor plate is 95% efficient. 90% of work stations are within 8 m of glazing and natural light. Operable windows and the absence of conventional dropped ceilings give all employees access to natural light and ventilation in high (over 3m) ceiling spaces.

This building reflects the municipality's increasingly urban aspirations. Extensive landscaping, new water gardens and a holistic approach to sustainability were used to create a healthy, durable and effective civic complex.

Semiahmoo Library & RCMP District Office

The Semiahmoo Library & RCMP District Office developed by the City of Surrey was designed to combine cost effectiveness, green building objectives, and functional efficiency for two distinctly different community services.

Selected as one of Team Canada's representative projects for the 2000 Green Building Challenge.

A new double glazed, fritted and frameless glazing system with operable windows is suspended from the existing building face, and thus creates the first triple-skinned green building solution in Canada.

The Vancouver Island Technology Park is the first project in Canada to achieve certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED™) Rating System.

Canada's first new LEED-Gold building
The building has a green roof to reduce the urban heat island effect, gravel parking lots to maximize infiltration of rainwater, and nearly 400 square metres of asphalt revegetated with native species. Stormwater is collected in a storage tank for flushing toilets and also collected from city streets to help heat and cool the building.

MEC Winnipeg is the second retail building in Canada to meet the C-2000 standard.

Selected as one of Team Canada's three representative projects at the 2002 Green Building Challenge to be held at the World Sustainable Buildings Conference in Oslo, Norway.

Earth Rangers Centre
Woodbridge, Ontario
http://www.earthrangers.ca
http://www.trca.on.ca

Everything about the Earth Rangers Centre has been planned to make it a showpiece of environmental responsibility. It is estimated that the Centre will use 61% less energy than a building designed to the national energy code.

Selected as one of Team Canada's three representative projects at the 2002 Green Building Challenge to be held at the World Sustainable Buildings Conference in Oslo, Norway.

The first retail building in Canada to comply with Canada's C-2000 green building standard.

Features include daylighting, dematerialization and green roof.

Features include daylighting, photovoltaics, bio-filtration.

Sir Sandford Fleming College Applied Computing and Engineering Science Building

Features include daylighting, dematerialization and natural ventilation.

Selected as one of Team Canada's representative projects for the 2000 Green Building Challenge. Awarded the 'Best Green Building of the Year' by World Architecture magazine. A super benefit of the building's design is that it allows for maximum sunlight and it offers a good quantity of fresh air.

The first ‘green’ student housing in Ontario. Conventional mechanical systems were passed up in favour of in-slab heating and cooling systems, high performance exterior cladding, and a planted roof.

YMCA Environmental Learning Centre

The Centre’s Solarium Building features a large solarium room, which houses living machine and enables passive heating and natural ventilation for cooling. The building is also outfitted with energy efficient lighting fixtures to complement daylighting design strategies. The north side of the building is earth bermed with a green roof.

Canada’s first LEED certified building in Charlottetown, PE. The building, which is expected to open in late 2005/early 2006, will be the most environmentally friendly building that Public Works and Government Services Canada has ever built. It is to serve as a model of sustainable design for all future Federal Government projects across Canada.

Selected as one of Team Canada's representative projects for the 2000 Green Building Challenge.

Mountain equipment Co-op Store
Montréal, Québec
http://www.mec.ca
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca

The first retail building in Quebec to meet Natural Resource Canada's C-2000 standard for above-average energy and environmental performance.

C-2000 Building.

The building is oriented facing south, with the south exposure gently bending around from southeast to southwest. The public lobby and stacks are situated in the front third of the floorplate and are daylit by the extensive south facing glazing.

Mayo Replacement School

Certified C2000 building.

Selected as one of Team Canada's three representative projects at the 2002 Green Building Challenge to be held at the World Sustainable Buildings Conference in Oslo, Norway.

A recipient of a 1999 National Energy Efficiency Award, the new corporate office building is the first building North of 60 to be designated under the C-2000 and CBIP programmes.

Royal Roads University
Science, Technology & Environment Division
edialogues@royalroads.ca