Building ‘Green’ in Canada
Cooper recently completed construction of a “green” manufacturing building for Omron Dualtec Automotive Electronics Inc., on a 4.5 acre site on Winston Park Drive in Oakville, Ontario.
Omron asked us to design and construct a new facility which would protect the environment and minimize the environmental impact of its operations. Compared with similar but conventionally constructed buildings, the new Omron manufacturing facility provides significant reductions in resource consumption and environmental impact.
Our guide in designing the building was LEED™ Canada for New Construction and Major Renovations, Version 1.0 — adapted for Canadian climates, construction practices and regulations, from the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System (LEED™).
LEED™ Canada provides a set of criteria that evaluate project performance from a whole-building, whole-life perspective — providing a common understanding for what constitutes a “green building” in the Canadian context.
LEED™ Canada’s Rating System recognizes leading-edge buildings that incorporate design, construction and operational practices such that advantages in health, quality and performance are achieved, in combination with reduced environmental impacts.
Building occupants, purchasers and lessors are assured of superior building performance by an independent review and audit of the projects’ construction documents, conducted by experienced design professionals, following a well-defined and transparent methodology.
This is done by awarding points for meeting specific performance criteria that outperform typical standard practice. Improved building performance is certified with ratings, based on the total number of points earned by a project.
With four possible levels of certification, LEED™ is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of green building strategies that best fit the constraints and goals of particular projects.
For Omron, we were able to reduce energy consumption by 37% and water consumption by 45%; we recycled 75% of the construction waste; we used building materials with 28% recyclable content and achieved a 36% reduction in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) by using low-emitting building materials.
This facility is one of the first LEED™-Canada certified industrial buildings and we welcome your inquiries to learn more about our LEED™-Canada expertise and technology. For more information, please call Don Gordon at 905.829.0444, Ext. 231
