Lake Ontario Undertakes North America's Largest Green Building Project
Source Ontario Clean Technology Alliance
The $4.4 billion, 1,977-acre, 40,000-residence Toronto waterfront revitalization project is intended to position the city and province of Ontario as a world leader in creating sustainable communities, with buildings and neighborhoods that aim to be among the greenest on the planet.
Members of the Ontario Clean Technology Alliance – a collective of regional and municipal economic development organizations across Ontario are attending Greenbuild 2014 to attract more green technology talent to the province while showcasing the wares of 23 green building technology products and services companies – everything from Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) to water reuse solutions to hyper-efficient heat pumps.
“Ontario has Canada’s greatest concentration of environmental and clean-technology companies. According to the 2014 Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report, 35 percent of clean-tech companies in Canada are located in Ontario. The province also generates 37 percent of Canada’s GDP and is home to nearly 50 percent of all employees in high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries.”
Waterfront Toronto’s Minimum Green Building Requirements (MGBR) mandate high performance buildings and smart technologies and define Waterfront Toronto’s vision for green building design and construction on Toronto’s massive waterfront project.
They include the following criteria:
- buildings achieve high levels of energy efficiency
- developers provide renewable energy generation on-site
- water conservation measures for buildings, suites and exterior landscaping needs be incorporated
- parking garages include electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and EV charging stations within residential and commercial buildings every suite includes energy and water meters
- a large number of bicycle parking and storage spaces be provided in residential buildings at convenient and easily accessible locations
One recently announced Waterfront Toronto example that follows these green building requirements is by Tridel Group and the global property development company Hines. Their 12-story, 231-suite residential condo project, Aquavista at Bayside, is aiming for a LEED-Platinum rating and will be designed by the prolific Miami-based architectural office Arquitectonica.
Source: Ontario Clean Technology Alliance
