Meet The First Net Zero Building In Canada
Evolv1 is the first commercial building in Canada to meet the new strict net zero carbon standard
Building a zero-carbon building with net positive contributions to the electrical grid and charging market rents was something that local developer Adrian Conrad was told was impossible five years ago.
“Everybody was telling us what we couldn’t do,” he said. “We wanted to find out what we could do.”
According to the Waterloo Chronicle, Conrad and the Cora Group forged ahead with the support of Sustainable Waterloo Region and the operators of the David Johnston R+T Park on the University of Waterloo’s north campus to build a project called evolv1, and it has become the first multi-tenant commercial office building in Canada to meet the Green Building Council’s rigorous new net-zero carbon standard.
“It’s nice to say what we’re doing is true, but this recognition and the process we went through to get it is our stamp of approval,” said Conrad. “This organization has certified what we have done, and this is important going forward in the industry if Canada and the world want to meet climate change targets.”
The recognition is nice Conrad admitted outside of the site of the building in the final stages of completion. But more important is the ability to replicate what’s been done in Waterloo and to become the standard of new commercial builds across the country.
“It’s replicable,” said Conrad. “A big part of this was proof of concept — we’re a private developer and Region of Waterloo-based and the vision back in 2013 to take the sustainable buildings we’ve done in the past and take them to the next level.
“How do we do go further?”
They went further by bringing the expertise of Stantec, which has an office in the research park, and used its architecture and environmental design expertise to create a building that will feed into the local hydro grid instead of simply drawing on it, and will contribute zero carbon emissions to the greenhouse gas mix that is contributing to climate change.
“The desire from the developer was to really create a net positive building that was really an example of what could be done as a commercial, for lease office building,” said Richard Williams, of Stantec Architects who counts this as one of the greatest projects he’s ever worked on in his 35-year design career. “It had to be commercially feasible and could be replicated by other developers and showing that a high-performance net positive, net-zero carbon building could be done by the development community.
“This isn’t just in the realm of institutional architecture, and we’re actually generating more energy than we’re actually using in the building which is even beyond the ambitious goal of net-zero.”
Some of the design elements that contribute to the building’s positive environmental footprint include use upgraded insulation through the walls and roof of the building and keeping it airtight.
“Then we put in high-performance windows with triple glazing that includes solar shading to prevent unwanted heat gain during the summer months,” said Williams about some of the building passive remediation efforts.
The second step was a very high-efficiency mechanical system, that Conrad described as the “Mercedes” of systems and will serve the building during it’s long lifespan.
Stantec also designed a solar wall that is part of the exterior wall on the south side of the building that will heat the air being pumped into the three-storey atrium that is a signature piece of the new building. “It will passively heat the outside air and then use it in the mechanical system,” said Williams.
The building also has a geothermal cooling and heating system, using the temperature consistency of the earth itself to provide climate control in the building. There will also be a zone heating and cooling system in the building moving warmer and cooler air to areas of the building as needed.
“For us, from a sustainable design standpoint this is one of the big achievements,” said Williams. “To do something that is net positive and net-zero carbon is fantastic and has always been one of our goals.
“We’ve been really excited to be working on this project and recognize it as a great achievement.”
The 110,000-square-foot building that is three storeys tall has shown what they are doing is commercially viable. The model is so viable that the Cora Group is in the process of getting approval for evolv2 right across the street from the current building and hopes to have shovels in the ground later this year.
“Everything was saying we can’t do it,” said Conrad. “Working with Sustainable Waterloo Region, they wanted no part of we can’t do this … and you know what we figured this out.”
Conrad, a math grad from the University of Waterloo, said it was great to solve some of the problems of the current building and going forward know what will work best in the Cora Group’s next evolv2 project.
“The building is standing and in another two or three months its done,” said Conrad, about the building that is already 90 percent leased. “We know what costs are and we know what they will be going forward.”
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