Humber Arboretum’s hidden treasure
The Center for Urban Ecology and the path to a gold standard.
In the Humber Arboretum there is a building that is first gold one in Toronto.
The Centre for Urban Ecology, which opened in November 2007, is the first gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building in Toronto. The LEED program is a rating system that gives buildings points for achieving high sustainability standards.
Jimmy Vincent , coordinator for the Centre for Urban Ecology knows that when it comes to sustainability Humber is always looking for new things to do.
“Humber’s always been very kind of ahead of the game in terms of sustainability and I think they saw a great chance to say ‘ Hey you know there’s this new LEED certification system out right now if we certify with this fast enough we might be able to be the first one in the city of Toronto’,” said Vincent.
According to the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) a building needs to have 39-51 points to be gold certified. The Urban Ecology building has 42.
Although Humber College had the first gold LEED building, Waterfront Toronto is pushing that goal one step further.
Waterfront Toronto has “minimum green builders requirements and one of those requirements are that all buildings have to achieve LEED gold certification,” said Anna Palamarchuk, project manager of environment & innovation.
Waterfront Toronto currently has “two LEED certified buildings, one under review, 10 under construction and four under design,” said Palamarchuk.
According to Waterfront Toronto’s sustainability report it is also leading by example.
Its office building achieved gold in 2012 for an existing green building with a total of 65 points. Points were given in “areas of energy, water, materials, indoor environmental quality and sustainable sites.”
Glenn MacMillan, senior manager of water and energy at Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) knows that LEED is just one way to help build a greener Toronto.
“It’s a building rating tool, so it’s one of the tools in the tool box,” he said.
Toronto Region Conservation Authority is one of the founding partners of the CaGBC Greater Toronto Chapter. According to the CaGBC website it started implementing LEED in 2002.
TRCA’s Restoration Services Centre, located in Vaughn was also the first LEED platinum building in Eastern Canada.
“We do promote LEED, we try to walk the talk,” said MacMillan.
TRCA does its best to get Torontonians involved in understanding sustainability with workshops and trainings. MacMillan said tours also take place Kortright Centre for Conservation, where the general public is informed about the differences between a traditional and a LEED home.
“We get 100,000 people a year coming to Kortright from kids to high school to general public to professionals ….(it’s) a great vehicle to educate people,” he said.
Third year Humber student Ken Gray understands that in the world of design getting your LEED certificate can take you a long way. In 2014, he got his LEED Green Associate certificate.
The CaGBC’s website states that LEED green associates are ” individuals with a demonstrated basic knowledge of green building fundamentals and commitment to sustainability and transformation of the built environment.”
Gray, who is in the sustainable energy and building technology program, said that the LEED “course enforced knowledge.”
With sustainability being a key issue on people’s minds Gray said a lot of architectural firms look for LEED accredited professionals.
Gray is currently studying to get an updated version of his the certificate he already has. LEED version four.
