Hamilton’s Mohawk College has recently been lauded with the Canada Green Building Council’s (CaGBC) Zero Carbon Building — Design Certification. The award is for the college’s Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation and it is only the second building to receive the certification, the first being a multi-tenant office building in Waterloo.
New construction projects earn the designation by modelling a zero carbon balance and by having mega-efficient ventilation and envelope systems meeting a definitive threshold for thermal energy demand intensity and onsite renewable energy systems that are capable of providing a minimum of five per cent of building energy consumption. In 2016, Mohawk’s Joyce Centre became one of 16 projects in Canada to be chosen as a pilot project for the CaGBC’s fledgling Zero Carbon Building Standard.
Project teams evaluated energy use holistically, including impacts on peak electricity and determining the GHG emissions associated with structural and envelope materials. Existing buildings can also obtain the standard.
“We’re honoured to receive the Zero Carbon Building – Design certification. The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation will not only be a showcase for green construction but also a living lab that will teach future generations how to build better, more sustainable buildings,” Mohawk College president Ron McKerlie said in a statement.