Awards put spotlight on importance of thinking green
Published Monday May 24th, 2010
Cindy Wilson, Telegraph-Journal
SAINT JOHN - Commercial Properties Ltd. is hoping a little recognition sent its way will encourage developers to think green.
The Saint John-based company was recently awarded one of the Premier's Awards for Energy Efficiency for its Somerset Square property in the city's north end.
The building was honoured with the Outstanding Energy Efficiency Project - Commercial New Construction award during a gala ceremony in Fredericton earlier this month.
"It was very nice to be awarded this (and) we appreciated the recognition," John Irving, president of Commercial Properties Ltd., said. "But I think the real winner is it provides encouragement to both us and other (companies) to try to do things to make a difference."
Others winners of Premier's Awards include Forsgren & Associates of Hampton for best commercial retrofit; Matthew and Andrea Hughes of Rothesay for best new multi-unit building; and the Irving Pulp and Paper Division, named Energy Efficiency Champion - Industrial Sector.
Irving said by taking on the Somerset Square project his company hoped to create a top-of-the-line energy-efficient office space while cleaning up a plot of land that had been contaminated from years of commercial use.
Standing at the corner of Somerset Street and Wellesley Avenue, where two gasoline service stations once operated, pollutants had seeped into the soil and the ground required cleansing before construction even began.
"We hoped by doing something on that site we could actually help the neighbourhood," Irving said.
"We've got 100 people working there who weren't working in that neighbourhood before," added Peter Milan, an engineer with Commercial Properties Ltd. and manager of the Somerset Square project.
The building hosts Stantec's Saint John office and is the corporate head office of Coast Tire.
Upon completion in the fall of 2009, it received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, becoming the first privately-owned LEED Gold building in Atlantic Canada and one of only 16 in the country at the time.
At the beginning of the project - which received incentives through Efficiency N.B.'s Start Smart program - Irving said Stantec, then a prospective tenant, was only looking for a LEED Silver building.
As they researched the program, "we found a lot of the stuff is common sense and we thought why not go for gold," Irving said.
The result is a building boasting an energy cost savings of around 45 per cent.
More than 90 per cent of the light inside the building comes from natural daylight thanks to a design where three-quarters of workspaces are near a window.
"It was a fantastic project, there aren't many around and it was a real learning experience," Milan said.
Irving noted the company will be looking to start its second LEED Gold project in 2011, though likely not in Saint John.
Nonetheless, he's happy his company could raise the bar for other developers in the area to aspire to.
And while an award from the premier was welcome, Irving said true satisfaction is watching the project positively impact an underdeveloped neighbourhood.
"When I drive home at night and see kids skateboarding in the lot or people sitting on the benches, I think that's a lot better than when it was an urban wasteland," he said.