LEED Certification: Sustainable buildings done right

Most students are unaware of the University of Ottawa’s history with making campus buildings more sustainable because it was before our time. I certainly knew only the minimum before working with the Office of Campus Sustainability.   

Our first attempt at making a sustainable building was the SITE building built between 1997 and 1999. SITE won many awards prior to construction in anticipation for what was planned. Unfortunately, once the building was built, it failed to be as sustainable as promised. What made this attempt a failure is that the building utilized a lot of energy. A deep energy retrofit, also known as DER, was done between 2012 to 2014 to correct some of the problems with the building. However, the giant south-facing six story atrium (essentially a giant wall of windows) continues to cause pretty significant draws on air conditioning and heating, thus using a lot more energy than what was originally produced in the building design.  

To avoid any future underwhelming results with regards to building efficiency and sustainability, the University chose to switch to the goal of attempting LEED certification for new buildings. LEED gives certifications of various levels (silver, gold, platinum) to denote how sustainable the building is after it has been built. This system holds companies accountable to a certain standard if they wish their buildings to be called sustainable. 

uOttawa’s first attempt at LEED was with Desmarais in 2007. We had not incorporated the LEED guidelines and criteria into the planning process early enough and ended up violating a prerequisite, ultimately resulting in the building being unable to be LEED certified.  

The next attempt at a sustainable building was with FSS, the social sciences building, and we succeeded in achieving our first LEED certification at gold level! Some of the key elements that made it so sustainable were the prominence of the stairs to encourage use, Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, low flow fixtures to conserve water and non-toxic/non-off gassing furniture. The plant wall, which was the highest one ever for quite a while at six stories high, humidifies the entire building. 

Since then, several LEED certified buildings on campus have been built including CRX, STEM, ARC, and we are currently working on the Lees Campus. We are definitely getting better at creating more sustainable buildings!

 ~ melanie plante, office of campus sustainability co-op student