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2022 CaGBC Awards celebrate Canadian green building innovators

Michael Mousa of Dialog was among this year’s winners. Photo courtesy CaGBC.

Last week, the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) handed out its annual awards—which celebrate projects, teams and individuals for their contributions to Canada’s green building sector—at a gala event during its Building Lasting Change (BLC) conference in Toronto.

“Highlighting our successes is a good way to advance green buildings across Canada and demonstrate the sector’s leadership in the transition to a low-carbon economy,” said CaGBC president and CEO Thomas Mueller.

Projects that won awards this year include:

• The Local 144 Plumbers’ Union Head Office and Training Facility in Montreal, the first LEED BD+C Platinum-certified industrial building, for conserving energy and reducing water consumption.
• The Bentall Centre in Vancouver, comprising four LEED Platinum towers and using 100% renewable energy and carbon-neutral operations.
• The Roam Transit Operations and Training Centre in Banff, Alta, for achieving zero-carbon design with ultra-efficient mechanical systems, a super-insulated building envelope, district heating and biomass waste-to-energy.
• The Ken Soble Tower in Hamilton, which underwent the world’s largest residential Passive House (PH) retrofit and North America’s first residential tower EnerPHit retrofit, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 94%.
• A multi-faith housing initiative in Ottawa that created a healthy living space for homeless veterans while incorporating green building practices.

As for teams, Multiplex Construction Canada was named this year’s Green Building Pioneer, as the first Canadian construction company to set a GHG reduction target in line with the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi) and the first contractor to sign the World Green Building Council’s (WorldGBC‘s) Net Zero Commitment. Also, Global Affairs Canada won the government leadership award for achieving the first international Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) certification with its permanent mission in Geneva, Switzerland.

The following individuals were also honoured:

• Michael Mousa (pictured), a sustainability consultant with Dialog, was named this year’s Emerging Green Leader for his mentorship of engineers at the University of Toronto (U of T) and his involvement with the Carbon Leadership Forum Toronto and Toronto Clean Energy Partnership.
• Joanne Perdue, associate vice-president (AVP) of sustainability for the University of Calgary, earned the 2022 Lifetime Achievement honour for her 30-year career in advancing green buildings in Canada.
• Alan DeSousa, mayor of Montreal’s Saint Laurent borough, was named Green Building Champion for developing that city’s environmental and sustainable development policies, plans and programs over the past decade.
• Nancy Bosscha at Bow Valley College in Calgary was named Inspiring Educator for advocating for sustainable material selection and incorporating concepts like circularity into her teaching.
• Christian Cianfrone, decarbonization director for EllisDon, was honoured as this year’s Ed Lim Technical Expertise Volunteer for bringing expertise in low-energy design to various CaGBC committees.