Victoria, BC (TSX, NYSE: STN)- Dockside Green, a 1.3-million-square-foot community built on a former brownfield site in Victoria, British Columbia, has received the highest sustainability rating for a new construction project ever awarded by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

Working as part of an integrated design team, Stantec engineers led key elements of an innovative concept that integrated energy, water, and resource management in a sustainable community design. They also designed sustainable systems within the buildings.  

The first master-planned development to target LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, Dockside Green has achieved the highest rating in the world at the Platinum level for new construction. Synergy, the first phase of the development—which includes 95 homes in two condo buildings, townhomes, and commercial space—achieved 63 points out of a possible 70. Dockside Green will incorporate a community-wide integrated energy system that includes heating from renewable biomass energy, district heating distribution and heat recovery, and onsite wastewater treatment. The project is further enhanced by sustainable building systems and technologies.

The multi-million dollar project is the largest redevelopment of city land in Victoria’s history. It will eventually include a total of 26 buildings incorporating low- and high-rise residential space, light industrial, office, commercial and retail development. The Platinum rating was achieved for the first phase of the redevelopment.

Dockside Green’s Synergy achieved the maximum available score in several LEED categories, including energy, water efficiency, atmosphere, indoor environmental quality, and innovation. Key sustainable features designed by Stantec include:

• a biomass energy system, which uses waste wood as fuel through a gasification process 
• passive solar heating
• an advanced building envelope and high-performance window glazing to help prevent heat loss
• a 100% fresh air system with heat recovery
• high-efficiency lighting and occupancy sensors
• a 65% reduction in indoor water use with dual flush toilets, low-flow fixtures and use of graywater for sewage conveyance
• treating 100% of the site’s wastewater in a campus-wide plant, which reuses it in central water features, toilet flushing, and on-site irrigation

Compared to the Canadian Model National Energy Code, the buildings will use 48 to 52 percent less energy as a result of the project’s sustainable design solutions.

Stantec worked as part of an integrated design team led by Busby Perkins + Will, the project architect. The partners and owners—Windmill West and Vancity Credit Union —took a visionary approach to this development, which could lead to a shift in how new communities are developed in the future. 

Stantec has been involved with the design of more than 50 LEED-certified buildings, including seven that have achieved LEED Platinum certification. Stantec has one of the largest integrated building design teams in North America, currently with more than 335 LEED-accredited professionals.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based certification rating system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Through a third party review process conducted by industry experts, the system rates projects based on a points system that was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and adapted for Canada by the Canada Green Building Council.