One York Street has achieved LEED Platinum certification, earning 89 points, the highest score ever awarded to a Toronto building.

Completed in 2016, the 800,000-square-foot-office tower rises to 35 stories at York and Harbour in Toronto’s South Core Business District. It’s home to Sun Life Financial Inc., the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), CIBC Mellon, Sovereign General Insurance and Tulip Retail. The Menkes development is part of a larger mixed-use site, with two condo towers and a retail podium, which will soom welcome Winners, Harbour Eats by Mercatino and Pure Fitness, to name a few.

“From its conception to the final occupancies, Menkes has been committed to delivering a first class leading edge commercial complex that not only meets the day-to-day needs of its users, but does so in an environmentally sustainable manner,” says Peter Menkes, president, commercial and industrial division.

Community and wellness, attention to energy and greenhouse gas emissions, water usage and a focus on light and air all contributed to One York’s record-breaking title.

“One of Sun Life’s four sustainability themes is to take account of our environmental responsibility and that means taking steps to reduce our impact on the environment,” says Melissa Kennedy, executive vice-president and chief legal officer at Sun Life Financial, a main tenant. “Minimizing our energy consumption, using less paper and less electricity during peak hours are among the few ways that One York continues to help us keep sustainability top of mind.”

Here are some green elements that played a role:

• The cycle-friendly PEDAL program, as well as the Healthy Spaces program, which encourages the use of stairs and access to green space.
• The facility utilizes EnWave district cooling system, and has an onsite high efficiency boiler plant. The base building design includes premium efficiency HVAC equipment, building automation controls, and a high-performance curtain-wall system. The design and systems result in a 46 per cent energy consumption savings when compared to a typical office building.
• An extensive photovoltaic solar panel array is located on the roof of the commercial tower which produces about 86,000 kWh of energy annually.
• Two large rainwater collection cisterns were installed. Rain water is collected from the adjacent condo towers and is piped over to the office tower to be reused for the entire office building’s toilets and urinals, as well as the drip irrigation system serving the landscaping located on the ground and podium levels. Water savings from the rain cistern as well as water conservation strategies are calculated at more than 66 per cent in annual savings of over five million litres of potable water.
• As part of base building tenant space, One York Street has provided occupancy sensors, daylight sensors and an optimized fixture layout. Additional energy savings are achieved with the use of LEDs in all exterior lighting. All of these systems have been carefully engineered to reduce lighting electricity consumption by over 75 per cent.
• An underfloor air distribution system contributes to the fresh air delivery effectiveness. Conditioned air is ducted into the underfloor plenum, flowing freely to the 200 floor diffusers into the space. Air is returned from the room at ceiling level, which produces an overall floor-to-ceiling air flow pattern that takes advantage of the natural buoyancy produced by heat sources in the office. It more efficiently removes heat loads and contaminants from the space.