The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) recently designated a seven-storey provincial government building in Peterborough, Ont. as LEED Platinum in the Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) category. The facility is Canada’s first government building to receive the status.

Known to locals as “Robinson Place,” the building is the headquarters for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, housing over 1,000 government employees. Building features that contributed to the LEED EBOM Platinum certification include:

• Building metering to monitor electrical, gas and water consumption;
• A rainwater collection system;
• The use of natural lighting;
• Energy-efficient chillers for hot summer months;
• A LEED-standard building automation system;
• The procurement of low volatile organic compounds (VOC) materials;
• A building-wide non-smoking policy;
• A green approach to cleaning, landscaping and pest management;
• A comprehensive recycling program; and
• The development of an on-site community garden.

“Buildings have a tremendous environmental impact,” says Thomas Mueller, CaGBC President and CEO. “This landmark facility is in an elite group of a dozen existing buildings to be converted to LEED Platinum in Canada. CaGBC applauds the leadership of the Province of Ontario in being one of the first governments in Canada to increase the performance of an existing building under the LEED for Existing Buildings program.”

Robinson Place is located at 300 Water St. in Peterborough, Ont. It is managed by Infrastructure Ontario on behalf of the provincial government.