Blackwood Partners Inc. has earned Canada’s first LEED v4 certification with 270 Albert Street in Ottawa earning Gold under the LEED for Building Operations and Maintenance: Existing Buildings (LEED O+M: Existing Buildings) rating system.

Blackwood Partners Corporation is the property manager of the 14-storey, 164,000-square-foot office tower that had previously undergone several major retrofits since the building was constructed in 1975.

“Projects like 270 Albert set a strong example of leadership in action,” says Mark Hutchinson, vice-president of Green Building Programs for the CaGBC. “They demonstrate how LEED v4 is providing project teams with a rigorous set of requirements and guidelines that, when successful, can lead a 40-year-old building to become a top-performer, saving energy and thereby reducing carbon and combating climate change.”

While the multi-tenant building was already operating efficiently when an energy audit was conducted in 2013, with this LEED v4 Gold certification the operations team was able to improve the building’s energy performance further by 25 per cent, resulting in an energy use intensity of 20 ekWh/sf and an ENERGY STAR score that placed the building in the 91st percentile amongst its peers.

Crediting its close partnership with LEED consultants WSP Canada, Blackwood Partners also says the entire project – from initial planning to performance verification and documentation – was completed in just over one year.

“Blackwood Partners is confident that the LEED v4 O+M Gold certification of 270 Albert Street is an opportunity to elevate the building in the downtown Ottawa marketplace by reinforcing the owner’s commitment to sustainable practices and supporting the green initiatives of our tenants within their workplace,” says Peter L. Stafl, vice-president of leasing and asset management for Blackwood Partners Inc.