Gulf Islands National Park Reserve of Canada

Parks Canada - Going Green Innovation and Design Process

Breakthroughs in building science, technology and operations are available to designers, builders and owners who want to build green and maximize both economic and environmental performance. LEED©, the "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" Green Building Rating System, is a standard for green buildings. Developed by the US Green Building Council in 1998, the system was introduced in Canada in November 2004.

LEED© provides a framework for the measurement of "greenness" and allows comparison with other projects .

LEED© Certified projects are rated according to the number of credits which have been achieved. The rating system provides four levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum, the highest possible. All new projects for the Government of Canada must achieve Gold rating.

Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently and reducing the overall impact to the environment. The LEED© system spans six principal categories. Follow the links below for more information on how the design for the GINPR Operations Centre responds to these categories.

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Materials and Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality

LEED© awards up to 4 additional points for design features not specifically recognized in the other 5 LEED© categories. Additional points can also be awarded for significantly exceeding the LEED© performance levels. The project has been awarded additional credits for the following:

Green Housekeeping

The facility manager has implemented a policy which will allow only the use of green housekeeping products and procedures.

Parks Canada has purchased workstations selected on the basis of the sustainable materials and processes used in their manufacture.

The facility will reduce water use by over 61%, which surpasses by a significant margin the 40% reduction required by LEED©.

The building exceeds the highest level of performance in the LEED© standard.

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