Western’s newest facility – the Amit Chakma Engineering Building – has won a provincial award of excellence for new green buildings.
The award, presented at an Ontario Green Building Excellence and Leadership ceremony earlier this month, also qualifies it as a nominee for the national awards competition to take place in Vancouver.
The facility is on target to achieve LEED ‘platinum’ status. Such certification would also make it the 13thLEED-certified project on campus.
Sustainability measures include its being 55% more energy efficient than the Canadian building code standard. Features include a rainwater collection/harvesting system and electric vehicle charging ports. Its 127-kilowatt rooftop solar array is expected to offset more than 5% of the building’s total annual energy use.
The building opened officially in mid-October, as engineering enrolment is set to increase by 25 per cent, and its architectural consultants are Perkins + Will and Cornerstone Architecture. Accepting the award on behalf of the university were Facilities Management project managers Boris Pertout and Glen Armstrong.
