Environment
Green Building and LEED Experience
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. Measurement for compliance is divided into key areas:
- Sustainable sites
- Water efficiency
- Energy Atmosphere
- Materials and resources
- Indoor environmental quality
- Innovation and Design process
Projects striving for LEED certification are scored based on a variety of criteria within these categories and must meet the rigorous environmental standards of LEED to be successful in their bid.
A&T Project Developments’ approach to the LEED program is to educate our sub-trades on the policies and protocols to ensure that our trades and staff are aware of their part in the process.
We are confident we can embrace the LEED approach regardless of the project.
Visit the Canada Green Building Council website at www.cagbc.org for more information.
Climate Smart
A&T Project Developments Inc. became an accredited business with Climate Smart B.C. in 2011 having completed a 6-month training program and overall business review of our businesses’ carbon footprint. Climate Smart B.C. is dedicated to helping small and medium businesses foster the transition to a prosperous and low-carbon future. Through the first year of our Climate Smart program, A&T endeavoured to reduce our carbon footprint in 2011/12 by 10%…and we more than surpassed our goals!
We had the following success:
- 1.5% reduction in electricity use
- 2% reduction in heating
- 16% reduction in staff commuting
- 24% reduction in goods transportation (sourcing as many products as we can locally)
- 80% reduction in paper consumption!!
Some of the initiatives we challenged ourselves to take on included:
- Continue to source building materials from local suppliers
- Reduce items being transported to the landfill by focusing on recycling at job sites, finding local companies to use scrap wood, metal and more
- Schedule office heating/cooling system on a timer
- Use energy-efficient appliances/lighting
- Print double-sided
- Run the dishwasher only once per week (when full)
- Turn lights off in rooms not in use
- Turn lights off at end of each workday
- Use laptops rather than desktop computers
- Turn laptops off each evening
- Recycle office paper
- Purchase eco-friendly office supplies
- Purchase recycled ink cartridges
- Take part in webinars (as opposed to driving to meeting locations)
- Use natural light from office windows on sunny days rather than overhead lights
We endeavour to maintain these amazing levels of reductions going forward into next year and hope to inspire others around us to start a reduction program of their own!
Please visit www.climatesmartbusiness.com for more information.