Carbon Neutral and LEED Gold Design Guidelines

Client BC Housing
Location City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Timeline 2008

Project Overview

BC Housing hired SSG to research best practices and propose strategies in achieving carbon neutrality and LEED Gold certification for new construction. Under the BC Climate Action Charter, BC Housing is mandated to make its operations, which include 7,800 units of multi-unit residential buildings and 300 group homes, carbon neutral. BC Housing has also committed to LEED standards for all new social housing projects they fund. In order to achieve these ambitious targets, SSG helped the agency evolve its operations.

Our Role

• Analysing construction standards.
• Revising standards to reflect LEED Gold requirements and Carbon neutrality.
• Providing expert guidance on Integrated Design Process and hazardous materials.
• Developing carbon neutral targets.

Our Approach

We worked with BC Housing to define carbon neutrality in the context of their operations. We analyzed current construction standards and revised them to incorporate LEED Gold and carbon neutral targets. Additionally, SSG provided guidance on using the Integrated Design Process to help BC Housing achieve their goals.