Is CIBC's Big Office Move Motivated by Sustainability?
How much better is it to move into a new facility, instead of renovating your existing space? This is a very loaded question, and I'm going to cover 7 key sustainability reasons why CIBC could have made the choice to relocate over renovate.
It is essential for an organization to choose and track their most important KPI's so that they truly know how they are performing from week to week or year to year. Only when you have quality data and metrics can you truly make an informed decision to change and improve.
Previously, I wrote an article that highlights 7 Key Performance Indicators in Sustainability and within this CIBC move, I can anticipate that they are improving on all 7 of the KPI's highlighted. CIBC will have one employee per 116 square feet, this is below the current stated average of 150 square feet per person. This reduction in the area will reduce their overall operating costs, which I will cover in an upcoming article.
1 & 2. Electricity & Gas Consumption
The new Bay Park Centre will feature all of the greatest technology around occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, temperature controls, variable speed fans in the HVAC system and more. All of these technologies will reduce their energy consumption and reduce their costs by 40% as a result.
Trying to retrofit these technologies in older facilities is possible, but in many instances are challenging. Sometimes you will run into an IT problem with trying to integrate two different systems (specifically an old one with a new one). In addition, the changing of large HVAC systems is impractical, especially if the units are not at the end of their life-cycle, which would be financially irresponsible.
Lastly, the Bay Park Centre will have electrical submetering in place, which is essential to know how your energy consumption throughout the building is performing, and it's the first tool to making changes to improve your performance. This can be done in older buildings as well, but depending on your lease agreements, it may not be possible to implement.
3. Water Consumption
Water consumption is one of the easiest things to address. It is an easy retrofit for an old facility, but often there isn't a sufficient financial return on investment which could justify executing the work. Meanwhile, a new project would simply specify the newest and best plumbing fixtures and incur minimal costs. This is also beneficial, because of the tertiary energy savings on the heating of water. In the new construction situation, you may also be able to reduce boiler sizes and distribution lines which would save more upfront costs. The Bay Park Centre is targeting a 40% water use savings which I feel is not as high as it could be, but perhaps there are some changes to come which will help them achieve a higher saving.
4. Air Quality
This is one of the most challenging problems in all types of buildings. The first challenge is to monitor the air quality and then make the appropriate changes to maintain or improve the air quality if it's needed. Additionally, over time the workspace can get inundated with objects which were simply not planned for such as: new workstations, more staff, objects affecting the HVAC air circulation, etc. not to mention, the general cleanliness of people's workstations.
There are a lot of great products that can monitor these issues and a good building manager can intervene and improve the air quality, but the older buildings may not have the appropriate building systems required to make a meaningful improvement.
Lastly, as CIBC is moving into a new space they will have the ability to procure all new furniture while considering the quality, toxicity, among other attributes that won't negatively affect the air quality within the office. One of the biggest risks to furniture procurement is the smaller purchases which are not as stringently managed and as a result, you may get a chair or table which won't have the same high-quality attributes. The result is when they off-gas they will emit these chemicals and negatively impact the air quality.
5. Waste Management
This has two components, the first is the organization itself and what they do within their space and secondly what the facility operators need to do to support the entire property.
CIBC's challenges are seen within their own leased areas, such as the employee's desks, meeting rooms, break rooms, etc. and making sure that their employees are sorting the garbage and recyclables properly. The proper sorting is essential to achieving a high level of waste diversion from the landfill. It is also important to make sure that their employees are provided with the right resources and training in the first place.
Bay Park Centre's challenges are seen in the loading dock areas. This is where all of the garbage and recyclables are brought to from within the building. A newer facility should have been designed to handle; a garbage bin, an office paper bin, a secured paper bin, a cardboard bin, a plastics bin, a glass bin, a metal bin, an electronics recycling area, light bulb collection area, battery collection area, and most important of all, an organics material bin (which requires additional ventilation).
In some (not all) older buildings they don't have sufficient space to have bins for each material. In these instances there would be mixed bins with off-site sorting, this has a different set of challenges but could yield the level of waste diversion from landfills, but, it won't give the facility operator the same quality of data to influence change.
This high level of on-site sorting is also the best way to track your personal performance, and the best way to improve your performance based on the knowledge you have gained.
6. Local Bio-Diversity
The Bay Park Centre appears to have done a great job in the design of the podium park. This area will provide a critical addition to assist local fauna species to spawn and find nutrients. The closest high quality "Green" space is either 3 blocks south at the Jack Layton's Ferry Terminal, 2 blocks west at the Roundhouse Park, and there is nothing close to the North and East of the project. Toronto's financial core is effectively a failure in bio-diversity. I know that the city and building owners are trying to improve this problem and there some small successes locally like the Fairmount Royal York's rooftop vegetable garden. I anticipate that in the area around Bay Park Centre will definitely benefit by this great addition.
7. Socio-Economics
As a lot of the project specifics have not been released yet, so I can only comment on this KPI from a high level with identifying "good opportunities" with the hopes that they will be addressed.
The local community is still under development and there are going to be many more large towers to be built. I would hope that the retailers which are brought in, will both support and provide essential services needed by the office and residents within this community.
I would also hope that they integrate events within the new park to keep it animated and elevate the quality of life. These events will be even more important considering the close proximity to the Air Canada Centre.
Considering all of the hard surfaces and loud vehicles in this area I would hope that the project will integrate a lot of soft sound absorptive materials in addition to the flora in the park (which may be seasonal) so that the human scale acoustics will be inviting and improved for the neighbouring properties.
Summary
The Bay Park Centre has a lot of successes which is poised to make it one of the most ambitious and impressive projects in downtown Toronto. I do believe that all of the above KPI's did play a role in the design of the Bay Park Centre as well as CIBC's decision to make the move.
Have any thoughts? Share them below, and as always please share this article to help others learn. And don't forget to check out my other articles.
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