TOBY or not to TOBY…Shindico brings home the hardware!

At BOMA’s Awards of Excellence Luncheon on May 11th, Shindico received a TOBY Award (The Outstanding Building of the Year) for office buildings under 100,000 SF as well as an Earth Award. TOBY Awards is a prestigious program that recognizes superior commercial buildings with industry leading building management. The Earth Award is given to the building that has made significant efforts to reduce its environmental footprint. Being selected was humbling as competition was very tough - we were up against Bentall Kennedy managed 50 Fultz Blvd, one of the nicest suburban offices in Winnipeg.

In order to apply for a TOBY Award, the building must have the BOMA BEST designation. Having received BOMA BEST Certified Gold status in 2015, we were well positioned to apply for the office building less than 100,000 SF award. BOMA provides an excellent guideline and rubric outlining what they are looking for from building owners. These six categories are covered:

• Community Impact
• Tenant Relations/Building Amenities
• Energy Management/Conversation
• Environmental/Regulator/Sustainability
• Emergency Preparedness/Security Standards
• Training for Building Personnel

With all the mandatory documents as well as appendices, our submission was close to 100 pages! Approximately 3 weeks after the final submission, there is an onsite verification whereby three local BOMA members attend the site and review all of the mandatory documentation as well as the building manager’s documented procedures.

Like BOMA BEST, this was an outstanding learning experience. I was able to further my knowledge of our head office and think of ways to improve our processes to benefit both our tenants and surrounding community. As a winner at the Provincial level, we are invited to compete in the national awards, against the winners from each province - Regina, here we come!