Green Shores for Coastal Development® GOLD
Riverbend Business Park becomes certified Green Shores for Coastal Development® GOLD, by the Stewardship Centre for British Columbia.
The project began in 2011 when Oxford acquired the Riverbend lands (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada). These lands are adjacent to the Big Bend section of the Fraser River. Prior to development, the lands contained a non-operational landfill and had been the site of former heavy industrial uses that extended along most of the shoreline.
As part of Oxford’s commitment, the development would remove the contaminated landfill material and perform site remediation, including innovative flood protection and stormwater management application, along with shoreline restoration. This project retained and improved the local habitat, restored physical processes along more than 1,000 metres of shoreline, and also retained and restored native shrub and tree vegetation, thereby increasing site diversity for local birds and amphibians. A wastewater treatment system was also installed to treat parking lot runoff entering the river. The team worked with local officials and consultants to develop an innovative flood protection dike that supports natural riparian function – demonstrating how cumulative impacts of developments can be minimized or avoided.
Public education signs are shared along the newly established shoreline, which is now home to a community trail. These signs describe the unique development’s work to preserve, restore, and enhance habitat and natural processes. See here for more details.
Waste sorting at its finest
Centennial Place and Eau Claire tower in Calgary, Canada have some of the highest waste diversion rates within our office portfolio and within the industry. How do they do it? The property team has a comprehensive on-site sorting program. Bags are labeled and weighed daily. Data is recorded and results are monitored. Each floor’s results are included in a quarterly waste and recycling scorecard that is shared with all the customers.
On average about 75% (by weight) of what is placed into the garbage is sorted into the recycling or organics. After sorting, the waste diversion (percentage of waste that is recycled) for both buildings is over 90%.
The team also spends time working with customers and looking at specialty recycling programs (e.g. coffee pods, cigarette butts, e-waste, Styrofoam) to reduce garbage and increase diversion. Most recently, they identified ~50% of garbage came from food soiled plastic bags. So, the team initiated a plastic bag re-use program and cut down on kitchen bin bag use by only replacing bags (liners) three times a week. This increased diversion but also reduced the cost of kitchen bag liners by more than half the spend! The building community is also working on a new campaign to remove single-use plastics from the food court. Customer engagement and dedicated staff make all the difference when it comes to recycling!
Diverting office furniture from landfill
Each year millions of tons of office furniture and equipment are landfilled around North America, contributing to long-term greenhouse gas emissions, soil and water contamination, and locking away valuable natural resources. The majority are usable products that can make a measurable difference to non-profit and charitable organizations with limited access to resources and funding. The situation calls for a dynamic solution, one that aligns with business objectives and positively impacts society; one that turns waste and cost into a triple-bottom-line benefit.
During a company-wide Oxford and OMERS move, our facilities team commissioned Green Standards, an organization that helps businesses donate, repurpose, resell and recycle unused office furniture. The team was able to divert 97% from going to landfill – with 30% donated to schools within the community. Three metric tonnes (MT) of computers, desks, and chairs found new homes. 9 MT of CO2e were offset by keeping these items from going to landfill – equivalent to an entire home powered for a year or 230 trees planted.
By donating inventory, we were able to help local non-profit organizations improve the safety and productivity of their workspaces. For instance, 80 staff and over 645 students of Peoples Christian Academy benefited from the 21 computer monitors donated, to help set up their hybrid livestream platform for at-home and at-school learning.
Opting for carbon friendly materials
How does a building reduce embodied carbon emissions? This is what our partner, Investa, set out to achieve at 347 Kent Street in Sydney, Australia, as part of their overarching net zero carbon target (to reduce the embodied carbon emissions intensity by 50% below their reference standards by 2040).
Embodied carbon considers the carbon footprint of materials throughout the supply chain, the very materials that make up our buildings. With 347 Kent St positioned for re-development, it was a perfect opportunity to determine potential embodied carbon emissions reductions by comparing typical materials used with that of carbon friendly alternatives.
The goal – Align with the first stage of the net zero target and reduce embodied carbon emissions by 15%.
The result – 17% reduction (~2,040 tonnes of avoided CO2 equivalent), a savings that exceeds the building's pre-refurbished annual operations scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions (~1,903 tonnes CO2e).
Some of the key initiatives that contributed to this outcome include the re-use of ceiling grid (which had initially been programmed for demolition and disposal at the project's outset); the adoption of 30-40% fly-ash replacement concrete mix; 100% second hand formwork; recycled content re-bar; re-purposed steel temporary structures; and retaining the heritage façade.
Natural materials masterpiece
Arbora in Montreal, Canada is one of the most recent additions to our multi-family residential portfolio.
It is one of the first buildings in Québec to be built with local, eco-friendly solid wood frame of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels from the boreal forests of northern Québec. CLT is a proven technology known for its strength and performance in terms of energy efficiency and acoustics.
Arbora was designed to celebrate the natural materials used in its construction. The building features exposed wooden beams and posts, hardwood flooring, and stone surfaces throughout. It also features ample windows providing an abundance of natural light, 9-foot ceilings, and an on-site green space.
Arbora is also Certified LEED® Platinum for Homes - a first for Oxford’s multi-family residential portfolio.
Developing with materials in mind
St. James’s Market Phase 2 (SJM2) located in London, UK is taking an integrated approach, marrying design and operations best practices to create a space that offers the highest standards of sustainability and wellbeing. The project team worked to set ambitious targets informed by WELL, LEED, and BREEAM certifications; and implemented green roofs, rainwater harvesting, and whole life energy and carbon emissions reductions.
Notably, as part of the Better Buildings Partnership and Design for Performance (DfP) initiative, our partner, The Crown Estate, has signed SJM2 on as one of the first buildings in the UK to form the benchmarking scheme aimed at improving the energy performance of existing buildings. SJM2 will serve as a prime example to help spur continual improvement and accountability within the sector.
Additionally, the SJM2 team is taking a thorough approach to the materials used to develop the building, looking at carbon emissions across its supply chain. Team members participated in Oxford’s global working group to develop a Restricted Materials List that posed a risk to human health. Following a lifecycle assessment of materials, the team have sought to do one better and have adopted a matrix detailing a list of minimum requirements considering four areas – responsibly sourced, healthy and safe, low impact and resource efficient materials. Categorizing in such a manner will help the team choose alternative materials that could result in a potential 5-10% reduction in embodied CO2e emissions.
SJM2’s integrated approach sets the bar high for development projects within our portfolio and across the industry.