Kingston, Ontario Green Building Policy

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Kingston, Canada

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Type: Policy

Status: Adopted

Source File: http://www.cityofkingston.ca/

Description:

LEED®: Green Building
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) is a rating system representing a holistic and environmentally responsible approach to building design. It is overseen by the Canada Green Building Council, which certifies a building project on the basis of a variety of green building criteria.

It is now City policy that all large municipal building and retrofit projects undertake an assessment of LEED® as a design goal for Council's consideration before finalization of a project's design. This official adoption of the LEED® approach puts Kingston on the leading-edge of sustainable development and ensures that new City buildings maximize energy efficiency, provide the highest quality of indoor working environment and minimizes any building's burden on the natural environment and long-term operating budgets.

LEED®
Under the certification program, buildings meet prerequisites and earn credits in a number of categories, including:

  • Sustainable Sites
  • Water Efficiency
  • Energy and Atmosphere
  • Materials and Resources
  • Indoor Environmental Quality
  • Innovation & Design Process

Most of the credits are performance-based, which means that they measure the degree of improvement relative to a recognized standard. A project can meet the criteria for one of four LEED® levels — certified, silver, gold, or platinum — based on its total point score.

These new City facilities are designed to achieve at least a LEED® silver rating, and will expect to save at least a 40 per cent savings in energy costs:

  • Kingston Police Headquarters
  • Ravensview Administration building
  • Multiplex Community Centre
  • Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre

Recent experience has demonstrated that for certain buildings, the costs to meet LEED® certification will achieve a payback in energy savings and efficiencies sufficient to offset the incremental capital costs over a reasonable period of time.

The LEED® rating system, initiated by the USBG1994, has now been adopted by more than 30 countries.