The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) handed out 140 new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications in the first quarter of 2014

“2014 is a significant year for the CaGBC with the increasing number of projects certifying in Canada and with the ongoing transition to LEED v4, which is creating a lot of excitement in the industry,” says Mark Hutchinson, director of green building programs for CaGBC.

There are now 1,631 LEED certified projects in Canada, and a total of 6,423 projects that are either registered to pursue certification or certified. And an additional 109 projects registered to pursue certification in the first quarter of 2014.

From January to March of this year, five projects received LEED Platinum certification, 47 received LEED Gold, 50 LEED Silver and 38 were LEED Certification.

Some notable projects include:

• The GE Grid IQ Global Innovation Centre in Markham, Ont., was certified LEED Gold. The 200,000-square-foot centre has been designed to improve the efficiency, reliability and security of the world’s electrical grids through innovation.
• The Surrey City Centre Library in Surrey, B.C., received LEED Gold certification. Bing Thom Architects, the architect for the library, worked with local librarians to develop a social media campaign to engage the community in the design of the building.
• The Kings County Academy in Kentville, N.S., received LEED Gold certification. This building is connected to a park on both sides. The site has a cluster of mature maple trees, which are being preserved with the building.

The CaGBC is in the process of making the transition to LEED v4, which became available in January of this year. The program officially launches at the CaGBC national conference, Building Lasting Change, which is being held in Toronto from June 2–4. The biggest changes between LEED v4 and LEED v2009 is how the program recognizes materials, which is part of an effort for the building industry to better understand material choices and applications.