From a towering mixed-use project in Toronto to a straw bale health centre in Kawartha, buildings and organizations pioneering the adoption of low-carbon materials and designs were lauded at the 2024 Ontario Embodied Carbon Awards.

The gathering Tuesday at the Great Hall in Toronto - hosted by Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) Toronto and Ottawa Hubs - recognized projects using materials that address carbon emissions from manufacturing and transportation, and the firms trailblazing in sustainable buildings.

Based in Oakland, Calif., CLF is a professional network of over 5,000 members in 1,000 cities tackling embodied carbon, which represents 11 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions according to one calculation. In response, governments in Canada and around the world are applying stricter rules on embodied carbon to reduce planet-warming emissions arising from buildings.

The six categories covered large and small new construction, retrofit projects, interiors, and two new awards for organizational leadership and innovation.

“I never imagined 10 years ago that I would be in a room celebrating with such committed and engaged and exciting experts in carbon,” Melinda Zytaruk, CEO of Tooketree Passive Homes, said at the event. Her company took top spot in the innovation category.

New construction, big and small

The 2,500-square-foot Rotary Health Centre at Camp Kawartha was the winner for small buildings. Non-profit Camp Kawartha, with the help of Peterborough, Ont.-based Straworks Inc. and Building Alternatives Inc., built a carbon-negative building made with straw bale walls, cellulose insulation and concrete enhanced with supplementary cementitious materials.

The straw bales absorbed more carbon than was emitted to build the centre, according to Camp Kawartha. As a result, the embodied carbon intensity of the Rotary Health Centre was 135 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metre (kgCO2e/m2).

Straworks’ president Deirdre McGahern said in an interview she was delighted to receive the accolade, adding it felt “nice to get some recognition” after years in the industry. An upcoming project by the company is a building next to the health centre which will also be built to low-embodied-carbon principles.

“For all our projects, net-zero embodied carbon is our baseline,” McGahern said. “We’re getting there so the project that we’re currently building, we’re playing with the numbers, and we’re looking at ways of making even greater reductions than we’ve made before.”

Contrasting the scale of the Rotary Health Centre is the first phase of Valhalla Village in Etobicoke, planned to have 10- and 29-storey purpose-built rental towers that total approximately 360,000 square feet of residential space.

Toronto-headquartered real estate investor KingSett Capital optimized the unit sizes and building mechanical systems for low-carbon design, which means using less materials and less embodied carbon, according to KingSett’s director of development Peter Gong.

“We added about 100 units to the site and reduced a bunch of the construction costs, but the main thing that we didn’t waver on the entire way through was to get to net-zero design,” he said.

The embodied carbon intensity of Phase 1 of Valhalla Village is calculated to be 363 kgCO2e/m2.

KingSett, Gong said, has targeted zero-carbon for its upcoming residential projects and its portfolio as a whole.

Interiors and retrofits

BDP Quadrangle Studio took the interiors award for its new office, a 3,000-square-metre space at The Well in downtown Toronto. Utilizing a life-cycle assessment at the design development and construction drawing stages, the architectural firm took upcycling actions and applied low-carbon materials. The result was an embodied carbon intensity of 166 kgCO2e/m2.

On the retrofit side, Toronto-based consultancy and design-build firm Flat Iron Building Group was spotlighted for its upgrade of an approximately 12,000-square-foot warehouse and former newspaper printing facility at 78 Advance Rd. in Etobicoke.

“What we’re trying to do is try to bring awareness to our community on what it takes to be a steward of net-zero,” Daniel DeMonte, CEO of Flat Iron, said in an interview.

By repurposing the existing structure and materials such as the steel and concrete slab, the target is to nearly halve embodied carbon intensity, Julie Phillips, president of Flat Iron, told Sustainable Biz Canada.

The net-zero building, which serves as the company’s office, is aiming for an 80 per cent reduction in operating emissions intensity through renewable energy such as geothermal heating and cooling.

Leadership and innovation

Windmill Development Group took home the honour for organizational leadership in the public sector.

The Toronto real estate development firm addressed whole-life carbon through third-party verification, validation and certification; demonstrated commitment to its One Planet Living program; and shared its work with the industry.

Tooketree was the winner for innovation.

The Muskoka, Ont.-based company created SEED Building Systems, which revolves around prefabricated walls made with bio-based materials such as dry plant matter and natural wool, materials that trap carbon.

The company’s panels designed for Passive House standards are made in Baysville, Ont., addressing "the need to reduce carbon at scale” and to improve occupant health, Zytaruk explained.

“(I’m) very excited to see how far the conversation of carbon has come,” she said after receiving her award.