The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has awarded LEED Gold certification to Ladysmith’s Community Services Centre, making it the city’s first structure to earn LEED credit.
The red- and black-clad structure — located at High Street and Second Avenue — was completed in 2011, City Manager Ruth Malli said, and now houses the Ladysmith Resources Centre, the Ladysmith Food Back and the Ladysmith Seniors Centre.
The Town of Ladysmith submitted an application fee of $525 to the CaGBC alongside the building’s portfolio “in 2012,” Malli said.
An additional $4,144 was paid for “certification fees,” Malli said.
The application was submitted for consideration in the LEED Silver category, Mayor Rob Hutchins said, so LEED Gold certification “exceeded our expectations.”
Building to LEED standards is now part of the Town’s energy plan, Malli said, and all new civic structures exceeding 5,000 square feet in size will be built to that standard.
LEED certification, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is defined as “a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings,” states the CaGBC’s website.
Structures submitted for LEED assessment are judged on a variety of criteria with priority given to a candidate building’s energy and water efficiency, the sustainability of the building site, its “indoor environmental quality,” and the materials used in its construction.
Buildings that measure up are certified in one of four categories: LEED Platinum, LEED Gold, LEED Silver and LEED Certified.
Of the 523 projects granted LEED certification by the CaGBC as of March 31, 2013, 244 of those projects rated Gold.
Beyond the reductions in energy and water consumption that come with building a structure measuring up to LEED standards, the primary advantage of LEED to the community will come in the form of access to grants, City Manager Ruth Malli said.
“It helps us, for instance, when we apply for our water or sewer grants,” Malli added. “We’ll list the [LEED Gold certification] as one of the things we’ve done. It shows that the community is committed to sustainability and that’s often a big checkmark.”
For more on the Canada Green Building Council’s LEED Certification process, visit their website.
