“We are thrilled to officially open the doors of evolv1,” says Adrian Conrad, chief operating officer with The Cora Group. “Years in the imaging, planning, and making, we have set a new benchmark for green building design and construction. Today, we celebrate and acknowledge the collaborative efforts of The Cora Group, our design partner Stantec, and our many stakeholders.”

The 110,000 square foot evolv1 has already been the recipient of prestigious awards, certifications, and accolades. In April, the multi-tenant building was one of 16 elite projects across Canada to be selected by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) to participate in a two-year pilot of its new Zero Carbon Building Standard. evolv1 was also the first building to earn the Zero Carbon Building – Design certification. In June, evolv1 captured the first-ever Zero Carbon award, also from the CaGBC.

“From the start, our design team had a vision: Be disruptive. Be game changers,” says James Arvai, the Architect of Record for evolv1 and a principal with Stantec, who has been involved with evolv1 from its feasibility studies, through design, construction, and completion. “Today, evolv1 demonstrates that a high-performance building can be a market-driven, cost-effective building.”

One of the biggest challenges to achieving net-positive is that evolv1 is a multi-tenant building.

“It’s one thing to design a building to be net positive, but when you have multiple tenants, you have less control over occupant behavior,” says Olivia Keung, project architect with Stantec. “The behaviour of the occupants – for example plug loads or heating levels – is by far the biggest factor in energy consumption. So, we had to be very aggressive in our modeling targets to leave a buffer for these different tenant activities.”

Looking to the future, evolv1 is already well-positioned to be a disruptive force to traditional energy generation.

“Right now, communities mostly rely on centralized energy grids,” says Adrian. “evolv1 represents an opportunity to shift to de-centralized power by tapping into energy the building generates as a microgrid. This is truly pushing the defined boundaries of what makes a building ‘sustainable’.”

The evolv1 vision is a collaboration between The Cora Group, Sustainable Waterloo Region, The David Johnston Research & Technology Park, and anchor tenant EY. The building was constructed by Melloul Blamey and is targeting LEED® Platinum certification. Stantec’s highly integrated design process incorporates active and passive systems to optimize value against construction cost. The high-performance building envelope incorporates triple glazing, a solar wall for preheated ventilation, a geo-exchange/VRF HVAC system, three-story green wall, and a combination of photovoltaics, or solar panels. evolv1 is also home to the Waterloo tech company, TextNow, and to evolvGREEN.

About Cora Group
The Cora Group Inc. is a premier developer and manager of Class A office space in the Waterloo Region. Our properties, predominantly situated within Waterloo’s emerging IdeaQuarter, are built for sustainability using state of the art LEED building principles. They are perfectly suited to entrepreneurs, growing technology and professional services companies and are tailored to the needs of today’s millennial workforce.

About Stantec
Communities are fundamental. Whether around the corner or across the globe, they provide a foundation, a sense of place and of belonging. That’s why at Stantec, we always design with community in mind.

We care about the communities we serve—because they’re our communities too. This allows us to assess what’s needed and connect our expertise, to appreciate nuances and envision what’s never been considered, to bring together diverse perspectives so we can collaborate toward a shared success.

We’re designers, engineers, scientists, and project managers, innovating together at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships. Balancing these priorities results in projects that advance the quality of life in communities across the globe.

Stantec trades on the TSX and the NYSE under the symbol STN.