KingSett Capital, Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd. (in joint venture with Vestcor Inc.) and Reliance Properties Ltd., co-owners of Arthur Erickson Place on West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver, recently announced that the iconic building has achieved the Zero Carbon Building – Performance (ZCB) Standard™ certification from the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC).
This certification marks an important milestone for the co-owners of Arthur Erickson Place, the building’s tenants, and the City of Vancouver as a meaningful step towards reaching their overall sustainability and net-zero goals.
“This achievement for Arthur Erickson Place is an important milestone in KingSett’s decarbonization program. It strengthens a key asset in our portfolio and advances our value enhancement strategy,” said Rob Kumer, CEO of KingSett Capital. “In collaboration with our partners, we continue to demonstrate that complex, deep carbon retrofits of iconic buildings like Arthur Erickson Place and the Royal York Hotel can be done in a way that is economically viable and environmentally impactful.”
Achieving ZCB Performance certification for Arthur Erickson Place demonstrates the building’s energy efficiency and the investment its co-owners have made to minimize carbon emissions from its operations. The three-year decarbonization process, which began in 2022, involved an innovative retrofitting of the 363,000 square-foot 26-storey commercial building. The process is expected to be complete in 2025, at which point Arthur Erickson Place will have reduced its carbon emissions by 97 per cent.
Arthur Erickson Place’s new sustainable mechanical upgrades and features include optimized HVAC controls as well as new electric boilers, heat pumps, air handling units, a rooftop beehive installation to promote biodiversity and a spacious outdoor plaza. The achievement demonstrates the commitment by the building’s owners to create pathways to a net-zero future while creating a safe and healthy work environment for their tenants.
The decarbonization of Arthur Erickson Place will result in:
- The reduction of carbon emissions from the building by 97 per cent by 2025.
- A 40 per cent reduction in the building’s energy consumption.
- The equivalent of removing approximately 140 gas-powered cars from the road each year.
- Ensuring the building exceeds its individual requirement to meet the Global Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5C.
- Further validation of the business case for fuel switching and electrification in Canada.
“Earning the ZCB Performance Standard certificate for Arthur Erickson Place demonstrates Crestpoint’s commitment to improving the communities in which we live, invest and operate,” said Kevin Leon, CEO of Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd. “Retrofitting AEP took tremendous creativity and innovation. We’re excited to share this success with our partners, tenants and with the City of Vancouver, which is an important market for Crestpoint.”
Featured image credit: City of Vancouver
