Qualico Achieves LEED Silver Status for New Head Office

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It was announced today that the Qualico Head Office building in Winnipeg has been awarded LEED® Silver certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized certification program and benchmark for the design and construction of green buildings.

"Achieving LEED silver status places Qualico on the leading edge of environmental design and construction practices in North American. It also demonstrates our commitment to the environment and long term sustainable development," said John Daniels, Vice President, Qualico Winnipeg. "Not only have we reduced the building's impact on the environment, but reduced operating costs and improved the quality of the environment for our employees.

"Some of the features of the building include energy efficient windows, a geothermal mechanical system, green roofs, a building management system and water efficient plumbing fixtures" said Brian Cornelsen, Qualico Project Manager. "A significant challenge was to ensure the building operated as intended and part of the LEED program was to complete comprehensive commissioning of all building systems."

The Qualico head office is a 3-storey, 65,000 square foot building located in Winnipeg Manitoba. The building also incorporates over 6,300 square feet of outdoor garden and rooftop patio and is home to over 150 employees.

Some green facts about the Qualico head office include:
- Water usage has been reduced by 45%
- Energy cost savings of 59% from a conventional building
- 80% of the construction waste was diverted from the landfill
- 13.5% of materials used contained recycled content
- 14.8% of construction materials were regionally manufactured and extracted
- A minimum of 75% of the furniture used in the building is certified through Green guard or equivalent.

Qualico is a fully integrated real estate development company with corporate head offices in Winnipeg and operations in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Regina and Winnipeg. It is one of the largest real estate development operations in Western Canada. www.qualicowinnipeg.com

LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was developed by the U.S Green Building Council in 1998 and consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high green buildings, homes and neighbourhoods. www.usgbc.org