Wood You Believe It?

In a continual effort to pursue embodied carbon reductions within buildings, Toronto’s Integral Group are helping to instigate and drive the viability of Mass Timber construction. Advancements in wood product technology and systems are a driving force in producing highly innovative wood buildings that are being developed around the globe. The integration of the most effective Mechanical and Electrical systems are also key in the overall feasibility and an opportunity to further drive Net Zero Carbon. We would like to share some of our portfolio below:

George Brown College, The Arbour, Toronto, ON
The Arbour, anticipated to become a high performance low carbon institutional building, will bring a unique deep green element to the George Brown College Waterfront Campus. The 10-storey state-of-the-art structure will revolutionize Toronto’s building landscape and advance Canada’s sustainability agenda by becoming the first Tall Wood Research Institute in the country, with materials sourced nationally. A Net Zero Carbon and Toronto Green Standard (TGS) V3 Tier 4 target has been set by George Brown College in their commitment to sustainability.  We are providing Mechanical and Electrical Engineering as well as LEED/TGS consulting for this project.

TRCA Headquarters, Toronto, ON
We are currently working on the design for the new TRCA Office Headquarters and is providing Mechanical Engineering consulting. The mass timber structure project has high sustainable goals and has been selected by the CaGBC for a pilot project for the new Zero Carbon Building Initiative (which the Integral Groups Policy team was involved with creating). The building will feature a high-performance envelope, geo-exchange system, air source heat pumps, under floor air delivery, solar thermal and solar PV as well as the mass timber structure. The project is targeting LEED Platinum, WELL Silver and TGS V3 Tier 4.

CNL Chalk River, Chalk River, ON
The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) site occupies 3,700 hectar (9,100 acres) on the Ottawa River, between CFB Petawawa and community of Deep River. As part of the largest Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) project in Canada, CNL are building three new administrative buildings: Business Hub; Support Building; Logistics Building. Our group is providing Mechanical Engineering, Sustainability, Modelling, Commissioning and BIM leadership as part of the IPD team. We are pursuing Net Zero Energy and Mass Timber for all three buildings to meet and exceed the Federal Sustainability Development Strategies (FSDS) targeted for the site.

Wade Avenue Office Development, Toronto, ON
We are providing Mechanical and Electrical Engineering services for this 7-storey commercial office (retail on the ground level) mass timber building located in Toronto, ON. The building is approximately 150,000 sf and will be the tallest mass timber office / commercial building in Canada and targeting LEED Gold.

First Nations Technical Institute, Tyendinaga, ON
Integral Group is providing Mechanical Engineering services to the First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI) to develop their new aviation and culinary school in Shannonville/Belleville, ON. The building is pursuing targets of Net Zero Carbon, Net Zero Energy (Off Grid) and measures to minimize all waste from the site. As part of the solution, the construction will be Mass Timber, utilizing nationally sourced material. We are also considering a pyrolysis biomass solution to replace the cooking fuel, generate electricity and with a bi-product of biochar to replenish the land.

“If we want to change the performance of buildings, we need to look beyond our core disciplines, understand how to integrate design solutions that ultimately eliminates the carbon impact.  Mass timber construction and the use of wood which can be locally sourced is a key component to this.” – Kenny Smith, Managing Principal (Toronto)