Go green with BOMA Canada's new certification

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada has unveiled its newly integrated green building certification program, BOMA BESt. 

At a presentation during BOMEX 2008, twelve buildings from across Canada were recognized for their commitment to operating in an ecologically responsible manner.  The past top scoring Go Green Plus building in each province was recognized with the first BOMA BESt certificate.

BOMA BESt combines BOMA's Go Green and Go Green Plus initiatives.  It includes four possible levels of certification, each of which requires full compliance with BOMA's Best Practices. 

BOMA's Best Practices address areas of significant environmental concern, including: energy and water management; emissions and effluents; waste reduction; the indoor environment; and environmental management systems.

"BOMA Canada is proud to honour the inaugural BOMA BEST recipients for their commitment to green building and environmental standards," said Diana Osler-Zortea, BOMA Canada President. "They deserve a round of applause for leading the way."

BOMA Canada hopes that the program's enhanced accessibility and simplified application procedure will better serve the commercial building industry, facilitating performance improvement and helping building owners and managers to reduce their carbon footprint.

"BOMA BESt is a quality certification program.  It provides a cost-effective way make buildings more environmentally friendly and cut operating costs," Osler-Zortea added.  "It's a learning tool, and a team-building exercise.  Participants take control - they evaluate where they're at, and what best practices and recommendations they can implement to improve their performance." 

To be eligible, a building must meet the minimum requirements as set out in BOMA's Best Practices (available at www.bomabest.com).  Buildings that go beyond the minimum requirements are certified at a higher level.  All buildings are verified by third-party assessor.
 
The program currently focuses on commercial office buildings, but new assessment criteria are being developed for shopping centres, industrial and retail strip developments and multi-unit residential properties.

The first recipients of their BOMA BESt certificates are:

• The Manulife Building at 736 Sixth Avenue in Calgary, Alberta
  
• Commerce Place at 10155 102 Street in Edmonton, Alberta
  
• Bentall 5 at 550 Burrard Street in Vancouver, British Columbia
  
• The Brandon Federal Building at 1039 Princess Street in Brandon, Manitoba
  
• The Customs Building at 189 Prince William Street in Saint John, New Brunswick
  
• The John Cabot Building at 10 Barters Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland
  
• The Manulife Financial Business Centre at 2723 Joseph Howe Drive in Halifax, Nova Scotia
  
• The Enterprise Building at 427 Laurier Avenue West in Ottawa, Ontario
  
• Garden City Tower at 301 St. Paul Street in St. Catharines, Ontario
  
• The Daniel J. MacDonald Building at 161 Grafton Street in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
  
• The Centre CDP Capital at 1000 Place Jean-Paul-Riopel in Montreal, Quebec
  
• The Regina Alvin Hamilton Building at 1783 Hamilton Street in Regina, Saskatchewan
  

Details on all twelve BOMA BESt buildings are available at: www.bomabest.com/news.html.
Details of the BOMA BESt program are available at: http://www.bomabest.com/ .

For more information, please contact:

Nada Sutic, BOMA Toronto, 416-596-8065 ext 28, nsutic(at)bomatoronto.org
Cell on site: 647.883.0532

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada is the voice of the Canadian commercial real estate industry with over 2,500 members in regional associations across Canada. On behalf of the building owners, managers, developers, facilities managers, asset managers, leasing agents, brokers, and the product and service providers to over 1.9 billion square feet of commercial real estate in Canada, BOMA Canada addresses issues of national concern, and promotes excellence in the industry through information, education advocacy and recognition.