The Claystone Waste Ltd. Administration Building is a new office in Beaver County, Alberta, which recently achieved LEED Gold Certification. Recently, we spoke with Lindsey Kindrat, Senior Associate, Director of Sustainable Consulting, to learn more about this unique project where Entuitive was the LEED and Energy Performance Consultant.

Thanks so much for sitting down with us, Lindsey. Can you tell us more about this project? 

Thanks for having me. Claystone Waste Ltd. is the client on the project, and they operate one of the larger regional landfills in central Alberta near Edmonton. They were looking to replace their 2-storey inefficient administration building with a green building. The new modernized facility would support their operations as well as provide rooms for meetings, training, and an outdoor amenity space that staff can enjoy.

With the organization wanting a green building, we selected LEED v4 for Building Design and Construction. Our architect considered Silver to be an achievable yet challenging green building certification goal for a company with a commitment to sustainability but designing their first building. The Owner group really welcomed the integrated design process to get that conversation going with the entire team.

This building was actually complete in 2021 before I came to Entuitive as my team and I worked on this project at my old firm, 3 Point Environmental. I was the LEED Consultant and client contact while Steve McAdam was the Energy Modelling Consultant. We achieved the LEED Gold Certification after we joined Entuitive.

We’re glad the project was brought over to Entuitive. Can you share more details on the design of the building? 

It’s a single storey building that has a very square footprint since Claystone Waste Ltd. wanted a compact footprint for efficiency. The dimensions are 584 square metres or 6286 square feet. There’s also a gently sloped roof, which is perfect for solar, so there’s solar panels on the entire roof because they want it to be as energy independent as possible.

Photo courtesy of Claystone Waste Ltd. and JEN COL.

Very energy efficient indeed! What have been some challenges you’ve faced? 

This wasn’t necessarily a challenge, but the owner group changed midway through the project; it was formerly operated by Beaver Municipal Services (BMS). We were kind of concerned if the new owner Claystone Waste Ltd. would want to keep the vision of LEED and the sustainable performance objective alive, and they did, which was great. 

With the building being in sort of a remote area, it was quite challenging, especially working during the pandemic as well. Our exposure to the site was very limited, so the flow of documentation and not being there in-person was a challenge. However, we enjoyed working with a supportive project team including the architect Berry Architecture and the contractor JEN COL.

What was your favourite part of the project?

I really appreciated how supportive everybody was of the LEED certification program. We actually managed to get LEED Gold certification on the project because we supported the construction team in working collaboratively to implement progressive sustainable construction methods. 

Another favourite part of the project was how we all put together a full green building education project. Berry Architecture and I created these great storyboards that are up in the building. There are different storyboards on water, energy, materials, and indoor air quality. 

The landscaping and the exterior of the building are also very unique. There’s an outdoor amenity area for staff to go out and sit on benches and picnic tables alongside a little trail they can walk through with perennials, perennial grasses, and flowering forbs. The colours of the plants are especially beautiful in the summer. The plant species are all native, so Claystone can save water by not having to irrigate the landscape.

Photo courtesy of Claystone Waste Ltd. and JEN COL.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about the project? 

It’s also great that 45% of the electrical generation for the building is by solar. Since we have so much sunlight in Alberta, it’s enough to run major energy uses in the building such as the lighting, computers, and the plug-in appliances which saves lots of energy while cutting down on utility bills as well.

Thanks for sharing this great project with us, Lindsey! If you would like to learn more, reach out to her here.