High Performance Buildings

Buildings have a sizable impact on GHG emissions and the environment, and play a key role in the future of healthy sustainable communities. As a result, investors, governments, developers and real estate sectors are increasingly demanding high performance new buildings and retrofits. We understand that climate change, changing energy costs, water use, and new standards and codes present a complex challenge for the future of our buildings.

Featured Capabilities

We have an award-winning team that specializes in designing high performance energy- and resource-efficient buildings. We take a whole-building approach and have a deep understanding of the building life-cycle, which allows us to optimize all aspects of design, construction, operations and maintenance. Our integrated design approach means our sustainability and resilience experts work closely with WSP’s building science, M&E and operational consultants to provide you with the best in high performance technology, engineering and operational solutions.

Climate Change, Resilience and Sustainability

Discover Our Services

Net zero buildings and deep retrofitting

Our team can help you design new buildings and plan for renovations and extensive retrofitting of existing buildings to achieve net zero energy/emissions and high performance resource efficiency. New or existing, our sustainability experts work closely with architects, building scientists and MEP engineers to provide integrated, whole-building solutions for the full project life-cycle.

Passive design

We can help you maximize the potential for passive design, and improve your building performance without necessarily increasing the project budget. We apply modelling tools and best practice solutions in passive heating and cooling, daylight harvesting, and natural ventilation to provide tailored passive design and build solutions.

Whole building life-cycle assessments (WBLCA) and embodied carbon

We consider the life-cycle of your buildings from the early stages of design through construction, operation, to demolition and disposal. We can help you assess the life-cycle impact of your building on the environment and the climate, developing strategies to reduce carbon emissions at every stage of your project’s life.

Progressive building standard compliance

Our team can support you in compliance and approvals for Canada’s leading building codes and standards, such as the Toronto Green Standard, BC Energy Step Code, the Vancouver By-Law/Rezoning Policy, and more.

Additional capabilities

Daylight, glare and thermal comfort studies
Energy management tools, maps and dashboards
Life-cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA)
Planning and design compliance (PDC) consulting
Illustrative Design Analysis (Developing Project Targets)

Clients we help

Investors, businesses and industry

We provide the full range of support for investors and companies interested in high performance buildings. We support you in understanding the life-cycle impacts of your assets, managing embodied carbon, and investing in high performance buildings for your organization and portfolio. We can also develop strategies, policies, and design criteria to ensure your building portfolio and asset management practices demonstrate leadership in energy performance management, resource efficiency, and climate resilience.

Infrastructure Owners and Operators

Our multidisciplinary team of engineers, building scientists, designers, and energy experts can help you identify the most impactful, cost-effective ways to create high performance buildings and infrastructure. Whether new or existing assets, our team can support you from end-to-end, from energy auditing and modelling, to design, planning, and implementation of high performance features. We take a whole-building approach and support you in performance improvements throughout the life-cycle of your asset.

Government

We can help you understand the energy and resource efficiency of your current buildings, and devise strategies to retrofit your assets to meet local, provincial and federal sustainability and climate change requirements. We can help develop targets, build a business case, and establish a pathway to decarbonize your building portfolio.

Real Estate

Whether at the building-level or portfolio scale, we can support you in achieving high performance buildings within your portfolio. We can evaluate and benchmark your assets, and develop strategies to manage embodied carbon, and help you understand and report on life-cycle impacts and costs. We can also enhance your ESG performance and reporting on assets using industry leading frameworks, tools, and international best practices.