OPAL Achieves LEED Gold Certification
We are proud to announce that OPAL by element has achieved The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. This award means a lot to us and it was made possible with the dedication and mentorship of our Executive Committee, and the collaboration of individuals and the OPAL Team. We took our commitment seriously to meet human health and environmentally friendly standards and attained what we set out to accomplish. Our commitment to being a LEED Gold building includes substantially reducing energy and water usage, maintenance costs and improving the overall indoor air quality.
Background in LEED Certification
LEED is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for designing, constructing, and operating high-performance green buildings run by The Canada Green Building Council. For more information about LEED and The Canada Green Building Council, please visit their website.
To encourage and facilitate the development of sustainable buildings, The Canada Green Building Council promotes the LEED rating systems from a holistic approach. The rating is based on seven environmental categories:
- Sustainable sites
- Water efficiency
- Energy and atmosphere
- Materials and resources
- Indoor environmental quality
- Innovation in design
- Regional priority
In order to achieve LEED Gold status, we had to attain all the seven environmental categories above. Good work, Team OPAL!
Perks of Living in a LEED-Certified Building
Living in a LEED-certified green building not only increases the quality of life and improves one’s health, but residents are also part of a global effort towards preserving our environment for the generations to come. LEED buildings have large windows built from environmentally friendly and sustainable sources. The beautiful design reduces light pollution and allows maximum daylight with minimum heat gain in the building. LEED buildings are able to manage indoor air quality by adjusting the ventilation and filtration, which minimizes the spread of air-borne viruses. In addition, MERV 13 and 14 air filtration systems are the highest grade of filtration for outdoor air and it is also the approved hospital grade.
With the commitment to social and environmental responsibility in mind at OPAL, we are proud to be a LEED Gold Certified building. We will continue to keep the standards with our best practices.