Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto has received the Canada Green Building Council’s (CAGBC’s) Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard certification.
The $65 million project, completed after about five years of detailed planning and construction, will reduce over 7,000 tonnes of carbon annually or 80 per cent of the site’s annual carbon emissions – the equivalent of taking 1,558 cars off the road.
The project has employed over 70,000 hours of labour.
“This complex project would not have been possible without our strong partnership with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), PCL Construction, and Enwave Energy Corporation,” said Jon Love, founder and CEO of KingSett Capital. “Fairmont Royal York’s decarbonization demonstrates the potential to complete a large and complex project in a way that is environmentally impactful, socially responsible and economically viable,” said “It is a compelling example of what can be accomplished through collaboration, innovation and creativity.
“For KingSett, this investment highlights how decarbonization can strengthen a key asset in our portfolio as part of our sustainability and value enhancement strategy.”
The decarbonization project is the largest heritage hotel retrofit of its kind within the Fairmont global brand portfolio and offers a definitive roadmap for creating sustainable energy sources for similar properties.
“Fairmont Royal York achieving zero carbon certification is another transformative step in repositioning this unique icon in Toronto’s downtown core. Decarbonizing a 94-year-old heritage building and retrofitting the hotel’s energy systems to be highly energy efficient was a complex challenge. We’ve proven that it can be done,” said Edwin Frizzell, regional vice president, Central Canada.
In addition to achieving the CAGBC Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard certification, the hotel has a broad range of other sustainability initiatives. These include eliminating single-use plastics for guests, reducing food waste with AI technology and donation partners, and supporting the local ecosystem with 500,000 honeybees from the hotel’s rooftop garden and apiary. These initiatives complement recent renovations to Fairmont Royal York’s lobby, guestrooms, Fairmont Gold offering, award-winning dining venues and event spaces and enhance this destination’s global consumer appeal as a world-class luxury hotel in Canada’s financial centre.
Converting heating and domestic hot water from steam to electric heat pumps that utilize heat recovery from Enwave’s district energy network, Converting cooling from electrical/chillers to Enwave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system, and