Embodied Carbon Awards Poster 2024 (1).png

Header Image Credit: TRCA Administrative HQ

The 2024 Awards

The second Ontario Embodied Carbon Awards - Toronto, Ontario, November 2024

Building on a successful first year, the Ontario Embodied Carbon Awards, in partnership with CLF Toronto, are returning to celebrate outstanding low embodied carbon projects across Ontario. This program aims to spark innovation and encourage project teams to prioritize minimizing embodied carbon emissions.

The awards aim to recognize projects within Ontario that have strived to minimize their environmental impact by reducing their embodied carbon footprint.

Award Categories

In the second consecutive year of the awards, there are 6 categories of awards:

New Construction -
Large Buildings

The New Construction - Large Buildings award (OBC Part 3) is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon design of a large building. Applications can include commercial, industrial, institutional, and mid to high-rise residential buildings.

New Construction -
Small Buildings

The New Construction - Small Buildings award (OBC Part 9) is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon design of a residential building. Applications can include low rise multi-family as well as single family homes.

Retrofits & Reuse

The Retrofits & Reuse award is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon building reuse projects. Applications can include retrofits or reuse of envelope, mechanical, or structural systems.

Interiors

The Interiors award is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon design of interior spaces. Applications can include commercial, residential, and public interiors, showcasing innovative approaches to reducing embodied carbon in interior fit-outs and refurbishments.

Organizational_public sector leadershi_e

Organizational & Public Sector Leadership

Presented to organizations or public sector entities demonstrating outstanding leadership and commitment to low embodied carbon initiatives. Applications can highlight policies, projects, or programs that significantly reduce embodied carbon within the organization or community.

Innovation in Industry

Numerous organizations in Ontario are pushing innovation in the embodied carbon sector. Applications for the innovation category can include significant contributions to the field, beyond achievements associated with any individual built project. Submissions from wide variety of initiatives are welcome.

Why Ontario Embodied Carbon Awards?

Between now and 2060 the world’s population will be doubling the amount of building floor-space, equivalent to building an entire New York City every month for 40 years. Much of the carbon footprint of these new buildings will take the form of embodied carbon — the emissions associated with building material manufacturing and construction.

Embodied carbon will be responsible for almost half of the total new construction emissions between now and 2050. These embodied carbon emissions will have irreversibly entered the atmosphere as soon as a building is built.

A study conducted in 2022 revealed that the building stock within Ontario exhibited a wide range of embodied emissions, ranging from 213 kgCO2e/m2 and 891 kgCO2e/m2 at the highest. This places a substantial burden on the province's emissions budget and hinders our goal of achieving net-zero by 2050.

To acknowledge and honour companies, projects, and individuals that have demonstrated excellence in decarbonizing our built environment, we have established these awards. Our objectives with this awards programs:

To inspire others by showcasing the possibilities of low embodied carbon design..
To celebrate those who achieve significant reductions in embodied carbon emissions through their projects and work.
To foster a sense of community within the industry of low embodied carbon design.
To stimulate friendly competition within the Ontario construction industry and encourage continuous improvement.

This program was inspired by the Carbon Leadership Forum British Columbia Hub.

In order to be eligible for one of the project award categories, projects must be:

1. Located within Ontario.

2. Have a minimum internal heated floor area of 50m2.

3. New builds, refurbishments, and building expansions or upgrades are all acceptable.

4. Must have completed an assessment of the upfront carbon emissions associated with the structure and envelope (minimum of categories A1-A3). Applications with larger LCA scopes will not be penalized and are encouraged.

5. Must be able to clearly demonstrate the decisions made in the pursuit of low embodied carbon construction and the impact of those decisions.

6. Must have reached or passed "Issued for Tender/Bid" phase within the last three years. (i.e. Projects currently in construction/constructed are eligible and encouraged to submit).

Embodied carbon calculations should be assessed on Issued for Construction drawings, however, projects do not need to be completed (constructed) at the time of application.

Additional information for the "Innovation in Industry" Award Category

The "Innovation Award" is intentionally open ended. Applicants are asked to submit up to 1500 words outlining their contribution and describing how their work has advanced knowledge, or contributed to wholesale reductions in embodied carbon. Judges will be assessing applicants on a variety of criteria including: breadth of work, size of audience, or scale of impact, and how their work has advanced general knowledge and awareness of embodied carbon.

Eligibility and Judging Criteria