Ottawa, Ontario - June 3, 2008

It’s timely during Canadian Environment Week for the Minto Group to unveil their latest accomplishment, certification of their downtown Minto Place office complex, as a "BOMA Go Green Plus" commercial property.  Go Green Plus is the highest level of environmental certification for existing commercial buildings available from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), the leading industry association for the commercial building industry.

Canada’s Environment Minister, John Baird, BOMA Ottawa President Bob Perkins and Chief Energy Conservation Officer Peter Love, from the Ontario Power Authority, were all on hand during the busy lunch hour to help Minto CEO Roger Greenberg and Executive Vice President Greg Rogers with the unveiling of plaques awarding the two office towers and Minto Suite Hotel tower Go Green Plus status.

In a time when new buildings are being built to green standards, such as Minto’s 180 Kent Street targeting LEED®-Gold certification, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) has designed the Go Green Plus program for existing commercial properties to identify and recognize best practices in environmentally friendly property management.  Minto Commercial Properties Inc., a division of the Minto Group, submitted Minto Place for BOMA Go Green in 2007, and resubmitted for BOMA Go Green Plus earlier this year, to become the first and only commercial complex in Ottawa to achieve both standards in a 12-month period. 

According to BOMA’s local chapter president, Bob Perkins, "The Go Green Plus program works on two fronts.  First, it empowers the people who are actually managing the building to develop measures to conserve energy, reduce waste, promote indoor health and reduce our environmental footprint. Secondly, through the efforts of participants like Minto, the industry is able to develop best practices that are of benefit to all."

Adding to the BOMA achievement, Peter Love presented Minto with a Certificate of Recognition from the Ontario Power Authority. "Buildings represent over 40% of our energy use and green house gas emissions, so builders and managers of commercial properties have a significant role to play in promoting energy efficiency," said Love. "Builders can incorporate energy efficient and green features into the design and construction phase, and management companies can influence the ongoing commissioning and energy use decisions made by tenants. Minto is a leader in both areas, and for that I applaud their efforts."

Minto CEO Roger Greenberg says that environmental stewardship first started taking hold in the 1970s with the company’s construction of energy-wise homes.  In later decades, partnerships with government and the construction industry saw Minto become the first large scale production builder in Canada to offer R-2000 standards to new home buyers.  "In the '90s, we came to realize that retrofitting building systems in our older residential highrise buildings to improve energy efficiency and water conservation not only reduced our impact on the environment, but made good business sense.  Today, our portfolio’s comprehensive natural resource management plan saves 20,000 tonnes of green house gases, the equivalent of the oxygen generated by 2,000,000 trees."

For Minto, what has also evolved in the last decade is a better understanding that sustainability requires awareness, education and cooperation amongst their various stakeholders.  As Minto staff distributed green apples and biodegradable pens to the crowd on hand, Minto Commercial Properties Inc. launched a challenge during Environment Week empowering all of the tenants at Minto Place, including Public Works and Government Services Canada, to do their part by submitting suggestions on how to further 'green’ the complex with prizes to be awarded for the top three submissions.

Adding to their motto, "Thinking Green… Living Greener™", Minto hopes their efforts and those of others will grow collectively to the point where we can begin to see a better balance between how we live and what gives us life.

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