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Southbrook Vineyards Achieves LEED Gold
Southbrook Vineyards announced on December 16th it has been granted LEED Gold certification for its new hospitality pavilion in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Southbrook Vineyards’ certification was granted on November 7, 2008 by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). “We recognize our neighbours, Stratus Vineyards, for ‘LEEDing’ the way, and raising our awareness of these standards and certification. But this is one ‘club’ that we don’t want to be exclusive,” said Bill Redelmeier, co-owner of Southbrook. “We are proud to show this leadership and hope that, soon, more people will recognize this as the only way to build.”
December 17, 2008 By Newswire
“We strive to live lightly on the land,” said Redelmeier. “Our love of wine, our commitment to the earth and our dedication to sustainable business practices govern all of our decision making.” This philosophy has resulted in Southbrook also being awarded both organic certification and biodynamic certification for its vineyard earlier this year.
“The architecture of the Southbrook pavilion is designed to be consistent with the approach Southbrook takes to making its wine in an environmentally responsible manner that acts as a demonstration of this parallel effort,” said Jack Diamond, the lead architect on this project.
The LEED design initiative for Southbrook Vineyards, conceived by the architectural firm of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc. and facilitated by Enermodal Engineering Ltd., encompasses six areas: sustainable site development; water efficiency; energy efficiency; material selection; indoor environmental quality; and innovation and design process. Southbrook scored the maximum points achievable in two categories: efficient use of water and innovation and design. Merit Contractors Niagara acted as general contractor for this project.
“Some of our LEED points are very obvious when you visit our building,” said Marilyn Redelmeier, Southbrook’s co-owner and project coordinator during construction. “We have daylight in 95 per cent of our working areas, waste water management with our bioswales and reed beds, and we reduce water usage with low-flow toilets and automatic faucets. But other points are far less visible, like optimizing energy performance, using recycled and local materials, and enhancing indoor air quality.”
Other LEED standards were achieved during the construction, such as the diversion of 75 per cent of waste materials from landfill, and the establishment of a rigorous sediment and erosion control plan.
“And our LEED commitment is ongoing. We live it every day with our Green Housekeeping plan and our collection and separation of recyclables,” adds Marilyn Redelmeier.
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