About

In collaboration with CLF Ottawa, the Ontario Embodied Carbon Awards was established to celebrate the achievements of low embodied carbon projects in Ontario. This awards program was crafted to inspire creativity and empower project teams to prioritize the reduction of embodied carbon emissions.

The purpose of the awards is to honor the accomplishments of projects within Ontario that have strived to minimize their environmental impact by reducing their embodied carbon footprint.

In the inaugural year, there are 4 categories of awards:

New Construction - Residential

The New Construction - Residential award is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon design of a residential building. Applications can include multi-family as well as single family homes.

New Construction - Commercial/Institutional/Industrial

The New Construction - Commercial/ Institutional/ Industrial award is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon design of ICI buildings. Applications can include offices, community buildings, schools, and other.

Major Retrofits

Major retrofits are an essential element of building decarbonization. The Major Retrofits award is presented to the team responsible for excellence in low embodied carbon retrofit projects. Retrofits must include alterations to the building envelope and/or structure.

Innovation in Industry

Numerous organizations in Ontario are pushing innovation in the embodied carbon sector. Applications for the innovation category could look like verified portfolio commitments to embodied carbon reduction, policies surrounding material purchasing, and publishing environmental product declarations.

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