Creativity in Sustainable Building Recognized by Maverick Awards
Calgary project, Orion at Lumino Park by Kanas Corporation, honoured in national awards
Built Green Canada launched its inaugural awards program—the Maverick Awards—to reward and profile leadership in sustainable building through its three exclusive categories. Out of entries that came in from British Columbia to Ontario, the Built Green team was keen to see what new processes and solutions would be unveiled through the Innovation Award submissions. It would be Kanas Corporation’s Calgary project, Orion at Lumino Park, that was awarded this distinction. Its purpose is to recognize creative ways sustainable building is happening and progressing industry: those with a new approach that challenges status quo.
Lumino Park is a residential development comprised of three high-rise apartment buildings—each BUILT GREEN® certified and offering below-market units in collaboration with government and nonprofits. This high-density living helps curb the affordable housing crisis affecting Calgary, alongside many urban centers across Canada.
In 2023, Kanas put the finishing touches on the Lumino Park development with Orion, a high-rise apartment building with 135 units, certified BUILT GREEN® Platinum. Orion is the tallest ICF building in Western Canada and is the crown jewel of their portfolio—their most ambitious project to-date, with a variety of innovations.
To start, their state-of-the-art cogeneration system (energy system that produces both electricity and heat from a single fuel source) provides 534KW of electricity. It includes a heat recovery system, which provides energy for domestic hot water, heats the parking garage, and melts snow on public spaces in the winter. This system has an efficiency of over 81 per cent, far exceeding that of the grid—and supports their net zero goal progress.
Technology moves quickly, and even since this project’s beginnings, there have been some cogenerations to this scale; however, at the time of implementation, it was more rare, and Kanas’s electrical team had numerous challenges to work through, including connecting their generators and attaching them to the grid in a way that allowed excess electricity to support their community. As part of this, Kanas wrote proprietary algorithms to maximize energy efficiency: predicting electrical usage and optimizing the times their cogenerators would run.
These technologies have proven themselves in Lumino Park, where they support 370 units. Kanas spent months perfecting their measuring sensors and algorithms and addressing bugs. And as part of their monitoring plan, they rolled out their resident energy plans and monitoring—all of this has enabled many learnings for Kanas about how to continue to improve upon their infrastructure design and support how residents use features in their units.
Residents are encouraged to participate in the energy package program, which covers their electricity, water and heating at a lower-than-market rate, powered by the cogeneration technology and rooftop solar cells on all three buildings, which generate 30 kw/h of energy. According to their modelling, Kanas is reducing building emissions down to only 67 tons of CO2 per year.
With triple-pane windows, additional seal protection, an ICF envelope, alongside their innovative energy reclaiming ventilation system, the building is extremely efficient, with a thermal transmission of only 0.18 W/(m2K)—all towards a better and more affordable living environment.
Meanwhile, resident quality of life and community wellness is a top consideration, so Kanas has included features like an 18th floor lounge with 360-degree views of downtown Calgary and the mountains, alongside two community kitchens for private events, access to a fully equipped gym and laundromat.
“Our core values are innovation, sustainability, long-term solutions and energy efficiency—these drive us, as we constantly strive to improve,” says Kanas Founder and President, Robert Sipka. “Innovation is reserved for the brave, the risk takers and the entrepreneurial spirits. It takes a lot of push through the resistance of what is known to make change for the better.”
While they recognize that often the leaders are not the “winners”—it’s those that follow, who travel an easier path, standing on the shoulders of those that came before, and therefore may see more benefit—but without the innovators, there is no progress. And yet, in this case, Kanas did walk away the winner: of Innovation Maverick.
“We applaud Kanas Corporation’s bold leadership and creativity in advancing sustainable building,” says Chief Executive Officer at Built Green Canada, Jenifer Christenson. “This is a builder addressing affordable housing and climate mitigation, finding innovative solutions in the process—they’re one of our trailblazers, whose work helps to progress industry toward more holistic sustainable building practices: the very mission of our organization.”
Founded in 1996, Kanas has a core focus on building structures with superior building envelopes, durable finishes and low operating costs. Their innovative methods and materials ensure their buildings are comfortably occupied and environmentally sustainable over the long term. This focus enables Kanas to design, develop and manage affordable rental housing with a triple bottom-line philosophy: of social, economic and environmental stewardship.
This inaugural Maverick Awards’ recipient is known for progressive approaches, such as insulated concrete form construction, high-ash content concrete, co-generation units, solar energy, triple-pane windows, Hambro Composite Joist Systems, Exterior Insulation and Finishing Systems (EIFS), and HVAC systems that deliver clean air to each unit. To-date, all their buildings are non-combustible construction.
The Maverick Awards are another step forward in Built Green Canada's mission to progress sustainability practices and recognize leadership; three winners have been announced in conjunction with title sponsor, BC Housing. Besides the Innovation Award, sponsored by Heidelberg Materials, the Maverick’s awarded Kelly Williams the Ambassador Award for championing company-wide BUILT GREEN® adoption, while rallying trades and suppliers for full activation, driving Sterling Homes Edmonton to become the next generation of sustainable production builders. While the Transformational Award went to Major Homes in Greater Vancouver, who transformed from a traditional builder into a leading energy and sustainability focused builder, and catalyst to the custom home building sector.