At Cambium, we strive to practice what we preach. When we complete work for our customers, we want to leave the site with an environmentally positive impact. The same goes for our own personal project; the rejuvenation of our new Peterborough office, 194 Sophia Street. Not only does renovating an existing building generally have less of an environmental impact than building new or developing greenspace, but we have also incorporated several changes which help minimize our footprint.

Some of these changes include:

1. Daylight Harvesting: We have opened up the entire upper-level ceiling to capture as much daylight as possible from the high, vertical clerestory windows. This will drastically minimize the need for artificial lighting during the day. Though, we will also be installing all-new lighting with high-efficiency LED fixtures.
2. Heating and Cooling: We have installed new rooftop heating/cooling units which allow us to utilize more electricity for heating and minimize our GHG emissions – electricity has much lower emissions than natural gas in Ontario.
3. Reusing Building Materials: Throughout this renovation, we have looked to reuse existing materials wherever we could. For example, during the demolition process, we reused a dozen doors and even some wooden wall studs, which were previously used to build storage shelves.
4. “Flowerpot”: Our renovations have included the addition of a passenger elevator to ensure that we have a fully accessible working environment. On the upper level, there is a fair bit of space between the top of the elevator shaft and the ceiling, where we plan to incorporate live vegetation on the top of the shaft. This feature has affectionately been named “the flowerpot” and will not only be a cool addition but live vegetation in the office has been found to improve air quality and also team well-being.
5. Multi-Functional Roof: Looking towards the future, we have had a study conducted on the roof construction for the possibility of adding solar panels or a vegetated roof.

We are looking forward to our move-in date in the spring and will share more with you all soon.