Environmental Footprint

Peak Mural

Inspired by our work to combat the environmental and social impacts of climate change, our Vancouver employees came together to paint Peak, a mural brought to life from the imagination of Creative Services Marketing Manager, Cathy Chan. The mural depicts a mountainous landscape, with the landscape's lines generated from graphs of global climate records for carbon dioxide emissions, temperature, sea-level change, and arctic sea ice extent from 1880–2020. This art piece came together with the collective effort of staff who helped paint the mural over five days. This installation serves as inspiration for why we do the work we do to address climate change. Together, we can move mountains.

PERFORMANCE

We continually track our performance in this category in alignment with the World Resource Institute’s (WRI) greenhouse gas (GHG) emission protocols and actively seek ways to improve our environmental performance in alignment with the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC)’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (Commitment). Zero Carbon Commitment | We take our commitment to a deep green future seriously. As a founding signatory of the WorldGBC Commitment, we ensure we are leading the way by reducing our emissions where we can. By following the decarbonization roadmap which was created as part of our CSER program, we released our Zero Carbon Implementation Plan 2021 in line with The Commitment. As part of The Commitment, we achieved net-zero carbon building emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 in 2020. In 2021, we took the Commitment one step further and included our fleet vehicle Scope 1 emissions to net-zero through the purchase of Good Quality Carbon offsets that are consistent with the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting.

Click here to see a full breakdown of our 2021 emissions by region.

Environmental Footprint Performance Dashboard

775,433

kgCO2e

Total GHG Emissions for Integral Group in 2021 (Pre-Offset)

70% GHG Emissions Reduction from Baseline

Scope 2 By consistently tracking our emissions portfolio and understanding our total emissions, as well as our emissions per capita and per m2, we have been able to identify areas to reduce our emissions. Strategies used to help us reduce our emissions include: • Scope 1 Moving our operations to more efficient buildings or merging closely situated offices • Scopes 1 + 2 Encouraging virtual meetings and remote working during COVID-19

135.3

Average kWh/m2

Total Energy Use Intensity (EUI)

43% Total EUI Reduction from Baseline Year

EUI is an important metric for reporting our portfolio, as it provides normalized energy use data per m2. The WorldGBC Commitment requires that we show reductions in energy consumption. Measuring EUI helps us track our energy efficiency over time and track towards our 2030 target of a 30% consumption reduction across our portfolio.

673,174

kgCO2e

GHG Emissions Onsite Energy Production, Green Power purchase + Carbon Credit Purchase through RECs + Carbon Offsets in 2021

Zero Carbon Implementation Plan Released

In 2021, our Zero Carbon Council initiative published our Zero Carbon Operations (ZCO) Implementation Plan, which lays out the 6-step strategy of how we will achieve our environmental goals:

1. Measure emissions + understand impact 2. Plan transition to all-electric 3. Reduce energy consumption + refrigerant use 4. Look at onsite renewable energy opportunities 5. Purchase local green power 6. Purchase offsite RECs + carbon offsets

102,259

kgCO2e

Total GHG Emissions for Business Travel and Employee Commute in 2021 (Post-Offset) Going Beyond the WorldGBC Commitment

In the next phase of our Net Zero Carbon journey, we will examine Scope 3 emissions, covering business travel, employee commute, and operational waste, and water use. The team will collect quality data first, ensuring reductions and offsets accurately represent actual emissions. In 2021 we released our ESG Service offerings which will assist clients and partner organizations in achieving their pathway to Net Zero.

OUR IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS

Zero Carbon Operations Implementation Plan

Integral Group released its Zero Carbon Operations (ZCO) Implementation Plan in line with the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. Click here to read the ZCO Implementation Plan.

New CIBSE Guide on Embodied Carbon in Residential Heating Systems

Research shows that embodied carbon in heating and hot-water systems account for up to 25% of a dwelling’s total embodied carbon. Building on the work of TM65, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and Elementa Consulting present their most recent research study, TM65.1: Embodied carbon in building services: residential heating. The guide will enable building service engineers to understand the impact of the systems they design and the products they specify.

Image Credit: Jonathan Hillyer

Achieving Market-rate Zero Net Energy in Hot, Humid Climates – ASHRAE’s ZNE Headquarters

This Zero Net Energy (ZNE) renovation provides a template for achieving ZNE for building stock supporting the global majority. The Integral Group team was challenged with delivering replicable, and costeffective design that achieve ZNE, and it delivered!

Passive House Offers Refuge in a Heating Planet

Clayton Community Centre is Canada’s largest Passive House building, establishing a new standard for sustainable, climate resilient design. During a recent extreme heat wave, the centre was used as a community cooling centre, providing refuge to vulnerable community members. Our biggest impact is our mission; through our projects and in partnership with our clients to lead progress on a better built environment. In order to lead, we must perform; and our CSER strategy underpins our own efforts to address the social and environmental impacts and opportunities of our practice.

Richard Palmer

Director, Global Sustainability

Radiant Whole Life Carbon Study

The Radiant Whole Life Carbon Study is intended to cause changes. Changing expectations for what it means to actionably assess carbon. Changing markets by creating something fundamentally sound, yet totally new. And changing minds on just how powerful of a climate change fighting asset an unleashed radiant slab building can be.

ROAD TO NET ZERO | Maximizing Our Impact

Beyond Buildings, a report issued by the World Green Building Council, with direction and authorship from Integral Group’s Global Lead of Life Cycle Research Louise Hamot and Director, Global Sustainability Richard Palmer, identifies opportunities for how an integrated approach to the whole built environment is essential to deliver change commensurate with the commitments of the Paris Agreement.

Integral Group became a founding signatory of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) Net Zero Carbon Buildings (NZCB) Commitment. The Commitment requires businesses, cities, and regions to take advanced climate action by setting targets to eliminate operational carbon emissions from their building portfolios by 2030, starting with Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions). In 2020, we successfully achieved net-zero carbon emissions for Scopes 1 and 2, ten years ahead of the requirement, and in 2021 released our Zero Carbon Operations (ZCO) Implementation Plan to remain accountable to the Commitment’s goals. Net Zero Impact | Committed to making a net zero future a reality, through our operations, our work and our influence.

Integral Group proudly supports the Carbon Leadership Forum as a signatory member of the MEP 2040 Challenge. To address the impact of the built environment on climate change, systems engineers have a critical role to play in both operational and embodied carbon and need to embrace a whole life carbon approach to MEP design. While low operational carbon and passive design measures have been a target for some time, setting low embodied carbon targets for systems is quite new.