Over the years, Stantec architects, interior designers, and engineers have left their mark on several hundred LEED registered and certified buildings. It seems a necessary corollary that this passion for sustainable design would translate to their own offices. For a single-office company, that might be a relatively straight forward undertaking. For Stantec, with 150 offices across North America, the task becomes somewhat more complicated. 

Nearly a decade ago, Stantec set a goal of building or renovating its own offices with sustainability in mind and LEED criteria as a benchmark. Over the course of any given year, up to 20 company offices are in some stage of construction or renovation, providing an on-going opportunity to put policy into programming.

To date, more than half a million square feet of company’s more than three million square feet of owned or leased office space has been built or renovated to LEED standards; fifteen Stantec offices are LEED registered or certified. From Toronto to Vancouver in Canada, and Philadelphia to San Francisco in the United States, the firm’s design staff have taken on what some consider the ultimate challenge – hiring yourself as a client. 

Setting the Standards

Shared vision helps, but so too do shared guidelines. So, when it comes to designing for colleagues, a detailed sustainable strategies handbook—tested over time and adaptable to unique office locations, building types, climate, and even office personality—helps smooth the way.

  To guide the design process in disparate offices occupied by technical professionals who thrive on collaboration, Stantec’s teams apply LEED criteria and homegrown specifications around a host of elements. Within a context of social, environmental and economic sustainability, the methods encourage a holistic approach which encompasses the base building, interior fit-up, equipment, furniture and on- going maintenance. 

Specifications are included for areas such as: 

• Demolition - material recycling and landfill diversion


• Enhanced building envelope R values


• Building system design that betters the model national energy code


• High efficiency lighting


• Regional and green materials


• Low/no VOC emitting materials


• Natural daylighting


• Daylight sensors


• Materials that maximize recycled content and recyclability


• Facility lifecycle


• Access to public transit


• Brownfield development or recycling of existing real estate stock

Different Strokes for Different Folks

From piloting new LEED certifications, to reclaiming historic treasures, to drawing inspiration from the concept of a creative shed, Stantec staff test out their design solutions on their friends and colleagues. A brief office tour might include the following locations. 

Toronto, Ontario: LEED - CI Registered: Targeting Gold

Careful restoration and renovation using a host of green building techniques transformed a defunct heritage building – the old McGregor Sock Factory – into an unmistakable new presence in downtown Toronto. The 3,716-square-foot office features an underfloor air distribution system that reduce energy consumption by 25 percent, individual ventilation control at each work station, operable windows, and a post and timber beam structure with limited intra-ceilings, all of which foster an open, collaborative environment.

Space design cut the number of interior finishings in half compared to a typical office, and used high recycled concrete floor tiles instead of tiles. Perhaps the most innovative use of material is a series of privacy screens made of wood harvested from Toronto’s Queen’s Wharf, the main receiving dock to the city more than 400 years ago. Buried under a landfill and forgotten for centuries, the wood was rediscovered in a recent excavation and is now enjoying a new life as an architectural feature in a bustling office. The retrofit aims to ‘give back’ to the city; economically, environmentally and culturally. Informed by this objective, the original retail entrance to McGregor Socks on Spadina Avenue is reconceived as a public contemporary art gallery. The window gallery has been returned to the public realm, in support of public art in the city.

Columbus, Ohio: LEED - CI Silver Certified

Breathing new life into old buildings was also the challenge for two design teams in central Ohio and upstate New York. In Columbus, the downtown offices of the Anshen + Allen (now part of Stantec) are housed in one of oldest buildings ever to receive LEED certification. The facility started life in 1902 as the four-story Columbus Buggy Company, the world’s largest producers of horse-drawn carriages at the time. The design team preserved nearly 70 percent of the 5,000- square-foot space including the semi-exposed structure, exposed brick walls, concrete floors and split level floor heights from the original loading dock. Water use was reduced over 40 percent or 26,000 gallons per year.  

Rochester, New York: LEED CI and LEED CS Registered: Targeting Silver

Transportation history also figures in the new offices for 130 Stantec employees in downtown Rochester, NY.  Built between 1889-1891 when streetcars were the mode of public transportation, the renovated building was once the powerhouse for the Rochester Railway Company—likely the origin of the building’s nickname, the “Old Trolley Barn”. Key architectural features such as exposed interior brick walls and extensive wood trusses throughout the second floor suites have been preserved. 

Vancouver, British Columbia: LEED-CI Silver Certified

A common element in Stantec offices is design that fosters collaboration since team assignments often include the talents of many different design professionals: architects, interior designers, landscape architects, planners, engineers, environmental scientist and business strategists. Establishing opportunities for unstructured interaction was key to the design strategy in both Vancouver and San Francisco, where staff in both cities were eager to pilot the LEED CI certification during office renovations several years ago.   

In Vancouver, an open interior staircase is a focal point, providing a shortcut between floors and a hub of activity. The open plan office places enclosed offices at the building interior, thereby allowing all employees access to natural light and views and encouraging collaboration among the studios. Strategically placed phone booths allow for privacy when needed.

San Francisco, California: LEED-CI Silver Certified

The concept of a “creative shed” informed the renovation of Stantec offices in San Francisco. As a metaphor, the shed contains the idea of openness – open physical space, open communications and the intellectual openness of a lively creative environment. As with most highly sustainable office environments, design elements include raised access flooring to enable localized control of HVAC, power, lighting and security systems, ambient daylight sensors and low-flow sink fixtures.

Similar to Stantec’s clients, each project has its own unique solution. However, with a common sustainable vision, the firm has built a culture that infuses all of its decisions with LEED principles. What better way to demonstrate its commitment to a better future?