Royal York achieves zero carbon certification
Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York hotel has been officially certified as a zero-carbon building.
The 94-year-old property earned the Canada Green Building Council's Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard designation earlier this month.
The property earned the certification on the heels of a five-year, $65-million renovation effort that reduced its emissions by 80%, or 7,000 tonnes of carbon annually. That volume is the equivalent of taking 1,558 cars off the road.
By 2050, the project will have removed more than 165,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
Some of its key features include: converting heating and domestic hot water from steam to electric heat pumps that use heat recovery from Enwave's district energy network, converting cooling from electrical/chillers to Enwave's Deep Lake Water Cooling system, and deploying a centralized building automation system and smart technologies.
The decarbonization project represents the largest heritage hotel retrofit of its kind within Fairmont’s global portfolio.
"Fairmont Royal York's decarbonization demonstrates the potential to complete a large and complex project in a way that is environmentally impactful, socially responsible and economically viable. It is a compelling example of what can be accomplished through collaboration, innovation and creativity," said Jon Love, Founder and CEO of KingSett Capital. "This project would not have been possible without our strong partnership with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, PCL Construction, and Enwave Energy Corporation.”
In addition to achieving the Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard certification, the hotel has a broad range of other sustainability initiatives. These include eliminating single-use plastics for guests, reducing food waste with AI technology, and housing 500,000 honeybees on its rooftop garden and apiary.
The project was supported by the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s Building Retrofits Initiative, which provided $46.5 million in debt financing.