Past and current commercial installations by EarthFx Energy in partnership with Bostech Mechanical 

For information on grants and incentives for Ontario commercial installations click here

To read how the Pfeifer Gallery in Wellesley, Ontario heats and cools their facility better and have reduced operating costs from $12, 000 to $3,000 click here.

For more details on the Sustainable Living Centre building transformation click here

The Sustainable Living Centre in Maryhill, Ontario is home to Earth Fx Energy and Waterloo Energy Products which showcase geothermal heating and cooling products as well as solar and led lighting solutions for residential and commercial applications. The 7000 sq ft building was originally a run down vacant property that goes from outdated to powered by the earth!
Proud partners in the Sustainable Living Centre are Earth Fx Energy, Bostech Mechanical and NextEnergy Inc.

Construction starts on eco-friendly hydro offices

July 21, 2010 | Scott Nowoselski, Record Staff

 Rendering of future building

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP — The construction of Waterloo North Hydro’s new eco-friendly headquarters is officially underway after a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday morning on County Squire Road in Woolwich Township.

Waterloo mayor Brenda Halloran, Wellesley Township mayor Ross Kelterborn and Woolwich Township mayor Bill Strauss were all on hand Wednesday for the beginning of work on the $26 million facility that is scheduled to open December 2011.

The new hydro building near RIM Park will house administrative offices, truck and van garages and the main service centre for the public utility which delivers electricity to over 140,000 people living in Waterloo, Wellesley and Woolwich. The two-story facility will also double the office space for the company’s 100 employees, with the total floor area taking up almost 104,000 square feet.

Hydro service will be unaffected by the move, and could even improve as employees move out of their cramped quarters on Northfield Drive East into the bigger and newer building, hydro president and CEO Rene Gatien said.

The new office will also be eco-friendly, featuring geothermal heating and cooling along with a 40,000-litre rainwater harvesting system. Sitting on what had been the site of an old barn and farmhouse, the new hydro office will also reuse parts of the demolished buildings for furniture and board tables among other things.

Gatien said it was important for the hydro company to ensure its new office was energy efficient, saying it sends an important message to the rest of the community.

“It’s tough for us to ask our customers to make their buildings energy efficient if we’re not doing the same thing,” he said.

“This is really for the generations that are coming.”

 

kidsLINK assembled its new school in St. Agatha last week, piece by piece, in just a few days.  The agency, which helps children with mental and social needs, gained a new $1.3 million school almost overnight. kidsLINK chose to replace its small 40-year-old school portables with a new, pre-made modular building.

“The staff and the kids are all very excited,” said Laura Bergeron, an interim program manager.
The building was constructed off-site to reduce the disruption for 25 children who live in the St. Agatha residences. It began arriving in parts on Nov. 15, pulled by 18 tractor trailers from Grimsby, Ont. Once in St. Agatha, construction teams put the pieces together on concrete foundations.

“The last week has been phenomenal,” said Terry Smith, kidsLINK’s chief financial and operating officer.

The building looks finished on the outside, but the rooms still need interior work before students can return in January.

The old portables had been around for decades past their expected expiry date, and were overdue for replacement, Smith said. “We were doing a lot of patching to keep them alive.”
kidsLINK offers counseling, treatment, and day programs for young people aged 0 to 18 with academic, social, and emotional challenges. The agency started 152 years ago as a Catholic orphanage.

The school provides a nurturing environment for 40 high-needs students aged 5-12, Bergeron said. Many of them need help dealing with trauma.

“They come to the school with a lot of challenges around academics, but also social and mental health issues,” she said.

The new school will have five classrooms. There will also be peaceful rooms for counseling, reflection, and Native Canadian smudging ceremonies, which involve aromatic smoke.

“It’s a safe place for them to work through an issue they’re experiencing,” Smith said.

The bigger classrooms will provide space to invite parents and community partners inside, Bergeron added. The school is now wheelchair accessible. It also has a new computer lab, library, and staff resource room.

“The new setting’s going to help us with the counseling side of things,” Bergeron said.  

The pre-made modular structure cost only a little more than a conventional building, Smith said, and should last just as long.

kidsLINK has also chosen other unique features for its new school. The heating and cooling system uses geothermal power from deep underground, and the hallways have “sky tunnels” which funnel and amplify natural light into the building.

The school’s energy costs should only be $1,200 to $1,400 per year, Smith said. Choosing to be environmentally friendly was the right choice for a socially-responsible group, he said.

“We’re very conscious of our environmental footprint,” he said. “It just made sense.”

Geothermal heating might cost more at first, but would pay back the investment through energy savings after 12 years, Smith said.

The federal and provincial governments will pay two thirds of the school’s $1.3 million construction costs through Canada’s Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.

kidsLINK has also received donations from Kitchener business Spaenaur and the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation. The agency is paying the rest with a mortgage, but also hoping for more donations.